Here's a few photos from the very successful march at today's Boxborough Memorial Day parade. The girls did a great job! A beautiful day for a walk.

Not Your Cookie-Cutter Daisies

This entry, about our last meeting on May 3, was written by co-leader Kirsty Kerin.

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This year we started our Girl Scout Journey curriculum program called “Between the Earth and Sky.” On the surface, the Journey looks like a cute story and project work around the Daisy characters. However, the actual goal of the Journey is to focus the girls’ attention on their own feelings and skills, verbalize these comfortably and confidently, take into account the feelings and skills of those around them, then move on to engage their larger community and teach and share their skills. 

We have been working on our own feelings for several meetings. This week we began the transition to discuss the feelings of others. The girls each had one 8-inch cardboard cutout of a Daisy Scout. Each girl secretly thought of an emotion to draw on their Daisy’s face. When complete, they took it in turns to stand up, show their cutout to the group, and choose Daisy friends to guess which emotion they had drawn. The only one we couldn’t finally guess was “bonkers.” 

We discussed how difficult it is to guess what another person is feeling by just looking at their face or listening  for clues. We tried out lots of different emotional facial expressions (see the wonderful photos). We discussed how important it is to ask the other person direct questions and to listen to them when they answer. The troop had to resolve two conflicts during the meeting and we used our new term “Circle up!” to sit in a circle together and ask questions about what happened, how we felt, how we could fix the situation. For the first time, the girls mostly led this process themselves. That’s pretty impressive for kindergartners! 

The goal of our  Girl Scout troop is not to create perfect little "cookie-cutter" Daisies who can recite Girl Scout rules and regulations. Our goal is to create an environment where the girls can grow safely together, express their needs, learn new skills, articulate their strengths, and successfully manage a complete range of feelings. We’re just glad they're doing these things while laughing hysterically and pulling great faces!

For more information about encouraging these important skills in young girls, see the book “The Curse of the Good Girl,” by Rachel Simmons.

New photos added to Shutterfly

Click here to see some photos of the girls from the Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary Celebration earlier this month.

March 15 meeting recap, and summer opportunity

A Great Day for Exploring

Our meeting this March 15th was an extra hour long, since it was a parent-conference day, and we wanted to offer the opportunity for parents to schedule a meeting while the Daisies met.

We had a great meeting, starting with a picnic lunch on the floor in the hallway (no eating in the library), thanks to Michelle S. for the picnic blanket and extra snacks for moms who may have been late with lunch (ahem - me, for instance). The girls love sitting and eating in the hallway, and the talk floats between structured discussions led my Michelle S., and wonderful chattering (as quietly as possible, since conferences were going on as we ate).

After lunch, we had a great nature walk, looking for signs of spring. It was a little cloudy, but not cold -- a great day to spend some time outside. We split into three groups and went out to examine the world around the edges of the school. My group spent some time turning over some old logs in the wooded areas. We found some wonderful baby worms (so tiny!), millipedes, pill-bugs, and ants. Also, many of us were found by spring creates that are not so nice -- ticks. A reminder that the routine of daily checking for ticks is back! (Ick!!)

Kirsty made a wonderful map of the school grounds that the group used to orient themselves and to mark down our findings. After we came inside (and after a really thorough wash-up), we did some work on the Girl Scout Promise, which we're working on helping the girls memorize. The girls should have received a copy of the Promise for reference, and it would be helpful for families to go over it a few times to help them memorize it. (If you don't have a copy, it's written in the margin of this blog.)

Celebrating the Girl Scouts'100-Year Anniversary
Also during our meeting, Brownie Scout Molly B., sister of fellow Daisy Abby B. gave us a great presentation and spoke about her family's recent visit to Savannah, Georgia and the Juliette Gordon Low house. The historic house features many original Gordon family furnishings, including art by Juliette Gordon Low herself, and lots of Girl Scout history and memorabilia.

Molly's talk helped the Daisies learn about the 100-year anniversary of the founding of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. Molly did a super job!

Summertime Opportunities!

In other news, we're starting to think about summer! Two news items:

• Girl Scout Camp, and other stuff: I am getting ready to create some kind of resource so we can share what our girls are doing this summer (voluntary, of course). Myah's mom, Dawn, expressed interest in sending Myah and her older daughter Celia to Girl Scout Camp for a couple of weeks this summer, and so have a few others. If anyone has a suggestion about how to use a good (free) Internet tool to share this info (such as Doodle), let me know!
• A/B Girl Scout Organic Community Garden Project: Monica, Abby B.'s mom, is going to help run the Girl Scout plot at our local organic community gardens for the Acton/Boxborough service unit. The brochure contains personal contact info, so I won't include it here, but I will send it out in an email to everyone soon. Monica has developed an online schedule that covers May through early October where scouts can sign up for one or two -- or several -- hours of work in the garden. (My husband and I are managers of this garden, and we can attest it is lots of fun. Try it out!) 

Shameless Self-Promotion!

Just an extra word on the community garden, because I can't resist: You can even get your own plot, if you want. It is a wonderful summertime activity for kids. Both our kids have grown up gardening, getting nice and dirty and raising some great veggies. It's nice, because you can put lots of work into it if you want, or just a little. It's an extremely Zen way to spend time, and there are lots of nice folks over there to chat with.
We'd love to have more families involved!

Meeting recap, Thursday Feb. 16th

Our growing troop had a great meeting, with a nice run and snack in the Big Guys playground, and then inside, where we went through the next chapter in our Journey book, and did an exercise on the Girl Scout Law.

