Last night was week 5 of Join the Journey. The focus was on actually doing the Take Action Project. I was told by my Junior that I could come to their project but all I was allowed to do was take pictures. We all started out together, but then split up; therefore, I can only report what was reported to me from the Daisy and Brownie groups.
My primary thought from this week... besides exhaustion... is about the Cadette Leadership in Action award. I think in theory it's a good thing. However, I'm finding that unless the cooperating leader truly understands how to teach another person how to lead or mentor them, the real meaning of the experience is lost on the girl. This is supposed to be a girl-led set of activities, including the planning of the activity.,. there
is supposed to be consulting with the Brownie group leader, but it isn't necessarily supposed to be a case of the Brownie group leader dictating to the Cadette exactly how she is to fulfill a requirement. For example, if the LIA requirement is to lead the girls in an activity that is not one of the activities in the Journey book, the Cadette should have the freedom to choose what type of activity she is comfortable leading and exactly what song, game, craft, etc., she teaches... it defeats the authenticity of the experience when the Brownie group leader dictates to the Cadette what song, game, craft, etc., she wants the Cadette to teach.
I am not saying this is what has happened in our case, but I have witnessed this set up multiple times over the past three years as I've watched girls earning their Junior Aide and other leadership awards.
Maybe this is an enrichment training that all leaders need: How to Mentor Girls in Leadership Skills. It seems that through this whole Journey experience, getting the adults to understand and remember to let the GIRLS take the lead has been the hardest part.
1.
Gathering and Welcome.
It figures that after I celebrate the punctuality of the entire group, most people would be late this week. The three of us that were there early and on-time were beginning to get worried that no one was coming. However, most of the girls arrived by 7:10 p.m. In the meantime, the Cadette had mentioned that she was disappointed she had not gotten to teach the game she had prepared for last week (apparently, at last week's session, she was asked to teach a different song). This issue was easily solved: she taught it to the girls who had gathered.
Our opening was very much the same as in the past:
- The girls chose the order of what we did.
- We said the GS Promise. This week, however, we all said it together rather than in an echoing style. I am proud to say that even our two new girls said the entire Promise without stumbling.
- We sang a "get moving" song: "Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic." After teaching the movements and the words separately, I led the group in singing the song; we sang it three times, getting faster every time. Ironically, the girls kept up pretty well (some focused only on doing the actions at the right times)... it was the adults who had issues matching actions and words and keeping the words in the right order. BUT we all ended in laughter, so it was good.
- I previewed what each group was doing tonight, explained why we wouldn't have a formal closing ceremony (we'd all be ending at different times and places), and the girls went to their group leaders.
2.
Daisy Flower Garden.
Last week, the girls had decided to help Clover and the rest of the grass by cleaning up the trash that surely was hurting them. They were supposed to try to get family members to join them. Unfortunately, one Daisy didn't come, and no family members came for the other two girls outside of their mothers (who are group leaders). The Junior group leader and I decided that she'd stay with her Daisy daughter and not be allowed to feel guilty for not going with the Juniors (we already had 4 adults going with them).
- The girls did an activity where they reached into an opaque bag and tried to determine what natural objects were in there solely by their shapes and textures. Apparently they really had fun with this activity even though by the third object, they were pros and there was very little challenge left to it.
- Then they started their project. Each girl received gloves and a bag. They then started picking up trash. According to the group leader, they picked up trash... they picked up trash... they picked up trash... and then they picked up more trash (about 45 minutes' worth). And they had a blast the entire time! The two girls were able to amuse themselves and make it fun. They didn't want to stop, and they wanted to pick up garbage outside the fence surrounding the park. For safety's sake, they were restricted to the parts of the park INSIDE the fence.
- They filled their bags with room to spare, but it was agreed that they had made a noticeable difference. The number of plastic straw wrappers and other small lunch wrappings that were littered around was astounding, and cleaning them up made the clover and grass colors more... clean (for lack of a better word).
