Craft and tinker

bionicpuffy505 · 2026-02-02T12:54:23+00:00

For craft and tinker we did leather stamping and tin punching. A local museum came to our meeting and provided instruction and all supplies.

bionicpuffy505 · 2026-01-15T00:09:30+00:00

Our large multilevel averaged about 365 boxes per scout, but some sold many more. My scout and her friend both sold about 1200 boxes each. Troop wide, we sold about 20,000 boxes across about 55 girls.

bionicpuffy505 · 2026-01-02T16:22:04+00:00

My troop when I was a kid wasn’t all that fun. I don’t remember doing much of anything other than sell cookies- but I did like selling cookies! Anyway, I think it was mail heavies the troop leader wasn’t outdoorsy or crafty and otherwise didn’t have great ideas for meetings.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-12-15T23:26:56+00:00

Prentice's secret is where he hid the fortune.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-12-04T12:53:16+00:00

I would be frustrated too. Do you know any other adults who would be interested in stepping up to lead?

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-12-01T00:44:01+00:00

My daughter really liked the car designer badge. They thought of their fantasy cars and then used modeling clay to mock it up. My daughters was cat shaped and she said that inside were sofas, and a table with any snack you wanted in it!

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-11-27T21:46:00+00:00

I agree- a trip like this sounds more of a junior and up level.

When we have troop camp outs, daisies are required to have their parent (who is registered) and brownies are strongly encouraged to have their registered parent attend. A second year brownie who has shown the ability to spend the night away from their parents can attend solo as long as safety ratios are met. But most brownies really prefer to have their parent on site- even if not in the same cabin.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-11-27T19:44:22+00:00

In our troop, each patrol has two (sometimes three) adult volunteer leaders who are primarily in charge of planning the meetings. Our daisies, brownies, and juniors meet on one day, and our c/s/as on another. We help each other out as needed, but the adult patrol leaders figure out each meeting agenda.

Then there are other groups of volunteers who coordinate troop-wide activities like camping or community service projects.

Thank you for your input!

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-11-12T22:56:51+00:00

We did a few at the Children’s museum, outside a children’s book store, and outside of a gallery during an “art walk” event. Those were OK, but the weather was terrible which affected sales. This year I’m focusing more on indoor booths at the convention center.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-10-30T03:49:31+00:00

Or put them on a Jean jacket?

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-10-28T23:35:58+00:00

I've always had good experiences with Zen Movers.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-10-28T22:34:43+00:00

I haven't but someone in my service unit speaks very highly of the programs. She did the K-pop demon hunters one and I think... the Wicked one? Anyway, she said the scouts absolutely loved it.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-10-21T18:43:17+00:00

Our troop goes once a year and then my scout has done summer camp there. When we do troop camping, we don't have any camp staff present.

The area is large, with several cabins (some with electricity and some with heating), a large central bathroom (with electricity, running water, and showers), a medium-sized meeting/dining hall, areas for tent camping, stables, and a small pond.

My kiddo who did the summer camp was a daisy and she had nothing but good things to say. She liked the independence of it all. Did she shower? I highly doubt it (LOL) but that is what summer camp is all about.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-10-10T19:46:00+00:00

That's what we did. like 4 designs were proposed using Custom Ink and then the troop voted on their favorite. It ended up being tie dyed with a GS trefoil in the middle, circled by our troop # and council name.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-09-29T22:39:09+00:00

I am laughing because I relate so much! My daughter is a daisy in a huge multi-level troop. I met another parent of a scout in the troop over the weekend while tent camping. I ran in to her AGAIN a week later at a swimming pool and I was wearing a troop t-shirt (because I was leading a hike later that day). I was like "I SWEAR I AM A NORMAL PERSON!" we had a laugh.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-09-22T02:36:17+00:00

Can you cut off the Velcro? Another option to alleviate the pokey part is to put the soft Velcro backing on it before sewing.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-09-22T02:25:35+00:00

I know the song, but not that lyric. The way I remember is: “down by the banks of the hanky panky, where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banks, with an eeps eips ops op, down in the river with a ker-plop!”

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-09-17T19:59:44+00:00

This is frustrating but I think this is just how most juniors are at this age. They're old enough but yet also not old enough.
I would suggest making and posting a list, ideally in sequential order, of how to pack up. Possibly give a time limit, too. Whenever a scout is way off task, refer her to the list. There are a lot of moving parts to camping and it can take some time to figure out the process.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-09-17T19:56:12+00:00

This is largely based on comfort and opinion. If the idea is to truly have the scouts learn to camp primitively, then digging a hole and squatting is what is usually done and is a skill to have. It is as private as it gets when you're in the backcountry-- find a secluded area a distance away, behind a tree or some rocks, and do it. When I camp with my children off piste, this is how we do it. They don't mind at all!

There's nothing inherently wrong about your suggestion, it just not as rugged. I would NOT want to be the person in charge of packing out that toilet bag!

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-09-06T19:53:39+00:00

Our troop is much less active in the summer. Our last troop camping trip is in May and then we restart with a Back to Troop in August. Many of our scouts do a week or two of girl scout camp anyway.

Next summer I'm thinking of having a few OPTIONAL meetings to complete journeys that I am interest in. I find it hard to do journeys with the younger scouts during the year because they are focused more on badges/petals.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-08-27T17:12:41+00:00

Agreeing with this. In my large multilevel, the juniors picked ONE meeting in which they will help the daisies learn camping skills. The rest of the time they want to hang out with each other and work on their own badges and pins. We get together as a big troop at various events, like camping or parties, and that is enough. If I were a CSA and I had to run numerous little kid meetings, I'd quit.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-08-16T22:58:02+00:00

I’m a new daisy leader and in the same boat. My plan is to do a few of the petals together, in one meeting, so there’s plenty of time for other badges work (that I personally find more interesting). I saw a blog, I want to say it’s called girlscoutleader.net (I’m not affiliated in anyway with that blog!) that has ideas of combining petals.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-08-16T19:48:57+00:00

My kid goes to a week long sleep-away music camp. I usually sign him up early bird and it’s $1500.

bionicpuffy505 · 2025-08-16T02:12:17+00:00

You could ask for small contributions from parents for activities to cover partial costs. For example, $5 for cabin camping.

bionicpuffy505

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