The Journey: Between Earth and Sky
This week’s chapter in our Journey curriculum was about plants that can clean the soil, such as sunflowers, and urban gardens, and changing plans on a journey. The characters travelled via their petal-powered car to Pittsburgh, PA, where they were joined by a new friend, Sunny the sunflower, for their journey across the country.

The Daisy Craft
The girls also brought home a craft, where they arranged all the different-colored Daisy petals on a paper plate. The 10 Daisy petals all correspond to a part of the Girl Scout Law. Kirsty spoke with the girls about the meanings of the parts of the law, and the girls gave some great examples from their own lives. The object of the craft is to help the girls memorize the Girl Scout Promise and the Girl Scout Law, which are both displayed in the right margin of the blog.

To download a version of the activity, click here. (Choose "Download original.")

The Yellow Petal Worksheet
Next week, the girls will earn their yellow Daisy petal. The yellow petal stands for the part of the Girl Scout Law, “be friendly and helpful.” They brought home worksheet to help them record how and when they are helpful around the house (since we already know they are all friendly). Daisies and their families can use the worksheet as a thinking tool to help the girls understand how able and important they are.

November 23rd meeting recap

This Daisy troop is so much fun! What a mixture of personalities we have, and so well-mannered and smart, too. The girls seem to really enjoy getting together, getting their “kapers” (jobs, such as line-leader, recycler, and flag holder) and eating lunch. Be sure to check out the “Blanchard Daisy Photos” in the right-hand column of this page.

The “Rosie” patch
The Daisy patch we worked on during this meeting was the pink petal, which went home after the meeting. The “Rosie” petal’s theme is that Daisies make the world a better place.

Michelle S.’s daughter Kaila, who is a Brownie, was very helpful! Kaila read Rosie’s story to the Daisies. In the story, Rosie and her friends learn about cleaning up the trash on the beach so everyone can enjoy it, to share what they know about keeping the environment clean, and to choose reusable food containers instead of plastic and paper bags and drink containers.

Helping hands

The group also talked about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, and how our families would be very busy all day long. The girls agreed that they could make important contributions by helping to make the meal, serve the meal, and cleaning up.

For the craft, they made “helping hands.” The girls traced their hands on paper, cut the hands out, and then wrote on the hands different ways they could help on Thanksgiving. The hands were meant to be offered on Thanksgiving Day to our families, to let them know about the help they could offer. The girls were very excited and sweet, sharing how they planned to pitch in and the different ways they were going to celebrate the holiday.

Daisy ground rules

The Daisies established their own “ground rules” as Daisies, as part of creating a girl-led experience. The girls had some great ideas! The girls can add to and refine the ground rules going forward. Here is the list.

To have fun and be safe as Daisies, we will:

• Treat everybody the way you want to be treated
• Don't run or push each other
• Look where you're going
• Share nicely with each other
• Don't talk with food in your mouth
• If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all
• Include everyone who wants to play
• No secrets and whispering
• Don't repeat mean words or actions
• Always keep a promise
• Say "sorry" if you hurt someone's feelings or body

Cookie sales

At the end of the meeting, the girls received their Girl Scout cookie packages. Because these Daisies are very young, we’re keeping the sale low-key. Some girls love this, and others don’t. You and your girl can decide if and how much selling you’d like to do.

The troop does receive 15 percent of the sale, but the main benefit of this year’s sale is giving the girls an introduction to selling cookies. The Girl Scouts intend for scouts to use the cookie sales to learn about handling money, working toward a goal with others, decision-making, business ethics, and people skills. Another big priority is safety: Daisies should not sell door-to-door without a trusted adult.

Please refer to the recent Daisy news email for directions and specifics about selling cookies. If you didn’t get the e-mail, please let me know.

Keep in touch!

As always, thank you for your help! If there are ever any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact any of the leaders. We can be reached at home, or at the Boxborough Daisies mail box: DaisiesRGreat@gmail.com. 

My sash!

Did you know that 2012 is the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting?

Becoming a co-leader brings back a lot of memories for me. I was involved in Girl Scouts from about kindergarten through junior high. My mom was a leader when I was a Brownie, and my friends' moms were involved, too.

I learned lots of crafty things like sewing and some knitting, and values and ideas about my potential and power as a girl and as an important member of the community; but I was most interested in the outdoors activities like camping and hiking. I camped at Camp Cedar Hill in Waltham, Mass. as a young scout, and later attended summer camp at Camp Wabasso in Bradford, N.H., in a platform tent -- with a very treasured mosquito net around my cot.

The most unique place I ever camped was my night at the top of the Empire State Building with dozens of Girl Scouts from all over the country. That was quite an adventure, especially for someone who had never been outside New England. I am still amazed that the leaders were able to get us to stop chattering and go to sleep!

Recently, I asked my Mom if she still had my old sash -- and it arrived in the mail today. It had been on a journey to my sister-in-law's house, where my mom sent it thinking my nieces could use it. They were in a different council and couldn't, but I'm sure glad my sister-in-law hung on to it! It's really neat to see it again, and my old round metal canteen (remember those?) and mess kit.

What is your scouting story? Does your family have a tradition in Girl Scouting? Do you have any pictures you can share? Any memories you can share with the blog, and the other girls? If you do, please send them along to me! I'd love to post them here.

I know there will be activities during the next year for the girls to explore the history of the Girl Scouts. I remember learning that there were Girl Scouts (and Girl Guides!) all over the world, and feeling great about being part of the organization. I hope we can impart that sense of community to our daughters, and help them along in their journey toward being strong, happy women.

-- Michelle B.