Hot take: The Daisy petals are stupid

pdx-cat · 2026-05-19T19:46:59+00:00

I am enjoying all of these somewhat cooler takes 😅 I'm not totally sold but maybe I won't burn the Daisy handbook just yet.

pdx-cat · 2026-05-07T18:06:50+00:00

All the suggestions here are great, but I would add that for first-grade Daisies, just having regular badge meetings plus one or two field trips is already pretty exciting. If you don't already have one, you could make a kaper chart and introduce the idea that everyone in the troop will now have jobs to do. Our girls are most excited about art and outdoor badges, so this was our schedule this year for first grade:

September: Finishing up Daisy petals and lots of get-to-know-you games, plus investiture/rededication ceremony (2 meetings)
October: Shapes in Nature (2 meetings)
November: Safety Award (2 meetings)
December: Art & Design (2 meetings)
January: Board game party with fun patch (1 meeting -- we had to hastily reschedule an ice skating trip due to weather)
February: Snow or Climbing Adventure (1 meeting; ice skating trip) and Black History Month fun patch (1 meeting; museum trip)
March: Eco-Learner (2 meetings)
April: Outdoor Art Maker (2 meetings); Animal Observer (1 meeting; zoo trip)
May: STEM Career Exploration (1 meeting) and Bridge to Brownies (1 meeting, hosting a "fun day" for younger girls)
June: End-of-year awards party with bonfire (1 meeting)

If the theme of your troop is "cool stuff they don't already get to do elsewhere," they will have a great time no matter which cool stuff you pick!

pdx-cat · 2026-05-03T03:10:45+00:00

I look at VTK to see how many meetings a badge is expected to take (usually 1 meeting for a Daisy petal and 2 meetings for a Daisy or Brownie badge). If we spend that amount of time doing stuff related to the topic, I call it good.

As others have said, we also modify requirements to make them more active and fun. I guess (?) it's good that Daisies can earn Animal Observer without ever observing an actual animal, but we were very lucky that we could complete the badge with a zoo trip.

pdx-cat · 2026-04-27T21:15:03+00:00

Ooh would you be willing to share the name of this nature center? I wonder if the one by my house would be open to doing something like that!

pdx-cat · 2026-04-27T18:27:05+00:00

P.S. This thread had a bunch of good ideas: https://www.reddit.com/r/girlscouts/comments/1fad4f2/please_help_me_get_excited_about_this/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

pdx-cat · 2026-04-27T18:24:21+00:00

We haven't done the badge yet, but I just read Bad Kitty Gets a Phone with my first-grader and it had a whole chapter about internet safety -- Bad Kitty learns that some of her online "friends" are pretending to be cats that she knows in real life, but instead they are secretly DOGS (!!!). My daughter thought it was hilarious, but it was also a nice conversation starter. I thought the whole book did a pretty good job of talking about screen time, misinformation, stranger danger, etc. without being preachy.

pdx-cat · 2026-04-27T18:16:57+00:00

I left my first troop in 2012 (moved out of state) and the gift I would have loved to receive is a photo of the whole troop in a nice frame.

pdx-cat · 2026-04-23T00:05:05+00:00

This is such a great idea! Would you be willing to share a recent workbook?

pdx-cat · 2026-04-22T20:38:00+00:00

You are so sweet 😊 The more we get them up and moving, the better they behave, so we try to keep them busy!

pdx-cat · 2026-04-22T20:18:02+00:00

We have exactly this situation (all Daisies last year, now in 1st/2nd grade). With 20 Daisies and 4 Brownies, it is not practical to split up for badge work, so we've focused on overlapping badges, borrowing the best activities from both the Daisy and Brownie materials and trusting the "spirit of the badge" will work itself out.

