Decompression from the Second Session

Well, the kicker of today was when I was mid-conversation with the Brownie group leader and realized that for the past 3 days while talking with her and the Daisy group leader I'd been shorting us all a week in our planning. I've been reassuring them that they'd have enough time to work through a plan and do the project with one scheduled meeting and a week to meet on their own time with their group. Mid-conversation, I realized that we have TWO scheduled meetings and a week to meet on their own if needed. Talk about relief (for me and the group leaders)!

Tonight brought more girls to Join the Journey! We're now up to 3 GS Daisies, 6 GS Brownies, 5 GS Juniors, and 1 GS Cadette. The Cadette was a surprise, so for tonight she worked to motivate the Brownies and learn their names. The Cadette has her own special challenges, so getting her to interact with the girls and calling them by name was a step forward. Of the 6 Brownies, one didn't show (disappointing), and one joined Girl Scouts tonight in order to do this program and will be joining my troop in the fall. The other score of the night was convincing one of the mothers who is stepping up as a Daisy leader in the fall that she could stretch herself and work with the Juniors on their Journey.

Being less in charge of the individual parts tonight, I'm less positive of what each activity was. However, I can relay what I know.

1. Welcome and Gathering. As the girls arrived, they joined their friends on the playground. Forms were given to parents (or collected from them), and I asked four girls who were playing near by to gather the rest of the girls into a circle. The three group leaders, the co-organizer, and I all joined the circle. We went around the circle introducing ourselves and telling what level we are in Girl Scouts. The co-organizer tapped into her inner cheerleader and led the group in a chorus of, "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii, [name]!" We said the Girl Scout Promise in echo fashion since we had two new Girl Scouts with us. Then one girl taught the Quiet Sign. We followed that with practicing the Girl Scout Handshake. Then I reminded everyone of what we had done last week, how values are in the Girl Scout Law, and built up this week's session since every group had a craft to do. We then split into the groups.

2. GS Daisy Flower Garden.

• The Daisy group leader had taken the poster that came in the adult guide and temporarily mounted it on a piece of posterboard. She introduced the girls to all of Amazing Daisy's friends (after giving them each their own Journey book). The two who were already Daisies noticed that the flower colors were Petal colors... so the natural path to the parts of the GS Law was set out.

• I had set out a treasure hunt for the girls. They were given a note that was addressed to the girls by name and said, "Three Girl Scout Daisies I see, a surprise waits for you underneath a tree." They looked near all of the trees and finally found a small, antique music box (no longer working, unfortunately - and it was from the 1950s or so, but found in an antique store). They turned it all around and finally figured out they had to open it up; that was ensued by a race back for their group leader to read the new note that accompanied a package of Coriander (Cilantro) seeds and a package of Lemon Balm seeds. The second clue read something like, "Seeds can grow right before your eyes. Beneath a fun ride, you'll find your next prize." Under a slide, the girls found six small terra cotta flower pots with a third clue: "Growing plants need water to flow. Where the water shoots to the sky is where you must go." We have a water fountain/wading pool area that is off 98% of the year; in that dry pool was a plastic bag full of wooden beads to act as spacers beneath the potting soil. The final clue in that bag was "Return to the start, and you'll find the earth's heart." When they returned to their workspace with all of the pieces, they found a bag of organic potting soil.
  

• Everything I'd purchased for the treasure hunt had a significance. The music box went along with the box the 3 girls dug up in the Journey story. The herbs were chosen because the Cilantro can be used as a cooking herb while the Lemon Balm is a medicinal herb - according to the package, placing a fresh leaf over an insect bite will help soothe the itch. The terra cotta pots and wooden beads were chosen for their natural materials (instead of plastic pots and marbles). The organic potting soil was chosen for the organic nature of it.

• After planting their seeds, they decorated the outside of the pots with some of the Crayola Paint Brush Pens (child-sized brushes with paint in the handles). The terra cotta soaked up the paint pretty quickly, so they were dry by the time the girls went home.

• The group leader then read the first chapter of the story to the girls... and they realized what they had in common with Campbell and her two pals. For those who haven't noticed, I don't think it's coincidence that the names of the three girls all start with "C" - after all, the next logical connection will be to "Courage, Confidence, and Character."

• She encouraged them all to read the story with their families and gave them a couple of worksheets made from the pages of the book. The worksheets are home-session connections that may be completed if the girl and her family wish.