A side note from last week's learning: the Daisy group leader found out that there are special composting worms. There is a farm in the next town over that does a great deal of composting, and she's going to see if the Daisy troop can take a trip over there this coming year. She also spoke with the school principal about the possibility of a GS-led composting project at the elementary school. Ironically, within the first month of school, the first grades learn about worms and have meal worm guests in their classrooms. I volunteered to help the Daisy girls figure out how to propose the project to their teachers (and the principal and school board if necessary).
3.
Brownie Quest.
This report is from my Brownie daughter.
- The Brownie group leader explained to the girls that the librarian has asked the Brownies to help her with a book table that she has at the village's farmer's market every other Sunday (instead of shelving the books as the girls thought they might be able to do).
- The girls are now going to go to the farmer's market on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and staff the book table. They're going to encourage customers at the market to find a book that looks interesting and take it home to read and keep (or pass on). They are going to be in official Girl Scout uniform, so this should make for some good photo opportunities.
- The girls split into teams of 2 and made posters advertising the table (the group leader and Cadette teamed up on a poster, too). The posters included words, pictures, and stickers that illustrated book themes/topics and why reading is fun.
- Then the girls made a healthy snack from the Brownie Quest book. As the girls finished their posters, they each added an ingredient to the vegetable dip. There was cream cheese, yogurt ("non-fat, though"), non-fat ranch dressing, something that "started with a 'b' and ended with 'wheat' and it was in a cup and sort of grainy" (not having the book with me, I don't know if it was buckwheat or bulgarwheat or what), and a spice. It was all mixed together and then the girls dipped vegetables in it. There was broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower, and celery. According to my dear Brownie, "It did not smell good. It did not look good. But it tasted goooood."
- The Brownies shared their healthy treat with the Daisy girls, then they all went to play for a little bit.
- The girls all helped clean up the supplies that I bring each week for all the groups to use and made sure they got into my mother's car (since she was my transportation for the night).
3.
Junior Agent of Change.
This was an
extremely busy group of young ladies! What was supposed to be 1.5 hours of work turned into 3.5 hours by the end (with all of the parents' agreement and participation). When we arrived at the town's Girl Scout room, there were 5 Junior Girl Scouts, 3 Moms (who are also Service Unit Team members), 1 Dad (who was made an honorary GS for the night... the girls said he'd have to wear a skirt if he registered), and 2 young male guests who had to tag along at the last minute. We had a computer and printer, colored paper galore, about 6 colors of tempera and acrylic paint (and 1 color of wall paint), a drill and screws, and a roll of cork board that was found in the closet.
- We started by voting on a few issues. They decided to make the frames around the boxes for each troop's display space out of handprints... shortly later, the decision was made to have the horizontal lines made of multi-colored handprints and the vertical lines made of multi-colored footprints. They also voted to give the adults a section of wall where we can put a multiple-dimension version of Dez I. Ner Spider (complete with real shoes and hiking boot and real gloves and real beret), the Brownie Elf & girls, and Amazing Daisy and her friends. They also voted to use two framed posters donated from my mother's GS memorabilia.
- I got everybody's attention and clarified for all of us that the girls were in charge and needed to use the adults for help. That meant that if a decision needed to be made, it was up to the girls (for the most part). I also stated that the adults wouldn't be making any decisions or movements without the girls' permission.
- The girls attempted to get to work... they all tried to work on everything at the same time. Of course, chaos ensued.
- I suggested to the girls that they each take charge of one of the tasks and accompanying adult(s). They needed to place complete trust in each other and the decisions made about the various tasks. They all agreed, and they all decided who would take each section.
- Two girls took charge of two of the moms and the task of dividing the wall into sections for each troop's display space. They found yarn and masking tape, and the moms taught the girls how to make straight guide lines without drawing on the wall. The girls used their math skills to figure out how big each section would end up being. We ended up with 18 sections, each about 1.5 feet by 1.5 feet (I think). The frames start at the baseboard heaters and go up three rows on the wall, leaving a large section at the top for a room-wide border.