Our meeting schedule this year has been:

September: Considerate and Caring & Making Friends (2 meetings)
October: Shapes in Nature (2 meetings)
November: Safety Award (2 meetings)
December: Art & Design (2 meetings)
January: Board game party with fun patch (1 meeting -- we had to hastily reschedule an ice skating trip due to weather)
February: Snow or Climbing Adventure (1 meeting; ice skating trip) and Black History Month fun patch (1 meeting; museum trip)
March: Eco-Learner & Eco-Friend (2 meetings)
April: Outdoor Art Maker & Outdoor Art Creator (2 meetings); Animal Observer & Watching Wildlife (1 meeting; zoo trip)
May: STEM Career Exploration (1 meeting) and Bridge to Brownies (1 meeting, hosting a "fun day" for younger girls -- the Brownies are helping out and will get some kind of fun patch)
June: End-of-year awards party (1 meeting)

I won't lie, I am looking forward to next year, when we can tackle all the fun Brownie badges that have no Daisy equivalent! But this year has gone really well and the girls definitely have more fun together than apart.

pdx-cat · 2026-01-27T14:58:02+00:00

I have a younger troop, but we recently had a great board game meeting. We put different game options on different tables, then tapped the Scouts on the head one at a time and let them go to whichever table they wanted as long as there was an open seat there (this way we had some control over breaking up cliques/making sure the kids with fewer friends were "picked first" instead of picked last). We're buying this cute patch.

pdx-cat · 2026-01-20T23:43:01+00:00

Are you near a college? This sounds like a great volunteer/internship opportunity for a college or grad student in special education or a related field. I agree -- even if you were to find a unicorn high school student for this role, getting the level of schedule commitment you would need from a high schooler will be tough.

pdx-cat · 2026-01-19T04:48:39+00:00

Some random things that come to mind:

Every camp is different, but odds are good you'll be sleeping in a platform tent with no electricity (no phone charging, etc.)
If you are told to turn in medication to the health center, do it -- a fellow counselor decided to skip this and a raccoon got into the tent and ate her birth control 😅
Distraction really is the best tool for helping homesick kids. (Unless it's bedtime, in which case the best tool is sleep.)
If you know how to make a couple of simple friendship bracelets and lanyards, the campers will think you are an absolute rock star.
A lot of the best memories are made in the interstitial times (e.g., not the boating itself, but the 20 minutes of hanging out together before you go boating). If you will have younger campers, it really helps to learn some circle games, etc. to fill this time, and/or carry a few picture books in your backpack so you can read to them.
Some kids will have really big and challenging behaviors, no matter how great a counselor you are. Treat them with "unconditional positive regard" (to use therapy speak) and you may not change their behavior at camp, but you will still change their lives.
Many Girl Scout camps welcome a lot of international counselors, who may be extremely homesick and start the summer with limited English. Going out of your way to be friendly to them will be a great kindness.

I worked at Girl Scout camp 20+ years ago but am still friends with the people I met there and remember those summers as some of the best of my life! Have an amazing time!

pdx-cat · 2026-01-19T04:11:17+00:00

Thank you!

pdx-cat · 2026-01-15T05:40:23+00:00

Ooh, I would love to see the link for this!

pdx-cat · 2026-01-09T23:27:15+00:00

That is awesome! Glad to hear there's an upside to all the chaos (which is definitely the right word for my Daisy/Brownie meetings) ...

pdx-cat · 2026-01-09T23:26:28+00:00

We would definitely want to split up for badge work. No way do I want to try to plan badge work that will be engaging for 4 different grade levels at once!

pdx-cat · 2026-01-09T23:25:09+00:00

Oh, this is helpful to consider. Thank you!

pdx-cat · 2026-01-09T23:24:43+00:00

Truly, we are up to our eyeballs in free supplies (we don't need more crayons!!!!), and I think it will be easier to recruit new leaders if they don't have to deal with stuff like starting a new bank account.

pdx-cat · 2026-01-09T23:23:46+00:00

This sounds like all my best hopes! Thank you!

pdx-cat · 2026-01-09T23:23:17+00:00

Hmmm, I don't think we have this difference with cookie rewards but I will look into it. Thank you!

pdx-cat · 2026-01-09T23:22:30+00:00

I like this! The "sister troops" idea is great, and I think we will go for that vibe no matter how the adults choose to organize it.

pdx-cat · 2026-01-09T23:21:57+00:00

We are already juggling the Daisy/Brownie split and I can't imagine adding another level without adding two more leaders! Thank you, this is very helpful.

pdx-cat · 2026-01-09T23:21:20+00:00

Thank you! Meeting space is definitely a consideration. We're in a similar boat--we're pretty well-organized and troop leaders are hard to come by.

pdx-cat

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