3. Brownie Quest.

• The Brownies began with their craft activity. They had plastic suncatchers in the shape of a trio of flowers. In the center of each flower I had written "E," "L," or "F." Apparently the girls noticed the letters and figured out what it spelled. At least one girl (my Brownie) knew that a Brownie Elf was important to their Journey story. The girls painted the suncatchers using the appropriate paints/glazes.

• While the suncatchers dried, the group leader took them out to a grassy area where the girls shared their family stars. I know our new Brownie had decorated hers with stickers (she lives in our neighborhood, so I was able to get the papers to her before tonight); my daughter made hers out of craft foam. I don't know what other girls did to theirs.

• They then read part of the story. The group leader was going to gauge them to decide whether they wanted to read or be read to. I know they sat with her for quite awhile - from my point, they looked pretty attentive throughout. I haven't debriefed my Brownie yet, but I'm confident they were as observant as the Daisies when it came to their story. The girls' bracelets should have made a connection with the suncatchers our Brownies had painted.
  

• They were then sent out on their own scavenger hunt. Scattered throughout the park were blue stars with the chant typed on them. Each star had the Discover/Explore award safety-pinned to it.

4. Junior Agent of Change.

• These girls started out by taking the beads with values written on them and turning them into spiders using pipecleaners and smaller beads. They worked quite diligently and completed all the spiders with humor and socializing. Since the three girls who were present are from two troops but one of the girls from the same troop is new to Juniors, this socialization time was important. After they got cleaned up, one of the moms folded spider legs around the yarn of the web where the girls had placed them. Now all of our Val U. (short for Ursula) Spiders (Dez I. Ner Spider's cousins) are firmly attached to the web.

• I was grabbing the papers for the rest of the evening with the Juniors (I had agreed with their group leader to guide them tonight and turn it all over to her tonight since she just agreed this week) when I heard my own Junior begin the conversation to review the "Her" Stories they had researched. Foolish me was put in my place by my daughter (and rightfully so): I had been asking guiding questions rather than having the girls read directly from their papers - after I'd finished with the first one, my daughter said, "Now will you let her read her paper, I want to hear the story." The take-home piece was written in complete sentences with blanks to be filled in, so reading it aloud made a cohesive paragraph. It really wasn't mouthy - it was a clear indication that I was leading too much. One girl researched Abby Wambaugh (soccer player from our area) and my daughter chose Harriet Tubman. The third girl didn't prepare anybody, so I let her pick from the four women listed in the adult guide. She chose the woman who was/is a chef and who helped start a program in schools where the students grow vegetables for the school to use.

• We then chatted about leaders in their real lives. They each chose their mothers; two because we're helpful and one because she's caring. I shared that I probably would choose my high school music teacher because she gave me confidence in my theatre skills and confidence to be on stage which has led to my creation of a youth theatre program in another town and the creation of one in our town this year. They had trouble thinking of a non-Mom choice, but that's okay at their age... it's nice to know we're still so important to them (especially as puberty is hitting hard!).

• I asked them why it was important for a leader to be a good listener, and they all agreed that we had to listen to make sure that the followers' ideas were being used and being heard. They unanimously voted for a troop that was run with the girls' ideas and interests rather than the leader's desires. I know, big surprise.

• They went off across the park to figure out examples of how people embody the various parts of the GS Law. When they came back, they didn't have too much time to share with the adults, but they were quite proud of the work they'd done. I prepped them for working with the group leader next time and told them to start thinking of projects. I spouted out a couple of ideas: building bat boxes for our rural flying rodents; decorating the town Girl Scout room because a number of leaders have been commenting on it. I couldn't spout off any more because all three jumped on that idea.

• Over the week, they're reading the graphic novel, coming up with project ideas, and completing their Power Logs. They know that they will receive their Power of One award if they get their Power Logs completed.

5. Dismissal. Each group dismissed on its own tonight. I figured it would be better that way because the groups ended at different times (all within about 20 minutes of each other). However, I now know better because one of the Juniors was disappointed that we weren't going to do a closing circle like last time. I'll have to see if she wants to lead the closing at the next session.

SO, once again, it was a successful session (IMO). Next week is "offical" team forming symbolized by the team agreements and brainstorming/planning. We have one Brownie and 2 Juniors to catch up from this week, too. I know the model in the books includes writing letters to officials, but since this is the first Journey for all of us, I'm choosing to use progression. We're going to work within systems that won't require months of town/official meetings... a huge accomplishment on a small stage is a better thing in my book than a flop or an incomplete accomplishment on a huge stage.

