Friday, November 8, 2013

Brownie Legacy Painting Badge

Girl Scout Brownies Legacy Painting badge

As a troop, we are about to embark on our journey to earn our Girl Scout Brownie Paining Badge. This is what the Official Badge, which will be placed on the front of your vest, looks like:
Since this badge is official, there are requirements that our girls must fulfill. As you all know, we don't have your typical by-the-book troop. With this activity, as with any other, we will be finding our own way.  We do have a little flexibility, in the event that one or more of our troop members cannot attend. Because next weeks meeting will be a special "Wax Museum" event, those that cannot attend, may do their project the following week. So, here are the details for the "Wax Museum" that the girls will be holding next week. I'm hoping you will all provide them with some assistance in earning this badge. Each Brownie may choose a famous painter from any period. Examples would be Van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt-really the possibilities are endless. They can do a little research on this artist and during our "Wax Museum" the troop will divide up and take turns hearing whatever info their fellow members present. Examples of what the girls can present: dress up like your artist and tell about their life or bring an art book with an example of one of their works...be prepared to tell anything you know about it. Be creative and paint a piece of artwork in the fashion of that artist if you like-really, the sky is the limit!! This should be a fun activity and stress free! Above all, I don't want it to be like work!!! Do as much or as little as you would like. I need at least two volunteers to come a half hour early to help tape off the areas where the girls will be standing to be their character in the wax museums. For families with siblings, you are welcome to share an artist! 
I will give an example of what I intend to present as an example: my artist is Benjamin West-I will show the portrait he painted of Benjamin Franklin, bring an art book I have with his info. I will also bring a paintbrush and tell how how Native Americans in colonial America taught him to take hairs from a cat's tail to create the bristles of his paintbrush. For fun, I might even wear a beret!!!
This should be a really fun night, and I hope you all look forward to it!!! 
You can go to this link for info on some other suggestions on how we can earn this badge! 
We will also paint on canvas and make Christmas painted ornaments to fulfill the requirements for this badge in upcoming weeks! 



Thursday, September 12, 2013

Brownie Troop # 234 Ice Cream Social 


Brownie Troop 234 will be hosting our first ever Ice Cream Social/ Recruitment Rush event-and the girls are beyond excited! Above is the invite, which the girls can hand out to friends who they believe will be a great addition to our troop!  This will be a really great time for all! I'm asking that the girls please arrive no later than 4:30 for set-up. As you know, we've already postponed this event once-so whatever you were planning on bringing, please bring it on Wednesday! I'm hoping this will be an annual tradition, and one the girls will learn from and improve upon annually!  Thanks in advance for you and your girls excitement and participation!


My brief time as a leader has definitely taught me a few very important things about having a successful troop!  Here they are below:
1) God is the most important element of this troop. Prayer is essential. I pray that God always guide me as a leader, keeping me positive. I pray he surround me with encouraging friends, family and parents who realize my sacrifice and devotion to this troop. I pray he is with each of my girls daily, along with their parent(s)-who realize the short amount of time the one hour meeting is, helping me make the most of it for their girls as they walk through my door weekly.

2) Keep it simple. It's all about the girls having a good time, making memories and bonding. Who cares if you didn't accomplish your goal this week-the girls will only recall the fun they had at the meeting!

3) Remember the concept "It's only one hour." People ask me all of the time, how are you able to juggle the Girl Scout Brownie troop along with three kids, a household, a very chaotic and demanding business you run from home, and all of your other obligations? Well, first off, I try not to think of it as a burden. I always tell them, "It's only one hour." When I say that, it doesn't mean that I haven't spent hours upon hours planning and scheduling-it only means I have that one hour of time I have dedicated to make an impression on those girls. Whether I have a defined plan or not, and it will most likely be far from perfect-I still can know whatever I do, the Brownies will love the activity, me as their leader and definitely the time spent together! 

4) Don't let the flow of girls in and out of the troop cause a panic. When I first started our troop, back in the days when I had no idea what I was doing, I thought a huge troop meant success. That isn't truly the definition of the type of troop experience I would like to create weekly. Quality weekly meetings, over size of troop-now, that's success. At the start, as Girl Scout Daisies, we had 16 in our troop! At the end of the year, I believe we had officially registered over twenty and had had a few other girls who visited briefly. Lots of times, entire meetings were devoted to a new person visiting, or showing them how we do certain things. What was even more discouraging was that after all of that-sometimes a new member would just disappear into the wild blue yonder. Our troop, we all say as Brownie Moms, is basically a neighborhood troop. We have other girls in our troop, but pretty much all of the girls live within a few mile radius. We are open to any girls, it has just worked out that we have a core of five to seven girls who are extremely devoted to our Brownie troop. I have parents who are positive about Girl Scouts, are encouraging to me as  a leader, and I know that they are a big reason their daughters have such excitement weekly about coming to my home for meetings! So, I've learned that as a leader, I need to know I have devoted members. If I have a girl who drops out, at least my girls and I will have done our best to create a great memory for them. Thats all that matters.

