Need help and advice from girl scout moms!

[r4blessings]

I am a new daisy leader this year (my co-leader is also new to girl scouts) and I am a little over-whelmed and looking for a place to find ideas......so I came to the Dis, where everyone basically knows everything!

We had our first meeting on Thursday, but it was a little hectic and started late b/c of a problem (not ours) at our meeting place. We decorated the folders the girls will be using to keep track of their girl scout info and paperwork with the daisy symbol. We practiced the gs promise and law and just got to know each other. And then we finished up with decorating (and eating!) cupcakes to celebrate Juliette Lowe's birthday.

It just seems like a lot to accomplish in a bi-monthly meeting! And I'm looking for ideas on fun field trips we can take, and parties to plan....as well as service projects. I've been searching out websites, but not having much luck finding anything.

Can anyone share ideas or places to surf for ideas on stuff we can do with the upcoming holiday season, as well as projects? I do have the leader book as well, but again, not finding it especially helpful.

Thanks so much! I just want to make it a fun experience for the girls where they can learn and grow, but also do things as a troop that they will look back on and remember.

 

[clh2]

Former troop leader here...still involved with GS...just not as a leader.

I also will mention, I was not a leader at the daisy level, and I know there have been changes to that level in the last couple of years. So - my advice will be general...not specific.

Check any/all museums nearby to see if they offer any GS programs. We had a local bank that did an age-appropriate program at their bank. Some local auto dealers did a local program as well. Some of our local parks and nature centers also did some programs too! Tap into other parents/leaders that you run into. Word of mouth is a great way to find out what is going on in your area. There was a Jazzercize consultant in our area that had an age-level program for the various levels.

I would also tap in to your parents/guardians of the girls. Your parents will have really broad and diverse backgrounds with interesting hobbies. See if every meeting, one family could plan and run the main activity for the meeting. One of my moms had a friend who was a dietician. This dietician worked with the girls for an eintire afternoon on one of the Junior badges. It was great fun, and this individual was very knowledgable on her subject. We had an exotic fruit-tasting bar at this meeting, the girls tried about 15 less common fruits.

 

[daisy2jae]

My daughter has an amazing leader. She's now in 4th grade and has had the same leader since Kindergarten. She has always had the meeting held at the same time so it's easy to schedule around. The 1st and 3rd Friday of each month from 6-7:30. Parents volunteer to help keep things running smooth. We don't have snacks since the girls are too busy and time doesn't allow for it. They earn a lot of badges and patches. They sell a lot of nuts and cookies to help make money to support the troop plus pay dues of $1.00 per meeting so we write a small check at the beginning of the year or use our cookie dough money. I'm not able to help as a volunteer since I have parents for a safe prom meetings held on Monday nights. However I do what I can when asked. Our leader is stick/organized but the girls have a blast. Remember to have fun and enjoy your first year.

 

[ZanneMarie]

www.scoutingweb.com has a lot of good ideas to look through. I am also a new Daisy leader and my co-leader and I have gotten some good ides from there.

 

[LaraK]

Hi, I'm a co-leader and we started our troop as Daisies. Things are a little different (even though it was only three years ago) because we were the last year of the old system. However, here are my suggestions:

1. Keep it simple. When they're Daisies and Brownies it's a lot like herding cats. Try to alternate activities to do something quiet, something physical (tactile), something quiet, something physical. Learn songs and be prepared to belt them out anytime the girls get antsey.

2. Google "Daisy petal activities". You don't have to go over the top, pick three applicable activities for each petal and then knock out a petal in a meeting or two. For example, use resources wisely: Move your meeting to the local landfill. Have the girls see how they sort the types of trash. Have each girl bring a bag of trash/recycling to the landfill and have them sort the trash. For lunch, go to Whole Foods. After eating, have the girls put their trash in the appropriate bin. Then stop at a park on the way home and have the girls (wearing gloves) pick up trash from a playground or picnic area recycling what is appropriate. Petal knocked out and the girls have fun (and learn something). For Respect authority go to a police station, then interview a teacher (bet one of your parents will be one) then deliver some cookies to your local military post. Have the girls send cards to Afghanistan or Iraq.

3. Use your parents! Use your parents! Use your parents! You want to ask (pressure, guilt) your parents into the following positions at a minimum. Cookie mom (your number one priority! I don't know when you sell your cookies, but get your mom lined up now). Event coordinator-paperwork for events is a pain and often parents are throwing money and permission slips at you while you are trying to start your meetings. If you can get a parent to coordinate all of your events your life will be easier. If you can get an extra first-aider or two, it's always a good idea. We also got a "camping dad" to do the official training (although my co-leader and I are both campers)

4. Find a sister troop early. Use your leader from your sister troop as your mentor. They'll understand your council politics and help you with tips.

5. Be anal with your money. Keep every receipt, give receipts to parents when they give you money.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Hope it helps!