Additionally, the Juniors have requested that their Power of One awards be given with something fun to equal the hunts the other groups have been on.

Co-operative Learning? Check!
Learning By Doing? Yup... especially as we work through the planning process next week.
Girl led? We're getting there! The Juniors are going to bring me leaps and bounds forward (even though I thought I was there).

First Session

WHEW! The first session of Join the Journey is over, and I am exhausted and happy.

We had the following girls show up:

1 GS Daisy (actually, she registered tonight so she could take part)
4 GS Brownies
3 Sorta GS Juniors (they Fly Up over the summer)
1 GS Junior

Plus, we know that there is another GS Daisy, Brownie, and Sorta Junior joining in next week. Two group leaders couldn't be there this week due to prior obligations, so we did the whole meeting together. In chronological order, here's what we did in our first Journey session:

1. Greet parents and girls. We meet in a park, so the girls got to play on the playground for a few minutes while parents received their welcome letters and permission slip & health form to complete before they left.

2. Gather girls. I asked who thought they knew why we were gathered, and one girl gave a good general answer that I could then tell everyone was a "Journey" in Girl Scout words. We figured out who was in each GS level and then I gave them one copy of the Journey book from their level to go explore as small groups for a few minutes. The Daisy had a few cute questions for me - she wore her tunic and wanted to know how to earn badges to put on it. I heard the Juniors discussing the word search, graphic novel, and Dez I Ner Spider. I also heard the Brownies noticing the Elf, some of the graphics, and "vlalues" as my own Brownie tried to explain. The Daisy asked as we transitioned, "Where are we going on a journey to?" Perfect? Absolutely!

3. Welcome circle. For this activity, the co-organizer and I gathered the girls again and formed a circle - then we had them rearrange so there was no girl from their own troop next to them. I had a ball of yarn that we tossed around for two rounds. The first round's task was to say, "hi," and introduce themselves. They had to keep a hold of part of the string when they tossed the ball of yarn. The second round was to tell the group one of your favorites... favorite dinner, favorite animal, favorite color, whatever - and they had to toss the ball to someone different. After two rounds, we looked at the yarn in the middle of the circle and described it. The answers were precious... a spider web, a bunch of stars, and a crazy flower. I had them hold up their hands in turns if their Journey had a spider or web... stars... and flowers... I couldn't have asked for a better connection moment! Then I explained the cool part of spider web creation where the web is built from the inside to the outside... just like the Journeys they were starting where we'd explore from inside themselves out and into the community. We set the web-star-flower down where we were as a visual reminder throughout the evening.

4. Values scavenger hunt/Values spiders. This part was done as Daisy/Brownies and Juniors. While we had been working on our web-star-flower, two parents who had stayed cut apart some values words I had printed out and spread them throughout the park. Before we split up, we figured out what "values" were. The Daisy/Brownies were sent on a scavenger hunt to find the 33 values words around the park. The Juniors started on some spiders made out of wooden beads. Tonight they wrote values words on at about 20 wooden beads with permanent markers (I emphasized that spelling was important, but not to stumble over it) - next week we'll add the head beads and chenaille-stem (pipe-cleaner) legs. They had to make sure that they were talking with each other to come up with some words and to make sure we didn't end up with duplicates. They worked steadily. At one point I heard the Daisy/Brownies come back to the pavilion and count up the 29 they had... then they ran off to find the other 4 (oh, they were in a buddy and a truddy [3-person buddy] and had been told it wasn't a race or a competition, they were 2 parts of one team). The two moms helped give a little directional guidance to the girls. One was hung on the lowest tree branch that was just out of the girls' reach. The mom's point was to see how they would solve the problem - she expected, "MOM! Can you get this?" but hoped for different - she witnessed the buddy of girls find it, each take a turn jumping to get it, and then the stoutest (my own little butterball) got down on her hands and knees and made sure she was under the paper . Then her extremely light-weight buddy climbed up on her back, and stood up to grab the paper - the mom/leader was watching to make sure there were no injuries - the other 3 stood nearby, cheering them on. The team work and creative problem solving made for a VERY proud moment for all of us moms. For the record, they found 32 of 33 words.

