One Year: How We Scheduled Our Girl Scout Meetings this Year and Finished 3 Journeys and 10 Petals
So this year, my daughter really wanted to earn all three Journeys. She also wanted to earn all of her petals. She is a second year Daisy but last year she was in a different troop and they did not earn more than the promise center. This year I started my own troop.
Since our whole troop was new (except her) to girl scouting, they all really wanted to do this too. (insert a deep sigh here)
It can be done, although if you're not super organized and don't meet a lot, you'll be more challenged to find success. The one thing we did was break up each of the journeys and petals in time slots for the meeting. This kept us really busy all year long.
We made the most of every single meeting and the girls were assigned things (responsible for what I say and do) to bring as homework so we could complete things. I also like to have a really hands on troop. If we are doing it, it's being done for a reason and there is no busy work. The girls are there for an experience so that's why I want to really give them one.
10:30-10:40 opening/flag salute/promise/oath
10:40-10:45 explain what we'll do today
10:45 to 11:15 Journey work
11:15-11:30 Snack and discussion about what we just worked on (this is counted in the Journey time or we talked about what we would be doing next with the petal work)
11:30-11:50 Petal work/discussion
11:50-closing and collect dues
10:30-10:40 opening/flag salute/promise/oath
10:40-10:45 explain what we'll do today
10:45 to 11:15 Petal work
11:15-11:30 Snack and discussion about what we just worked on (this is counted in the Journey time or we talked about what we would be doing next with the petal work)
11:30-11:50 Journey work follow-up/discussion
11:50-closing
This gave us 45 minutes of Journey Work and 50 minutes of Petal Work each month. Most of the guides I found had Journeys taking about 3-4 hours and Petals taking 1.5 hours per petal. We also tied in the two by talking about how they relate. So for instance, we talked about being considerate and caring (petal) to animals when we are outside because some animals use what they find on the ground to build their homes or they may think it's food (part of the 3 cheers for animals journey).
Also, that means in 3 months we had completed 150 minutes of Journey and 150 minutes of Petal Work. This earned us 3-4 petals and completed 1/2 the work for the 3 cheers journey and the daisy garden journey.
For us this was October, November, and December. We had two meetings in September but that's where we introduced the promise center and sort of laid the ground work so I did not have to go into detail about the petals and journeys. It really helped to go through each Journey with them before we started so they understood TAP's and of course their role in the Journeys.
So if you go by the guides, you'll need at least 2 hours of meeting time for Journeys and then 15 hours for Petals or 27 hours worth of meetings total.
During cookie season, journey work was replaced with financial leaves/cookie stuff for most of the meetings. We did two leaves and if they were in first grade, they could choose to do the other two as homework.
Then February, March, April and May we finished 3 Cheers, Daisy Garden and completed Between Earth and Sky. The trick was aligning Petals with Journey work. Use the Journey's to support the petal work concepts if you are going to even try and take this on. It also helped to be crazy organized. I would read the overview of each Journey to them and ask THEM to tell me which petals they think were part of this Journey and why. It is a great way to include them.
Here's some specific links in how we matched up the Journeys and Petals:
Three Cheers for Animals
Between Earth and Sky
Daisy Garden
Next year we are not doing this. Since they earned them this year our Second Year Daisies are going to be working on their "Girl Scout Super Hero" patches, while Brownies and Juniors start the year with badges. Since this will be my first year with a multi-level troop I am going to be even more organized. Next year we will also add in the safety pin/badge and our STEM program, which will be completed over the summer.
Since our whole troop was new (except her) to girl scouting, they all really wanted to do this too. (insert a deep sigh here)
It can be done, although if you're not super organized and don't meet a lot, you'll be more challenged to find success. The one thing we did was break up each of the journeys and petals in time slots for the meeting. This kept us really busy all year long.
We made the most of every single meeting and the girls were assigned things (responsible for what I say and do) to bring as homework so we could complete things. I also like to have a really hands on troop. If we are doing it, it's being done for a reason and there is no busy work. The girls are there for an experience so that's why I want to really give them one.
Here's an example for meeting one:
10:30-10:40 opening/flag salute/promise/oath
10:40-10:45 explain what we'll do today
10:45 to 11:15 Journey work
11:15-11:30 Snack and discussion about what we just worked on (this is counted in the Journey time or we talked about what we would be doing next with the petal work)
11:30-11:50 Petal work/discussion
11:50-closing and collect dues
Then meeting two:
10:30-10:40 opening/flag salute/promise/oath10:40-10:45 explain what we'll do today
10:45 to 11:15 Petal work
11:15-11:30 Snack and discussion about what we just worked on (this is counted in the Journey time or we talked about what we would be doing next with the petal work)
11:30-11:50 Journey work follow-up/discussion
11:50-closing
This gave us 45 minutes of Journey Work and 50 minutes of Petal Work each month. Most of the guides I found had Journeys taking about 3-4 hours and Petals taking 1.5 hours per petal. We also tied in the two by talking about how they relate. So for instance, we talked about being considerate and caring (petal) to animals when we are outside because some animals use what they find on the ground to build their homes or they may think it's food (part of the 3 cheers for animals journey).
Also, that means in 3 months we had completed 150 minutes of Journey and 150 minutes of Petal Work. This earned us 3-4 petals and completed 1/2 the work for the 3 cheers journey and the daisy garden journey.
For us this was October, November, and December. We had two meetings in September but that's where we introduced the promise center and sort of laid the ground work so I did not have to go into detail about the petals and journeys. It really helped to go through each Journey with them before we started so they understood TAP's and of course their role in the Journeys.
So if you go by the guides, you'll need at least 2 hours of meeting time for Journeys and then 15 hours for Petals or 27 hours worth of meetings total.
During cookie season, journey work was replaced with financial leaves/cookie stuff for most of the meetings. We did two leaves and if they were in first grade, they could choose to do the other two as homework.
Then February, March, April and May we finished 3 Cheers, Daisy Garden and completed Between Earth and Sky. The trick was aligning Petals with Journey work. Use the Journey's to support the petal work concepts if you are going to even try and take this on. It also helped to be crazy organized. I would read the overview of each Journey to them and ask THEM to tell me which petals they think were part of this Journey and why. It is a great way to include them.
Here's some specific links in how we matched up the Journeys and Petals:
Three Cheers for Animals
Between Earth and Sky
Daisy Garden
Next year we are not doing this. Since they earned them this year our Second Year Daisies are going to be working on their "Girl Scout Super Hero" patches, while Brownies and Juniors start the year with badges. Since this will be my first year with a multi-level troop I am going to be even more organized. Next year we will also add in the safety pin/badge and our STEM program, which will be completed over the summer.
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