 

[allison443]

Here's a good website with ideas that we used for Daisies...

www.makingfriends.com


Also, if you are collecting dues, ask for one or two payments per year instead of collecting per meeting...like we used to collect $6 a month, but we collected it twice a year- $24 in September, and $30 in January. This saves time at the meetings. I also did a newsletter for parents with meeting dates, upcoming events, reminders, etc.

Some of the things we did as Daisies: visited PetSmart for a free tour, visited Carvel ice cream store for a tour and make your own sundae, marched in our town's holiday parade, our service unit had a halloween party and a sock hop, we participated in an Americana Fair where each troop took a state and made crafts/foods from that state. Do you have an active service unit which helps a lot!!

Good luck! I think it's great you are volunteering and I'm sure your dd will enjoy it!

 

[r4blessings]

thanks for all your help! We did collect dues last week at our first meeting
($40 for the entire year) and we have to open our checking account this week.

I think we are planning on making a little "holiday box" using empty sour cream or butter tubs that we clean out and decorate with scrapbook paper next meeting. Then the girls will collect change from around their house, maybe help mom or dad recycle cans and bottles for change and do extra chores to earn change. The change will go into their holiday box, and then we are going to use that change to get a best buy or target gift card that we can donate to an older child in a needy family. Our service unit was saying that many people donate toys, but that teens and tweens want things like nintendo dss and ipods so those types of GC are very helpful. I guess that will help to earn the "use resources wisely" petal? We want to make those boxes early, so the girls have a chance to fill them up with change before our Dec 15th due date for the gift cards. Our fun craft/snack at that meeting will be making blessing mix.

I'd like to set up a christmas caroling field trip, maybe followed up by making graham cracker gingerbread houses? Has anyone done that? I will check out those websites.....thank you!

 

[scottishduffy]

This is a PDF file that I found with some generic meeting layouts for Daisy scouts.

http://www.tarheeltriad.org/GS Program Meeting Plans/Daisy Girl Scout Program Meeting 16-34.pdf

I have never been a girl scout leader, but when I did childcare I did lots of holiday type crafts. One that I remember well was painting pine cones like christmas trees. We got some large pine cones and painted them green. Then we had little pom-poms and glitter to put on our christmas trees to decorate.

We also made snowmen one day. The craft stores will sell these round styrofoam balls very cheap. We got three different sized styrofoam balls then used bamboo skewers inside to stick these balls together and make a snowman. (I believe we sawed off the bottom of the bottom ball to make it flat so the snowman could stand). We then cut out felt to make scarves. We had black pom-poms for charcoal pieces. Used construction paper to make a carrot nose and hate for the snowmen. We also had some paint available if anyone wanted colored snowmen and some thread for hair if anyone wanted snow-girls.


Another fun craft was Igloos. Take a small flower pot and turn it upside down. We then painted a base coat of blue. Once that was fairly dry we made the ice blocks by drawing white lines and putting some glitter on. Then we used several white pom-poms to make a baby seal on top of our igloos. With tiny google eyes to put on the seals as well. I am sure you could tie this to some sort of lecture about how seals live.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Not a leader now, but I did it for 12 yrs.

You best resource is your service unit. Make sure you go to meetings and find out what is going on in your unit and in your area.

Secondly, have all the parents sign up for the troop as well. You will need them to be drivers for field trips which requires them to be a part of the troop.

Then you sit down and plan your year. Have a schedule so parents can sign up to be at meetings to help and drive for field trips. This is the hardest part however it is the most invaluable piece of having a successful year.

Not sure about Daisies Christmas caroling. They are a little young. Esp. if you are in area where it gets really cold, snow, ice. In addition they have to learn the songs/be able to read well. I would probably pass on that this yr. until you get a feel for the troop. But that is just my 2 cents. I have done caroling with my troops and having the girls older was so much better.

I am not big on "crafts". I was more of a hands on, go places, leader. My older dd who is a freshman in college now, we did NO crafts. The girls hated them. We did more plays, skits, talking, etc..So when you are doing your stuff observe the "vibe" of your troop.

With Daisies you will be doing some crafts of course but I would not do crafts every meeting. You will find a nice balance with crafts/field trips/service projects/hands-on projects and this can begin your planning.

 

[minniebeth]

You can try this thread, it's really great and no one has posted on it in a while but I'm sure there's others in the same boat. I'll post it here and then bump it up on the Family thread for you:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1947966

My troop are now Brownies but we found two meetings a month to be too much. (The girls are involved in so many other things too.) It ended up being that we had one formal meeting and then a council event, field trip or other activity once in a while to kind of take place of the other formal meeting.
Good luck to you, your efforts are appreciated!

 

[MrsPete]

That scouting web is a great resource!

Also, look into service unit events. We have wonderful events here for the youngest girls (not so many for my teens). For example, we always have a Santa's Workshop, in which the girls can make small gifts for family members; around Valentine's Day there's always a Daddy-Daughter dance; late in the year we tend to have a variety of events such as a Mom-and-Me campout, a Mad Scientist afternoon, a sleepover in the mall, or a Mother-Daughter Tea. These service unit events take NO EFFORT on your part. Just sign up.