We gathered back together as a big group and went through some of the words they had found and written. The girls tried to define the words (often by using similar concepts), and when they couldn't, they gave examples or non-examples, showing they knew the concepts. Funny moment: when one Sorta Junior (the SU Manager's daughter; apparently she likes to ask for reasons a lot) defined "obedience" as "when you're told to do something, you do it without saying, 'I don't want to.'" Her leader said, "I'm telling your mom that you KNOW what that word means!"... and we did.

5. Ethical dilemmas. For our last active part, the girls voted that the moms had to take part. We took our web and made it into one thick line on the ground. All the girls and moms stood on the line. I stood slightly in front and off to the side where they could all see and hear me. I read them some short, adapted ethical dilemma scenarios that all ended with, "If you would [action A], take a step forward; if you would [action B, opposite of A], take a step backward." I made it clear that there were no "right or wrong answers," that they needed to step honestly, and they HAD to step (they couldn't stay where they were). We started with: "When you grow up you have to pay taxes, especially when you work. That tax money helps the government run, builds roads and schools, and helps poorer people. Imagine that you are the richest ladies in the world." At which point, a darling little one pops out of the line and shouts, "Hey, I'm a boy!" - it was a boy who had been playing in the park and decided to join our activity - so I adjusted to "Okay, I'm sorry! Imagine that you are the richest ladies and YOUNG MAN in the world. If you think that you should pay more taxes to help poorer people, take a step forward. If you don't think that you should have to pay more just because you have more money, take a step backward." I'm pretty sure everyone stepped forward (one adult hesitated I think). The other dilemmas were:

• You're walking down the street and find President Obama's wallet. It has $1000.00 in cash in it. If you take it directly to the nearest police station without taking anything out, step forward. If you take it to the police station but take out a little bit because he probably won't notice, step backward. All but one girl moved forward

• You're on a jury for a trial where someone stole something - the person was a thief. She stole a loaf of bread to feed her family. If you punish her because she stole, step forward. If you don't punish her because she was trying to feed her family, step backward. One mom and daughter took a step forward, all others stepped back.

• Imagine you're a teenager (adults, remember your teens). It's nearly 11:00 p.m., and that's your curfew - your mom had told you to make sure you were not late, not even by a second. But you've been playing the most awesome video game at your friend's house, and you just noticed that it's a few minutes before 11:00 p.m., and you know there is no way you'll make it home in time. If you call your mom, apologize, and leave immediately, step forward. If you try to sneak in so your mom doesn't catch you, step back. All went forward except one parent who then stated that even a phone call wouldn't have woken her mother if she was asleep.

• Your fairy godmother has made you an offer. She make it so you'll live forever! However, in order to do that, you need to choose a type of animal and wipe it off the face of the Earth - make it extinct. If you take up your fairy godmother on her offer and choose an animal, step backward. If you decide to live a long life and keep the animals on the planet, step forward. They split about in half, and two of the parents took about 4 steps backward with (joking?) comments about rodents and flying rodents of which they are extremely afraid.

Then they turned around and looked at the point where they'd all started and where they'd come... mostly with some forward and backward movements. We expressed how it's sometimes hard to stick to your values or to figure out how you feel about something, but that it's important to figure out what is high on your values list.

6. Optional (but encouraged) family activities. We went back to the pavilion where I handed out some papers (My Family Star for the Brownies, Power of One and Tell "Her"Story for the Juniors, and All About Me and Me and My Family for the Daisy). I emphasized that it was not homework, but if they bring it back to the next session they attend, they'll have finished the first award on their Journeys (for the record, with the activities between both 1st and 2nd sessions, they'll have definitely earned it).

7. Closing circle. Rather than singing "Taps" and doing the friendship squeeze, we spelled our way out of the meeting. We went around the circle (starting with the Daisy) and spelled "journey" letter by letter. The girl who had "y," said, "Good night, Girl Scouts," and went to clean up and then play on the playground as their parents allowed. The next girl in the circle started the word over again with "j." I was out on the third round, and by the last one out, everything was cleaned up.


Like I said, WHEW! But I'm encouraged and excited about next week. We'll give the girls their individual books next week (parents handed in the money tonight, hence worksheets for the family activities). They are all excited to get their own book that they can write in and draw in. I can definitely tell the two group leaders that I think they'll have fun with their groups... and since it's a small group overall, I think my co-organizer and I will really be able to stand back, observe, take pictures, and troubleshoot as needed.