daisy scouts ??

[scoutie]

My daughter was in Daisy Scouts starting in first grade. She is now a Brownie. She loves it. I like the philosophy of the Girl Scouts, and she's learned about friendship, service to others, supporting other girls, etc. They meet twice a month, so it's not overwhelming. It's a fun thing.

 

[NHdisneylover]

As for Girl Scouts - just a pet peeve: Daisys ARE girl scouts!!!!! The girl scout structure isn't like boy scouts where you eventually become a boy scout. ALL girls, starting in K, are girl scouts. You can be a Daisy Girl Scout or a Senior Girl Scout, or everything in between (Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes) but you are still a Girl Scout from day one.

Don't forget the Ambassador Girl Scouts--the ones who stick around for 11th and 12th grades tend to be a pretty dedicated bunch

 

[Lilacs4Me]

When I was in Brownies-2nd grade- I went home from school(Catholic-2 blocks away)-changed into my uniform then rode bike to the public school cafeteria (4 blocks away) where our meetings were held.

But Daisies are young and parents have stay around (I am guessing ) for the hour or 1 1/2 hours?
so OP you would have to stay with your other kids & do what?

Not true. I never had to stay with DD in Daisy's. In cub scouts, yes, we were told we would need to stay. We opted out of Cub Scouts for that very reason! (and the aggressive popcorn selling!) But with GS, there is no "rule" saying parents have to stay at meetings. If you were told that, then it was a LEADER decision, but it wasn't a Girl Scout rule.

 

[Hrhpd]

there was only one person at the meeting tonight, so I don't know if she has a helper or not.

Wow, at an informational meeting, she didn't mention a second leader? That is very odd that she didn't open up the meeting introducing herself and saying Ms. XYZ could not be here tonight. If she is that spacey, I can see why you wouldn't trust your child with her.

 

[DopeyDame]

Don't forget the Ambassador Girl Scouts--the ones who stick around for 11th and 12th grades tend to be a pretty dedicated bunch

I always forget them! They didn't exist when I was a kid. You just stayed as a Senior from 10th - 12th grades. (But Daisy's didn't exist when I was a girl either. I'm clearly showing my age!)

 

[longboard55]

The girls love it, the problem is the moms

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

That was me exactly! DS just started cub scouts and I was absolutely floored when they said every kid needs an adult at every activity. It sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, and so very against the goals of developing independence and maturity, which I thought were important parts of scouting.
We'll see how it goes - so far DH has been able to make the meetings and he's excited about joining on the camping trips, so if it works for the guys, then I certainly won't stop it. But I'm not at all a fan.

As for Girl Scouts - just a pet peeve: Daisys ARE girl scouts!!!!! The girl scout structure isn't like boy scouts where you eventually become a boy scout. ALL girls, starting in K, are girl scouts. You can be a Daisy Girl Scout or a Senior Girl Scout, or everything in between (Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes) but you are still a Girl Scout from day one.

For Cub Scouts, the whole parent must be there thing is for the Tigers. Most packs are ok with the parents leaving for Wolf, Bear and Webelos (although you will find packs that require the parents to stay for those as well). DH was perfectly fine with the parents leaving for his den, but most wouldn't!

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Not true. I never had to stay with DD in Daisy's. In cub scouts, yes, we were told we would need to stay. We opted out of Cub Scouts for that very reason! (and the aggressive popcorn selling!) But with GS, there is no "rule" saying parents have to stay at meetings. If you were told that, then it was a LEADER decision, but it wasn't a Girl Scout rule.

no to the popcorn, but yes to the cookies? Same thing, different product.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

The girls love it, the problem is the moms

As it is with soccer, softball, etc etc etc

 

[clori]

When I was kid you only changed levels every 3 years - brownies 1-3, juniors 4-6, cadettes 7-9 and seniors 10-12. Now with 2 kids in scouts most years someone is changing levels. Friday my 10th grader is officially welcoming her sister and friends as they bridge up to Cadettes (6th graders). The troop doesn't have any older girls so they are borrowing my older dd. I'm hoping she doesn't need to rush to the high school to be a peer mentor for a special needs Halloween party so she isn't wearing a Minnie Mouse costume with her vest.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

no to the popcorn, but yes to the cookies? Same thing, different product.

Except that the cookies were always optional and never had to buy the $300 worth in advance and sell the inventory to make back your money like we had to with popcorn, plus the MANDATORY sitting out front of stores every Saturday for a month.

Cookies? easy-peasy. Put a order form on the counter in the kitchen at work, and send out a mass email to family "Anyone want GS cookies this year?" and the requests started to flood in. For some reason, buying a $15 box of popcorn never got quite the same reaction....

At least in my experience. I'm sure there are some amazing cub scout troops out there that have had different experiences and people lining up for miles to buy popcorn, but it wasn't ours, and was the 2nd biggest reason we said no thanks to cub scouts.