Don't forget council activities. Do they have an afternoon at a local camp? Sign your girls up -- you don't have to have had camp training to go to these events. They'll certainly have some activities leading up to cookie sales.

Do you subscribe to Family Fun magazine? I don't think I could've led my Brownies if I hadn't had that magazine. They have an online treasure trove of ideas.

Here's a Christmas idea that worked super-well for us: For your Christmas party, have a used book exchange. Let the girls bring in old books, and they trade them -- no money spent, yet everyone goes home with a "new to her" book. I let my girls bring up to 10 books, and they'd take home an equal number. Send home your invitations on a bookmark, and insist that the books must be in good condition and age-appropriate. Another Christmas idea: Take them carolling inside a nursing home; no need to go from house to house. A great service project is taking socks to nursing home residents; they will chase you down begging for them.

Have fun leading your daughter's troop! They really do remember that you did these things with them, and they are appreciative.

 

[PatsGirl]

I was a Junior leader for three years but DD started as a first year Brownie many years ago. The one thing I did with my troop that everyone seemed to love was to break the year up in two, have a designated start date and end date (September 20 and May 20 for example) and then break the half years into segments. I believe we had four segments each half year. Each segment was comprised of a badge (Juniors) or in your case it would be a petal? We worked on the badge for three weeks and then took a field trip on the fourth week. Prior to each segment, the girls were given a calendar detailing our goals and the information for the field trip, together with requests (food, drivers, etc.). The girls chose (by vote) the segments/badges and field trips from a group of choices that I provided for them.

Some of the things we did included:

Computer Fun, field trip to Staples to compare computers and accessories

Camera Shots, hiking trip to photograph fall foliage

Pet Care, had a professional come in and show us how to groom an animal and we took a field trip to the local pound

First Aid, had a nurse come in and the girls practiced what they learned and had a field trip to the local hospital (girls loved the L&D unit)

Child Care, all girls took the Red Cross program and became certified

Camp Songs, girls produced a book with illustrations and we had it bound

Cooking, learned about nutrition and safety and put on a dinner for families

Overall in the three years, many of the girls earned more than 40 badges! DD earned her bronze award last year as well. Don't forget about the service unit programs. We did a murder mystery dinner, a diversity program, Dad dances, Harry Potter program, etc. These are all organized by the larger unit programmers and only require payment and transportation to/from.

Big field trips we took over the three years included: fall and spring camping EVERY year at various local girl scout/state parks where we worked on a badge each time, Blue Man Group in Boston, Rocking Horse Dude Ranch (Winter Sports badge) in New York, Salem, MA for Haunted Happenings, local junior theatre productions,

I preferred to have shorter weekly meetings to keep cohesiveness within the group. We also did NOT do snack which I think takes up too much time. After about the third week the group decided that the meetings would start on time every week regardless of who was there (tardiness was becoming an issue and with only 75 minutes...).

Good luck, keep it simple and organized and fun!

 

[aprilgail2]

I think we are planning on making a little "holiday box" using empty sour cream or butter tubs that we clean out and decorate with scrapbook paper next meeting. Then the girls will collect change from around their house, maybe help mom or dad recycle cans and bottles for change and do extra chores to earn change. The change will go into their holiday box, and then we are going to use that change to get a best buy or target gift card that we can donate to an older child in a needy family.!

We used the mini pringles potato chip cans for this! We used it as the snack for the day then the girls put colored paper aroudn the can, decorated it and cut a hole in the lid--instant bank!

My troop are now Brownies but we found two meetings a month to be too much. (The girls are involved in so many other things too.) It ended up being that we had one formal meeting and then a council event, field trip or other activity once in a while to kind of take place of the other formal meeting.
Good luck to you, your efforts are appreciated!

We find that 2 meetings a month is not enough! We do two meetings a month and then one or two trips/council events. Our meetings as daisys were short- 320-430...now as juniors they are running more like 320-530, depending on what we are covering for the day. Now that each girl is running a meeting they take a bit longer to get everything done per meeting as they don't move along as fast as when we ran the meeting. As Brownies you could sometimes do 2 try its in one day...but the junior ones are a bit longer and some take a meeting and a half of the next one to cover. We try to get it all done in one meeting per badge but sometimes that doesn't work.
The kids love the trips too so we try to keep as many of those scheduled as we can- as Daisys the trips are limiting but as Brownies we went camping, went to great wolf lodge for a weekend and some other trips. This year the girls voted on using their money to go to great wolf lodge Fri-Sun so they will all be missing school on that Friday for their trip! Should be fun!

 

[r4blessings]

Thanks for all the ideas and advice! I am taking notes! I love the idea of the pringles mini-cans, I think we might use that!

Thanks for bumping up the old thread on the family board and for the file! You guys rock!