Cookie Meeting

Yay - we were able to meet, have our cookie training, go over information for the Atlanta trip, and enjoy our Christmas party.

Boy, trying to "train" parents is so much more difficult than working with the girls. They totally wouldn't shut up. With the girls, the quiet sign always works. Not so with the parents.

My sister bought me a megaphone as a joke for Christmas. I think the next time I have to deal with parents, I might use it!

No School, No Scouts - again

Dec 14th - this was supposed to be our Cookie training and Christmas Party. We have decided to schedule it for Dec 21st. (Our original calendar did not include a meeting on this date.)

We'll see if the weather cooperates.

No School, No Scouts

Our meeting this week is canceled due to inclement weather.

Journeys

I was talking last night with my girls about the Journeys, and the idea of doing it as a workshop. I pointed out that if we did them during the meetings, it will take pretty much all the meetings that are left.

They still decided they'd rather do it at meetings. Some of them are not able to do weekend workshops, and the rest seemed to prefer the idea of not being too overwhelmed with the Journey.

So in January, we will be taking some Journeys...

more Paperworks

This evening was mostly a catch up - we redid the TP and money origami, and any girl who hadn't done pictures yet had a chance to do that.

Our new activity was making a journal out of paper to give to someone going on a Wider Op. Since my troop is planning a trip to Atlanta this year, I had the girls make a huge pile of journals to give to the whole group. It was pretty basic - paper folded in half, with a construction paper cover, sewn with a basting stitch down the middle.

We need to make paper, and design greeting cards, and then come up with a smart goal, and that will take care of our Paperworks badge - easy and fun.

Our next meeting is our cookie training...

Nov 23

We have decided to cancel our meeting tonight. We had been considering it for a variety of reasons, mostly because so many people wouldn't be coming due to Thanksgiving.

And then yesterday, there was a double homicide in a small community near ours. Lots of my girls and parents know these people.

So no meeting tonight, while we try to understand and cope with this news.

Nov 16

An easy meeting - I love having every other week where I don't usually have to do any major planning!

I sat in with the Juniors, who are working on a fitness badge. We have three 5th grade girls - very quiet and hard working. And we have a pile of 4th grade girls - very enthusiastic and loud. Since GS is about fun, and not about being "in school" I don't want to make them feel bad about being loud. But sometimes, their enthusiasm is a little bit too much.

One of the assistant leaders suggested a talking stick, and all the girls seemed good with that idea - especially the older ones. So I guess we'll give that a try.

Paperworks badge

We had so much fun last night! Since I knew some girls still needed to work on the computers to upload photos for the photography badge, I wanted to come up with something the other girls could do, and we could easily rotate who was on the computers. So I decided the Paperworks badge was just what we needed...

We worked on the origami skill builder last night. But instead of doing traditional origami, which most girls have already had a chance to play with, I decided to go a little goofy - so we did toilet paper folding, and money origami. I think the girls had a lot of fun playing with it. They all said they were going to go home and practice in the bathroom...

We did the following designs...
http://www.origami-resource-center.com/toilet-paper-origami-diamond.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7hKndSnOlY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRHU_r9LFK4
http://www.origami-resource-center.com/toilet-paper-origami-pleated-tuck.html

http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/bowtie/
http://www.net4tv.com/voice/story.cfm?storyid=3241
http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/shirt/
http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/money-origami-heart.html
http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/money-origami-heart-decorative.html

Science Fair

Last night we found out there was a science fair at our school, so we decided to take all the girls to that. It was also a PTO meeting, which was boring, but once they opened up all the science experiments, the girls had a lot of fun. We flipped gummy bears, played with tuning forks, built helicopters, tried to get clay to float, stood inside a bubble, learned what colors are in black, saw Lincoln in the memorial on the back of a penny with a microscope, and lots of other fun stuff.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was a little bit crazy, with a Brownie Sleepover and a Daisy Princess Party. But everything went great!

I was just at the Brownie Sleepover as a safety wise adult - no planning for that one. But the girls earned 4 Try-Its - all the GS ones.

The older girls in my troop were responsible for the Daisy Princess Party, and it worked out great. The girls made a button notecard, tissue paper flowers, decorated a crown, made a beaded necklace or bracelet, and helped color the giant unicorn. The we played "Pin the horn on the unicorn" which the girls really enjoyed. We also had a parent volunteer to do face painting. Then we decorated cookies and had a birthday party for Juliette. My older girls helped with all of this stuff, and when they weren't busy, they were taking pictures as an activity for the photography badge.

All in all, I thought it was a great event.

Photography Badge

Last night was chaotic, but I think the girls had fun. We uploaded the theme photos that the girls shot on their own, and then they made a collage out of them. Some of them were really good! Unfortunately, we only had one computer with Picasa on it (and Picasa is free and easy, so why doesn't everyone use it?) and that computer decided to be finicky about reading media cards and jump drives. So we only got 6 (out of 11) collages finished. While we took turns working on the collages, the other girls worked on shooting portraits of each other. But we didn't have time to upload any of those, and talk about which ones are good, and why.

