Girl Scout Camp Training

(I just saw that I hadn't posted this and I am so sorry!  It's been ready to go for months, as I did this Camp Training late last Fall, and I can't believe it's not out there for y'all to laugh about.  I love camping!  My co-leader on the other hand...)

As a teen, I camped every summer with our church youth organization; Young Women.  I always loved it.

When I became a mother, I wasn't sure if I still would, until we took this trip, and I know now that I like camping no matter with children or not.

Just recently, I went on a Girl Scout Camp Training weekend.  There wasn't much information, before hand, about what we were to do, so I wasn't sure how "campy" it was all going to be.  All I did know, was we were to be sleeping in cabins.

I went with one other leader from our troop.  She's not outdoorsy, so I feared a little for her.  When I packed, the only thing I bought were hiking boots, she bought everything.  Even a new comforter, just for camping.  It was fun though.

We started with learning about fires and making fire starters.

These are pieces of candle sticks wrapped in wax paper.

We then went out and made our own little fires.

I was the only one to get mine on the first try.

I used my fire starter.

"That's cheating!" they said.

I said, "Why did we make fire starters if we weren't going to use them?"

My other troop leader, posing, was in the first team to start the fire for lunch.

I truly was proud of how well she did.  The type to refuse to not wear make up and perfume on a camping trip, she did very well.

I was a chef for lunch.

We made foil dinners for lunch.

Our dessert cooking in a dutch oven.

The extra potatoes, onions, and carrots.

It was a beef patty with potatoes, onions, and carrots.

It was good!

Our ready dessert.

An apple spice cake.

My serving of apple spice cake.

I forgot to take pictures of where we slept.  It was very nice.  I much looked more like a place you'd rent to hunt than a place for Girl Scout camping.

The next morning was cold and I didn't have a beanie.

I did, though, bring my black infinity scarf.

I wrapped it around my head three times; it kept my ears warm and hair back as we make breakfast.

She was a cook this time.

We had eggs, bacon, and tortillas.

Next, was knots.

Tents!

We split into two teams and each put up a two man tent.

Our tent had two doors, which made me very intrigued.

Cooking lunch!

We had Scout Stew.

My servings.

See that mess kit?  The bowl and the plate? 

 It was my father in law's when he was in the army.

Lunch's dessert.

PEACH COBBLER!

The absolute best dessert you can make on a camping trip!

It was such a nostalgic taste.

My share.

Us with our instructors.

The woman on the furthest left is in her mid-80s.  She's been doing this a long time.  Before we all left after lunch, she told us we might be her last camp training she does, and if we were, it was a great way to go.

We had a lot of fun.

If you are a troop leader getting ready to go to camp training,

don't worry, it's not hard and it's a lot of fun.  

Wear layers to peal off as you work.

Don't try using peppermint to deter mosquitos.  It works, but nats love it dearly.

This post was just a view of the fun I had at camp.

Return next week for a quick list on what I took to Girl Scout camp training!

See y'all then!

New Girl Scout Arrangment

So, recently, we have had several changes to our Girl Scout troop.

We had two leaders leave, leaving us with two leaders including myself left, and took four girls with them.  It's something that happens in troops and I was sad that it happened to ours.

 

Now, we are down to twelve girls, two leaders, and one very involved mom, and two regular involved moms.  We still have our wanted even numbers of Daisies and Brownies; 6 Daisies and 6 Brownies.

 

Having even numbers on both sides leaves to have fun with Big/Lil' Sister projects and activities in the future.

 

Just before the losses of two leaders, our main troop leader came up with a different seating arrangement.

 

This year, we had each of the girls have their own set of supplies, and as leaders, we would set them out at their seat before each meeting.  We had the girls in assigned spots, accounting for personalities at every turn.  We kept snarky ones away from each other, put quiet ones with louder ones to help bring them out as well as help mellow the loud ones.  Overly sensitive ones stayed away from ones that are more abrasive as well.  When you get to know your girls, it's not as hard as it sounds to arrange seating.

 

We meet in a conference room, so it is large and spread out.  We had the girls sit in a large horse shoe shape with a single table at the opening for the leader.

 

The change we made was to the arrangement of the tables.

Evelyn is that Brownie in the front

 

Instead of having these skinny table in a horse shoe, they are now arranged to make large tables.

2 Daisies and 2 Brownies to a table; each table had a table leader, chair leader, supply leader, and trash leader.  Table leader is responsible for making sure the three others do their jobs.

 

In this new arrangement, every Girl Scout gets to have important responsibilities on simpler levels.

When it comes to Girl Scouts, it's all about teaching the girls to be responsible and care for others.

 

During our first trial of this new arrangement, Evelyn was the leader for her table, and she did a great job.  It seemed easier to have the room cleaned up when each table had their own girl responsible for cleaning off one table, one girl at each table responsible for only four chairs, and one girl at each table responsible for only four sets of supplies.

 

It's surprising what little changes can do.



Girl Scout Girl Binder (plus a few tips)

Excuse my lateness!

The new Girl Scout year has officially begun!

This year we have added something to our weekly activities and I'm really liking it.

Last year, our first year as a troop, we had a floppy folder for the girls' journeys.

This year, we have implemented having a regular 1 inch white binder they use for every activity.

This is Evelyn's binder.  Since she has bridged to Brownies, her cover page is a Brownie "quilt."

Daisies have their own design on their binder.

There is a lot going on here first thing.  We have Daisy Dollars/Brownie Bucks in the pocket.  These are dollars the girls can earn by being a good Girl Scout.  They can use them to "buy" items from the treasure chest for $5 each.