5) Delegate! Ask Parents and your Brownies for help! The Siblings of Brownies love to help out too-that was why we created our "Green Knight" designation (for the men in our Brownies lives, more on that later!).
My parents have never minded helping. My brownies all have "Offices" they hold, changing monthly. These offices are Patrol Leader, Songmaster, Keeper of the Secrets, Treasurer, Hostess, Etc. My Brownies have really reacted in an extremely positive way to these offices! Having help really is essential. The one hitch is this-in order to ask for help, you absolutely must be organized enough to know what you need help doing. So getting organized is a must to be able to delegate!

6) Have a set meeting template weekly. We start out our meetings weekly by lining up as the Brownies arrive, parallel to the front door, uniforms on and being arranged by our troop hostess and "encouraged" by our troop peacekeeper. The troop hostess will show up ten minutes early and make sure the flag ceremony area is set up. She will also line the girls up as they arrive. The girls will stand at the door and shake their troop members hands with the Brownie Handshake, welcoming them to the meeting. We remain there until seven minutes after five (our meetings are from five to six). At seven after, we continue with our flag ceremony, which we do the same every week, only rotating girls monthly. We continue with getting into our horseshoe and talking over troop business, guided by the patrol leader. The troop treasurer will collect dues and the hostess will take role. We continue by getting into the main part of our meeting, which lasts until seven minutes till six o'clock. At that time, our troop tradition is to gather in a circle, hands crossed. We do our friendship squeeze and every week we are led by our troop songmaster in singing "Make New Friends." The best part of our meeting, I am convinced my girls would say, is when we create a tunnel with our joined hands in my front foyer and sing together-"Brownie, Brownie, Time to Go, Girls name, Girls Name, time to go. We do this until every girl has had a chance to run thru the tunnel (anyone else who may be at the meeting)  I am absolutely convinced 100% that having this weekly routine laid out for our meetings has encouraged the girls love for our troop. We are consistent and we have a fabulous time every week!!

7) Try to encourage girls and parents to go as electronic and phone free as possible. It's only one hour. Enough said.

8) Keep it cheap. Basically Girl Scouts is not a business. I have been completely turned off by other leaders focusing solely on cookie sales and whatever happens to be the fundraiser at that time. My Brownies did not join this troop to have six to ten weekly Girl Scout meetings devoted to making money for our troop. I've learned not to fall into that trap. Most of the activities our Brownies do are free. We collect one buck a week from each girl, which is optional. If I need money, I will ask for it, and parents have always been very happy to help out with money supplies, whatever. This year, as always, our troop will be cheap. This year our cookie sales will be an experience, and super fun. We will focus on building character, service work, bonding and creating memories together. 

9) Always remember what Juliette Gordon Lowe had in mind for Girl Scouts. This is so important to me. I moved around lots as a child, so I never knew what to expect from place to place. When I was nine years old, I moved to Laurel, Mississippi. Every Monday, after school, myself and six or seven other fourth grade girls, would take a tree lined four mile walk to a local church. I can remember that even the walk was ideal-but once we arrived, our leader, Ms Cupp, made our meetings wonderful. We learned our flag ceremony, we had speakers come in, we wore our cute little green uniforms with our patch covered sashes to school. We all bonded, and even though I moved from Laurel just a few years later, I still talk to those girls. I cherish those memories, that feeling of belonging and accomplishment. I wanted my girls to have that, just as I feel Juliette had the same goal for that small group of first Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia over one hundred years ago. I am convinced that I know what creates a great troop, I will make my girls have that same feeling I did, and carry it into their adulthood. That's what Juliette wanted, and our troop has it, and will build upon it. Thanks Ms. Cupp!

10) Earn Patches! Wear your uniform! My girls love having the entire uniform-they really do! They wear it on our meeting days to school, and then to every meeting. (Unless we are doing an activity like swimming!) The uniform has bonded us as a troop, believe it or not! There is also something very sweet about the Brownies in my troop obvious effort to wear the entire uniform weekly, and wear it correctly! The uniform is expensive-for every piece, its around $100. When I realized that, I gave the moms the option to wear a cheaper, modified version of the uniform. We could do khaki on the bottom with a blue or white top and the vest. My Moms and girls were pretty headstrong on purchasing the entire uniform, socks and all! So, my investment, having two girls was over $200! I have discovered since then, you can pick up uniform pieces at usually around 1/4 of the price new on ebay. I've bought several, many with tags still atttached. So, with the costs not really being a big factor- I say shop ebay and buy those uniforms! I'm really glad we did, and I know my Brownies and their parents are too!!!