 

[DopeyDame]

Except that the cookies were always optional and never had to buy the $300 worth in advance and sell the inventory to make back your money like we had to with popcorn, plus the MANDATORY sitting out front of stores every Saturday for a month.

Cookies? easy-peasy. Put a order form on the counter in the kitchen at work, and send out a mass email to family "Anyone want GS cookies this year?" and the requests started to flood in. For some reason, buying a $15 box of popcorn never got quite the same reaction....

At least in my experience. I'm sure there are some amazing cub scout troops out there that have had different experiences and people lining up for miles to buy popcorn, but it wasn't ours, and was the 2nd biggest reason we said no thanks to cub scouts.

Thankfully our new troop lets you buy out of the popcorn sales. So we can either sell $250 worth of popcorn (individually or through credit by working shifts at stores) or we can just pay the troop $75 and be done with it. We're choosing the latter option. I figure we should buy at least one can this year, just so I can officially say I've eaten the cubscout popcorn. But yeah, it's a really crappy product compared to girl scout cookies. Overpriced popcorn isn't something that gets people excited compared to Thin Mints and Samoas.

 

[msjprincess]

I've never had to do any of that with popcorn sales. In cub scouts my son's pack didn't even do popcorn, they did other fundraisers. In Boy Scouts they do popcorn but it's completely optional. They give you the forms and if you don't sell any no on says a word and you don't have to pay anything.

 

[longboard55]

Just my 2 cents, but from what I have seen locally here is girls in particular spend way too much time on a soccer field. Girl scouts give a much more rounded level of experience. Camping, public service, crafts, field trips, I would encourage it.

 

[NewRVLady]

I loved Scouts
I wasn't athletic so it was a way to have fun and go camping
I was a bookworm and artistic
One year the patch I designed was used for the Annumal Camporee Patch in my big city

 

[cabanafrau]

Just my 2 cents, but from what I have seen locally here is girls in particular spend way too much time on a soccer field. Girl scouts give a much more rounded level of experience. Camping, public service, crafts, field trips, I would encourage it.

That strikes me as an odd thing to say, why girls in particular? Well rounded life experiences are absolutely great, for anyone, at any age. While I wouldn't have wanted mine to exclude all activities at the expense of one all the time, I do think there would be some real health benefits to investing a lot of time in soccer, as opposed to something like video games, which people of all genders and ages in your area are probably involved in behind closed doors where you don't witness it. (Note, one of mine took a rec dept. soccer class at four. That's the extent of my street cred as a soccer mom.)

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I've never had to do any of that with popcorn sales. In cub scouts my son's pack didn't even do popcorn, they did other fundraisers. In Boy Scouts they do popcorn but it's completely optional. They give you the forms and if you don't sell any no on says a word and you don't have to pay anything.

Well, had our local cub scout troop been like yours, we may have reconsidered. Although, having to stay with my son for a 60-90 minute meeting every week pretty much turned me off anyway. Just not the way we were going to spend our time as a family as we already had other family commitments that our DD could participate in too. The popcorn policy of *OUR* troop just sealed the deal.

 

[Hrhpd]

Just my 2 cents, but from what I have seen locally here is girls in particular spend way too much time on a soccer field. Girl scouts give a much more rounded level of experience. Camping, public service, crafts, field trips, I would encourage it.

Girls should not be athletic? How odd. Perhaps you can better explain why you feel girls spend way too much time on a soccer field?

Are all sports included or is it just soccer you don't like?

 

[DopeyDame]

That strikes me as an odd thing to say, why girls in particular? Well rounded life experiences are absolutely great, for anyone, at any age. While I wouldn't have wanted mine to exclude all activities at the expense of one all the time, I do think there would be some real health benefits to investing a lot of time in soccer, as opposed to something like video games, which people of all genders and ages in your area are probably involved in behind closed doors where you don't witness it. (Note, one of mine took a rec dept. soccer class at four. That's the extent of my street cred as a soccer mom.)

I'm not that poster, but I assumed she mentioned girls since this is a thread about Girl Scouts and the OP was asking about issues with her daughter. Yes, we did diverge into some side discussions about boy scouts and popcorn, but they were all in the context of comparing it to girls' activities.

As for the content of the thought... I definitely agree. It's not true for all girls, obviously, and certainly it's the case for boys too - but the over-specialization and hyper-focus on one activity seems really prevalent in kids today and that really concerns me. And soccer (and gymnastics) seem to be particularly egregious offenders in our area. It's OK to play football in the fall and a different sport in the spring. It's OK to play basketball in the winter but not join the summer league. Soccer, beyond the most basic introductory level, seems to demand year-round participation. And I don't think that's a great idea, in general. I'd much rather see kids get involved in more diverse activities.

 

[longboard55]

Around here "club" soccer is 12 months about 5 days a week thing for a lot of girls, until they hit about age 13 and quit and have not a lot show for it. Its not bad idea to assume your daughter is not getting a Div 1 scholarship and getting a little more well rounded life experience.