The page in the pocket, is the activity we just had.  October is anti-bully month and, for the second year in a row, we have had the girls make a blue pinkie promise to not bully and to help stop bullying.  This pledge page was sent home to be colored and signed, and will be put further into the binder when complete.

The first page of each binder is the current month's calendar.  On the calendar, the girls will see all meetings, field trips, birthdays, due dates, times for said things, and snack and drink assignments.  This year we have more girls so snack and drink is now a shared task.

Next page is their level.

(Evelyn's coloring has improved, even over the summer!  I'm so excited!)

First divider is the Girl Scout Promise and Girl Scout Law

We had found this picture with the flowers, covered what was there, and added in the GS Law.

The next divider is the "Girl Scout Song Book."

This section has the songs the girl have learned...

 ...and more will be add through their Girl Scout years...

...as they learn more.

The girls are responsible to bring this binder to every meeting.

This is one reason I like this; Girl Scouts is supposed to teach girls how to be responsible and be leaders, and this binder is a help in that effort.

This year, again, Girl Scouts is selling started kits with cinch bags.  Starter kits include; vest/tunic/sash, waving flag, council ID, troop numbers, trefoil pin, membership pin, insignia tab, one journey book, and, new to the line, a levels binder.  Since all the girls have purchased a starter kit, either this year or last, they all have a bag they can carry their binder in.

Tips for the Girl Scout Mom/Leader

 Tired of your girl forgetting her vest when you're trying to get your own things together?

Keep her vest in her cinch bag.  If you didn't buy the starter kit, you can find pretty cinch bags at Dollar Tree.  Having a cinch bag also means she can bring all her projects from activities home without so much complications.

On this year's cinch bag, there are blank trefoil shapes.  I put Evelyn's name, our council initials, our troop number, "Brownie," and the years she will be a Brownie [2017-2020], and had one left for something I might think of later.  I used an Elmer's medium point painters marker from Walmart.  (Find it in this pretty sky color here.)

I also added these little ribbon key chains to the cords of one side.

I did both these things to spot Evelyn's bag easier since the only difference between cinch bags just might only be the color.

 Last tip for the day!

Sew all your front patches on.  I used double stick tape and little strips of  paper to hold together the numbers and council ID as I sewed.  I sewed a regular straight stitch around and a zig-zag stitch where they needed to connect.  For the flag, that was a little different.  To keep it cleaner, I didn't want white stitching on the red stripes, I did a tight zig-zag stitch around the flag.  It makes it look fuzzy but I like that better than white stitching on the red or blue field.
I don't know why, but Evelyn's were the only patches not to come off from the front in our troop this last year.  Her fun patches on the back have been coming off though, from her Daisy tunic.  I decided to not even attempt to iron on patches this year.  I'm sewing them all, but I know that can be a lot, so I am advising to sew at least the front patches since they are the most important, especially for ceremonies.  You don't want patches falling off during a ceremony.  We ran into that during our start of the year ceremony.

Hope all this was helpful, in the least, informative!

Can't wait to hear from y'all!

Daisy Investiture

Myself and two co-troop leaders worked so hard to make this Girl Scout Daisy Investiture the best it could be.  The Investiture is the official welcome to new members into Girl Scouts.  New members receive their membership pins and we celebrate the joining of new 'sisters' into Girl Scouts.

This post is just a quick view of what our Investiture looked like.

I will go into details of our process and script at another time.  Soon.

We printed up Beginning Certificates, I wrote each girls' name and signed them, then they were laminated.  Each person's name plate housed their membership pin and was set onto of their certificate.

Saw this on Pinterest and we had to do it.

The set up was the parents were on either side of the 'stem,' at an angle, and the girls were set in the back, in two rows.

View from the girls' seats.  When they would be called to be pinned...

 ...they would walk up the stem...

...and stand in the center of the colorful daisy as they are pinned.

We ended up switching the candle table and certificate table.

Each candle stick represents a petal, which come from the Girl Scout Law.  The large white candle represents the Girl Scout Promise.  As we said them, we lit them.  It's one of the candle ceremonies of Girl Scouts. 

One of my co-troop leaders made this and each girl took a picture with it, as well as their families.

We plan to make photo book, and we will use the picture with this as the start of each of their books.

We barely got the Fall Product under the wire, we started late since we just became a new troop.

We put an order form on the front table.

Front table.  We had our programs and fall product on it.

Raven fell asleep, and stayed asleep (Heavenly Father always knows how to help me!), while we decorated for the event!

As the girls file in.

 Family!

The completed certificate table after it had been switched.

Cake table.

I made the cake.  The 'patches' are printed from the computer, I taped them to foil and cut them to shape, the council ID, insignia tab, and the troop spot was flattened banana Laffy Taffy.

This didn't turn out as good as I wanted it to be, but I didn't plan my time well enough to make it better.  Learn from my mistake, if you make a cake for an event, do it the night before, and just refrigerate it.  Don't worry about it drying out, that always puts me off for doing it the night before, but don't fear that.  If you do it the night before, you will save yourself time and stress.

Sign in table just before we start.

My co-troop leaders and me!

They are such great ladies!  They work hard for our troop and I am lucky to have two women that are such supporters.  I know other have, and others are, struggling to have reliable help in their troops.  I am blessed to have them with me!

I didn't mean to stick out my tongue.  This was about our fifth selfie, and I was trying so hard to make it a good one.

How did your Investiture look?

Want more info on how we made this look?

Comment!

Happy to hear from y'all!

See here how we planned and scripted our Investiture.

Update: Over last Christmas holiday sales, we purchased battery operated candle sticks as opposed to wax candles that need to be lit by a flame.  We hope this will make it easier and quicker during our Rededication this year.  Look for that next month!