So the girls might work on the collages and portraits on their own, and bring them to our next meeting. For the girls who don't have the time or computer equipment for that, they will finish up at out next meeting. That will make planning the next meeting a little bit harder, but I'm sure we'll make it work out.

Next project for the photography badge is shooting pictures and portraits at the Daisy Princess Party this Sunday.

Easy meeting...

This week was very easy for me. Since the older girls didn't meet, and all the younger groups were taken care of, I collected all the nut orders and money, and actually had time to chat with the parents. I enjoy getting the chance to get to know them better, so it was a lovely evening.

Ceremony

Last Tuesday we had out Investiture and Rededication Ceremony. It went great! The girls decided to do a flag ceremony, and then we did bridging, the investiture, and the rededication. Of course afterward, we had a great party. Lots of fun!

Journeys?

So today my co-leader, another leader, and I were having a meeting to talk about Journeys for the older girls, and the possibility of trying to earn them in a workshop or lock-in setting. My co-leader works at the university, and she knows a professor there who needed an environmental project for her students to facilitate. She met with us to see whether they could help us with the "It's Your Planet" series. She was as baffled and bewildered by the books as the rest of us, and ended up picking out a couple of badges for the students to facilitate. That's great, and I hope lots of the girls will take advantage of this opportunity to earn an IPA, but that leaves us back with these Journeys, and no good plan of what to do with them.

Good intentions

Oh such good intentions about writing in this blog every Wednesday, after our Tuesday night meeting...

Well, I do what I can.

Last Tuesday the older girls started the photography IPA. It's a pretty obsolete badge, barely even mentioning digital photography. But we talked about composition, and depth of field, shutter speed and stuff like that - they don't change even if the technology does. Our group has volunteered to handle the SU Daisy event, and we are going to take pictures, so that will be another activity towards this badge. The girls were bored learning about composition, but maybe once they go out and start taking pictures, they might remember a bit of what we talked about.

This Saturday, 8 of my girls attended a badge workshop. Daisies earned a petal, Brownies earned a try-it, and Juniors earned the Art in 3D badge . We went to the local college to walk around and look at sculpture, and then picked up leaves and twigs. We went back to the meeting, and used the leaves and twigs to make a mobile. Then the girls did origami, (fun!) played with clay, made a wire sculpture, and learned about positive and negative space. All in all, a fun day, and they get a badge for it. I love when things work out like that!

First real older girl meeting

Wow! I'm so excited - I have 11 older girls! 7 Cadettes, 3 Seniors, and 1 Ambassador - woohoo!

When I originally got into Girl Scouts, 9 years ago, I wanted to be a Cadette leader. I was a Cadette as a girl, and that's my favorite age group.

I've had older girls for a couple of years now, and we've had some great times. But I don't think I've ever had more than 4 girls.

And now - 11. Fundraisers are going to be so much easier. We could do a car wash. We can make fried apple pies, and we won't have to kill ourselves. Maybe we really can do a spaghetti dinner, or a pancake breakfast. Maybe we really can raise enough money for a trip to New York, or even Europe.

We really didn't do anything last night - just spent some time getting to know each other, and each girls interests, so we can narrow down what badges we'd like to work on. Talked about the journeys we are going to do, and hopefully encouraged them to go for the Silver and Gold awards.

We also managed to help 2 girls finish their bridging to Cadettes Award. With the new requirements, it was almost too easy. Of course, having all age levels built into one troop does make things like Bridging a lot easier.

It occurred to me that very few of these girls had any say in the choice of a trip to Atlanta, GA. So next meeting, we'll talk about traveling, why it's a good choice, and why they might want to go someplace else. My Ambassador has been there, and loved the trip when she went, so I'm going to make her talk to the girls about why we should go there. And then, it's up to them. If they pick someplace different, and come up with a plan for that place, I have no problems at all taking a different trip. Whatever they decide, they need to be excited about where we are going. Otherwise, why will they bother trying to raise money? Perhaps I can work part of the traveller badge into it - although my older girls have already earned it...

We originally picked Atlanta because it's in our region, and therefore the Juniors can go. And they are very excited about Atlanta.

Camp Care 5K

I almost forgot to mention the 5K walk/run on Saturday! We ended up with 16 people attending, and we all had great fun. About half of the people did a 3K walkathon, and the rest did the full 5K. And then they fed us lots of great food. 3 of our girls won door prizes ($10 gift cards to Target) and since we don't have a Target in out home town, we stopped at one on the way home so the girls could squander their money.

All in all, a very fun day.

Walking/Running for fitness

Last night was an easy meeting. It was a Daisy, Brownie, Junior meeting, with no older girls. We are planning to participate in a 5K walk this weekend, so we decided to invite a parent who is a runner to come and work with the girls on warming up, stretching, cooling down, and why exercise is important. She did a wonderful job! She even brought water for all of them, and then gave out water bottles as prizes. I think the girls really enjoyed it, despite complaints about having to move...

So this Saturday, we will be participating in the Camp Care 5K event. It should be a lot of fun!

Limitations of an email post

Well, it let me email a picture from my iphone, but it lost the words that went along with it. No biggie - just good to know.