- My Junior daughter took charge of the Dad and finding a space that could be dedicated to Leader Development. They thought they had the perfect wall space to put up the corkboard. They centered it, and the Dad was going to start the screws and let my daughter finish them. However, we found out that the wall was pure concrete; therefore, plans had to change (had he - or any of us - known that before, he could have brought the proper drill & bits to be able to do it... oh, well, now we all know). They decided to use the inside of the storage closet door. That way, during Service Unit meetings and trainings, I can have the door open during my Leader Development times, and it can be closed and out of sight when troops are using the room (thereby not taking up girl space on the walls). They worked together to screw the corkboard into the wood, and my daughter is going to work on a label for the area.
- A third Junior was in charge of posting the GS Promise and the GS Law on the two boards that had been moved to the focal point of the room. She had printed the GS Promise out and mounted each word on a frame of construction paper. Then she worked on putting the Promise up on the smaller of the two boards. As girls finished their tasks, they went to help her - talk about teamwork! The GS Law had been printed in the colors of the Daisy Petals, and a different font was used for each line (with a central font used for the clauses that aren't values in the Law, e.g., "and to").
- The last Junior was put in charge of me and deciding what important GS words were going to be posted around the room and how we would do it. She decided that printing the words in color and fun fonts on the computer would be more efficient than stenciling with paint. She also decided to have "Courage," "Confidence," and "Character" printed out multiple times each and used as a continuous border around the room (I'm not sure we'll get back to making a full border - but we have one set centered and posted on the wall above the troop display area). She also chose the Juliette Low quote, "What do the GIRLS want to do?" to be posted above the archway that is partway through the room... in a place that is very visible to the leaders when we're having our meetings. Finally, she chose to put "[Service Unit's Name] Girl Scouts" over the chalkboard that is flanked with the GS Promise and GS Law boards.
- Once each group was well underway, and the adults had our marching orders, the girls joined the wall team for a while. By 8:30 p.m., they had the three lines handprints up on the wall. They even recruited the two boys to add their little handprints where small spaces needed to be filled in. Right about this time, a Daisy and 2 Brownies showed up (siblings of some of the Juniors and daughters to the other 2 group leaders who were checking in with me and letting me know how their sessions went).
- The girls recruited the two adults who had just arrived to help cut out words for the GS Law and the words that the Junior had chosen and designed for posting around the room. They also recruited the younger girls to put their footprints on the wall for the vertical lines. We had little people in chairs with rainbow feet being pushed around by adults so that the lines were multicolored. Then, for the upper two rows, we used the featherweight girls, and their moms held them while another adult stamped their feet onto the wall. Everyone was in giggle fits by the time it was done.
- One of the Juniors took charge of washing off the feet of the foot-stampers and making sure that just about every bit of paint was removed from their feet.
- Another couple of Juniors and one of the Brownies took charge of cleaning up the room. A large amount of garbage was removed from the room and from the storage areas.
- Our GS Promise and Law girl got help as people finished, and both pieces were completely posted by the end of the night.
- The girls allowed the tallest adult and me to post the words, quote, and Service Unit name in their designated places.
- The three remaining Juniors at the end of the night (2 left before the others, but well after getting most of the work done) found two places for the framed posters and made sure that the wife of the Dad knew where they were to go so she could tell him (he had left earlier) and they could return with the proper drill, bits, and screws.
- We moved the primary tables around to refocus the room and make the GS Promise and Law fully visible when any group is meeting. We swept the floor until it was spotless, and the tops of the file cabinets were cleaned off. We're going to get the Juniors together over the next two weeks so that we can get pictures of the pristine room and them (the cameras that were brought last night died before many pictures could be taken).
Once I have the pictures of the girls' work, I'll post them for all to see.
We have next Wednesday off, and the week after that is the celebration week. I'm going to send each girl a paper for her to evaluate her project on so that they can reflect with a little bit of distance before we totally celebrate. We're still hoping to get some town officials to attend, and we're going to invite the librarian. I'm pretty sure we've now outgrown our originally planned celebration space, so I'm on the hunt for a new place that can accomodate us and our timing. I'd say that's a good problem to have!