How to be a Great Brownie Leader





My brief time as a leader has definitely taught me a few very important things about having a successful troop!  Here they are below:
1) God is the most important element of this troop. Prayer is essential. I pray that God always guide me as a leader, keeping me positive. I pray he surround me with encouraging friends, family and parents who realize my sacrifice and devotion to this troop. I pray he is with each of my girls daily, along with their parent(s)-who realize the short amount of time the one hour meeting is, helping me make the most of it for their girls as they walk through my door weekly.

2) Keep it simple. It's all about the girls having a good time, making memories and bonding. Who cares if you didn't accomplish your goal this week-the girls will only recall the fun they had at the meeting!

3) Remember the concept "It's only one hour." People ask me all of the time, how are you able to juggle the Girl Scout Brownie troop along with three kids, a household, a very chaotic and demanding business you run from home, and all of your other obligations? Well, first off, I try not to think of it as a burden. I always tell them, "It's only one hour." When I say that, it doesn't mean that I haven't spent hours upon hours planning and scheduling-it only means I have that one hour of time I have dedicated to make an impression on those girls. Whether I have a defined plan or not, and it will most likely be far from perfect-I still can know whatever I do, the Brownies will love the activity, me as their leader and definitely the time spent together! 


4) Don't let the flow of girls in and out of the troop cause a panic. When I first started our troop, back in the days when I had no idea what I was doing, I thought a huge troop meant success. That isn't truly the definition of the type of troop experience I would like to create weekly. Quality weekly meetings, over size of troop-now, that's success. At the start, as Girl Scout Daisies, we had 16 in our troop! At the end of the year, I believe we had officially registered over twenty and had had a few other girls who visited briefly. Lots of times, entire meetings were devoted to a new person visiting, or showing them how we do certain things. What was even more discouraging was that after all of that-sometimes a new member would just disappear into the wild blue yonder. Our troop, we all say as Brownie Moms, is basically a neighborhood troop. We have other girls in our troop, but pretty much all of the girls live within a few mile radius. We are open to any girls, it has just worked out that we have a core of five to seven girls who are extremely devoted to our Brownie troop. I have parents who are positive about Girl Scouts, are encouraging to me as  a leader, and I know that they are a big reason their daughters have such excitement weekly about coming to my home for meetings! So, I've learned that as a leader, I need to know I have devoted members. If I have a girl who drops out, at least my girls and I will have done our best to create a great memory for them. Thats all that matters.


5) Delegate! Ask Parents and your Brownies for help! The Siblings of Brownies love to help out too-that was why we created our "Green Knight" designation (for the men in our Brownies lives, more on that later!).
My parents have never minded helping. My brownies all have "Offices" they hold, changing monthly. These offices are Patrol Leader, Songmaster, Keeper of the Secrets, Treasurer, Hostess, Etc. My Brownies have really reacted in an extremely positive way to these offices! Having help really is essential. The one hitch is this-in order to ask for help, you absolutely must be organized enough to know what you need help doing. So getting organized is a must to be able to delegate!

6) Have a set meeting template weekly. We start out our meetings weekly by lining up as the Brownies arrive, parallel to the front door, uniforms on and being arranged by our troop hostess and "encouraged" by our troop peacekeeper. The troop hostess will show up ten minutes early and make sure the flag ceremony area is set up. She will also line the girls up as they arrive. The girls will stand at the door and shake their troop members hands with the Brownie Handshake, welcoming them to the meeting. We remain there until seven minutes after five (our meetings are from five to six). At seven after, we continue with our flag ceremony, which we do the same every week, only rotating girls monthly. We continue with getting into our horseshoe and talking over troop business, guided by the patrol leader. The troop treasurer will collect dues and the hostess will take role. We continue by getting into the main part of our meeting, which lasts until seven minutes till six o'clock. At that time, our troop tradition is to gather in a circle, hands crossed. We do our friendship squeeze and every week we are led by our troop songmaster in singing "Make New Friends." The best part of our meeting, I am convinced my girls would say, is when we create a tunnel with our joined hands in my front foyer and sing together-"Brownie, Brownie, Time to Go, Girls nameGirls Name, time to go. We do this until every girl has had a chance to run thru the tunnel (anyone else who may be at the meeting)  I am absolutely convinced 100% that having this weekly routine laid out for our meetings has encouraged the girls love for our troop. We are consistent and we have a fabulous time every week!!


7) Try to encourage girls and parents to go as electronic and phone free as possible. It's only one hour. Enough said.