Anyway, the pictures are obviously from the crafts we did - a friendship bracelet and the button note cards.

Notecards

Friendship bracelet

One down, 40 some to go...

We had a good first meeting, and we now have 17 girls registered. I estimate about 10 more registration forms will be turned in next week. So that's actually a little bit smaller group than we've had the last few years. But they all seem excited about Scouting, and ready for a fun year, so that's great!

The girls made friendship bracelets, note cards, and played charades while the parents filled out forms, went over the handbook and covered the fall fundraiser. It's always so crazy at the beginning of the year, so I was thrilled that we received the nut/magazine sale information early. That way I could cover it while I already had the parents there, and I don't have to worry about another meeting with them.

A neighboring troop has disbanded, and about 4 of the girls will be joining our troop. They are in 6th grade, which is great, because our Cadette group was getting pretty small - I'm looking forward to the new blood. I'm going to be working a lot more with them this year, and focusing on a Journey. That way, when and if they decide to go for the Silver, they will be ready.

Since my Daisies and older girls will only be meeting twice a month on opposite weeks, next week will be a Daisy meeting. My oldest Girl Scout (12th grade) and my newest assistant leader, will be handling that group. Right now we have 6 or 7 Daisies. So I have the week off! LOL!

Even though Janet, my co-leader, will be working with the Juniors, she will still be heavily involved with planning for the Brownies. And planning for the Juniors will be a joint effort between Janet, me, Ginger, and Loretta. There are so many Juniors now, we're splitting them into 2 groups by grade. That way, we won't have to worry about the older group repeating badges. And they can all work together on totally new stuff...

It's almost time to start...

The beginning of the Scout year is getting close. Our first Service Unit Meeting is tomorrow, and our leader meeting is Tuesday. Our first meeting is probably going to be August 31st. So I'm trying to think of crafts, to keep the girls entertained while we have a parent meeting. The first one is braiding a friendship bracelet. (We tried the knotted kind of bracelet, and it did NOT go well.) This one looks very doable. I've set up a pdf with the instructions and the template to cut out - if I figure out how to add it to the blog, I will.

I'm going to take the bracelets to my leader meeting, so we can all make one. That'll be fun, plus I'll know that everyone will be able to help the girls.

We're trying something different this year for our meetings. In the past we've met weekly, for an hour. Our daisies meet on the 1st and 3rd weeks of the month, since that really is enough for them. This year, I'm going to have the Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors meet on the 2nd and 4th weeks, but for 2 hours. That should give us more time to handle more involved projects. Plus on those weeks, I will be working ONLY with the older girls. Last year, I tried to do the older girls and Juniors at the same time - and the older girls were severally neglected. Can't do that again... One of the asst leaders will handle the Juniors during meetings when I'm with the older girls.

test

does this email thing work?

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."

-Bertrand Russell

This trip was SO much fun...

That I wanted to post a picture of it... And also figure out how to post a picture.

On being a Girl Scout Leader...

I've been a GS leader for 10 years. Wow - I never expected this to turn into such a major part of my life. I am a single female, with no children - not exactly your typical leader. But I was a GS when I was young, and I loved it. I always said some day, when I grow up, I want to be a GS leader. So when I was 35, and working a normal job, and feeling generally unfulfilled with life, my mom reminded me of this. She pointed out that I was pretty much grown up... So I contacted our council, and the next thing I knew, I had a troop. I had 4 Juniors that year. I've learned so much since then - I won't even mention all the rules I broke that year, because I just didn't know any better.

Being a leader has made me a better person, and enriched my life more than I could have ever imagined. After about 3 years, I decided to go back to school, and I did. I got a degree in music education. While I was in school, another GS Leader offered me a summer job at her husband's business. And I'm still there. So I'm not using my degree, but because I went back to school, I've ended up in the perfect job. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about my boss.

In 10 years, my troop has grown from 4 Juniors to a group of 30+ girls, from Daisies through Ambassadors. My oldest will be finishing up her Gold Award next week. I had 4 Juniors just complete the Bronze, and 2 Cadettes who will begin the Silver next year. (I'm not telling about these awards because I think it shows that I'm a great leader. I'm just so proud of my girls, I have to brag!!) Obviously, no one can lead a troop of these size alone. Some where along the way, I found the perfect co-leader. We have similar goals, and our underlying philosophy is always to consider what's best for the girls. Since Janet and I have teamed up, our troop size has sky rocketed. (Which is mostly because neither of us are capable of saying "no.") And we've recruited about four assistant leaders, who are all amazing.

We also love to travel. We've gone to Williamsburg, VA; Savannah, GA; Orlando, FL; Washington, DC; and Myrtle Beach, SC. Future trips we are considering are Stone Mt/Atlanta GA; New York, NY; and DC again (for the sing-a-long.) And eventually Savannah again, for the younger girls who didn't get to go last time.

These are the good points about our troop. But no troop is perfect, and if we were, I sure wouldn't have much to write about "The Pursuit of Leadership." But the underlying basics of our troop are very good, and that helps me remember that there are no challenges that we can't overcome, and that our troop is worth the effort.