8) Keep it cheap. Basically Girl Scouts is not a business. I have been completely turned off by other leaders focusing solely on cookie sales and whatever happens to be the fundraiser at that time. My Brownies did not join this troop to have six to ten weekly Girl Scout meetings devoted to making money for our troop. I've learned not to fall into that trap. Most of the activities our Brownies do are free. We collect one buck a week from each girl, which is optional. If I need money, I will ask for it, and parents have always been very happy to help out with money supplies, whatever. This year, as always, our troop will be cheap. This year our cookie sales will be an experience, and super fun. We will focus on building character, service work, bonding and creating memories together. 

9) Always remember what Juliette Gordon Lowe had in mind for Girl Scouts. This is so important to me. I moved around lots as a child, so I never knew what to expect from place to place. When I was nine years old, I moved to Laurel, Mississippi. Every Monday, after school, myself and six or seven other fourth grade girls, would take a tree lined four mile walk to a local church. I can remember that even the walk was ideal-but once we arrived, our leader, Ms Cupp, made our meetings wonderful. We learned our flag ceremony, we had speakers come in, we wore our cute little green uniforms with our patch covered sashes to school. We all bonded, and even though I moved from Laurel just a few years later, I still talk to those girls. I cherish those memories, that feeling of belonging and accomplishment. I wanted my girls to have that, just as I feel Juliette had the same goal for that small group of first Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia over one hundred years ago. I am convinced that I know what creates a great troop, I will make my girls have that same feeling I did, and carry it into their adulthood. That's what Juliette wanted, and our troop has it, and will build upon it. Thanks Ms. Cupp!

10) Earn Patches! Wear your uniform! My girls love having the entire uniform-they really do! They wear it on our meeting days to school, and then to every meeting. (Unless we are doing an activity like swimming!) The uniform has bonded us as a troop, believe it or not! There is also something very sweet about the Brownies in my troop obvious effort to wear the entire uniform weekly, and wear it correctly! The uniform is expensive-for every piece, its around $100. When I realized that, I gave the moms the option to wear a cheaper, modified version of the uniform. We could do khaki on the bottom with a blue or white top and the vest. My Moms and girls were pretty headstrong on purchasing the entire uniform, socks and all! So, my investment, having two girls was over $200! I have discovered since then, you can pick up uniform pieces at usually around 1/4 of the price new on ebay. I've bought several, many with tags still atttached. So, with the costs not really being a big factor- I say shop ebay and buy those uniforms! I'm really glad we did, and I know my Brownies and their parents are too!!!

Have FUN!!!





Sunday, March 24, 2013

What's the difference between Girl Scout Badges and Fun Patches?

We just wrapped up our 2nd Cookie Selling season as a troop-and I must say, it was a great success! So proud of the Parents and Brownies-participation was absolutely more than I ever expected. I just contribute the success this year to the wonderful Brownies we have in Troop #234! I will be doing a post soon with some highlights of our Cookie Sales this year real soon. In the meantime, I wanted to go over some information about the difference between Fun patches and badges. 

Fun Patches
Fun Patches only go on the back of your Brownies vest. I think of them as a wearable scrapbook of not only their Girl Scout Brownie experience, but an opportunity to commemorate special milestones in their sweet little lives on an ongoing basis. Lots of troops only allow their members to place Fun Patches on their vests/sashes that they have earned along with their troop. I don't find that that should be so with our troop. I feel that if your daughter visits somewhere that impacts her life and she wants to make a memory with a patch they have available, please feel free. You may also set certain criteria and earn other patches-like this cool cosmic bowling patch below. 
You may also pick up patches while you are on vacation-you certainly earn these!
  
It's completely up to the Parents how they want to handle distributing fun patches to your Brownie. Fill up the back of that vest-you can always buy another one!

Official Badges

Only Official Girl Scout Badges, Pins and Insignia are placed on the front of our Girl Scout Brownie vests. I think of the front of the vest to be the side that shows true earned accomplishments-its all business.  For instance, we earned a Cookie Badge similar to this one during our Cookie season this year. This Badge is placed on the front because it says to other Girl Scouts that you've worked hard to earn this badge and have satisfied the requirements as laid out by Girl Scouts of America. So, for the front of the vest, you only place badges approved by your leader. (Me) Now, that being said, I am 100% in favor of any girl earning badges on their own, away from the troop. I'm happy to help anytime, if any Brownie expresses her desire to work independently-just let me know! 
In closing, the stuff below supposedly works wonders on attaching Patches and badges. Most of our Girl Scout patches/Badges are iron-on. I haven't felt the need to buy any of the additional stuff made by various companies to adhere the patches because I just take a couple of minutes and run a quick needle and thread around my girls patches/badges to ensure they stay put.

Press on the link above to purchase on amazon!
Please remember, our ultimate goal always is to use our troop as a way to keep our girls close to us, and to supply a safe haven for them. Rules and regulations do not matter, and everything is fixable. Finally, some words from the fabulous first girl scout ever: