I no longer have those books (good riddance) but I remember reading through them and thinking that the stories were too long, too convoluted and had too many similar characters. I wasn't real impressed with the activities, but figured maybe that was because I wasn't used to dealing with kids who were that young.
At each meeting, according to the plan given in the leader's manual, you would read part of this story to the girls. You would then do some activities, none of which particularly impressed me. Finally you would do a project, and three options were given: raise ladybugs, raise worms or plant a garden. The kicker was that the project was supposed to be done for someone or some organization and was supposed to be sustainable--in other words you were supposed to find someone to keep it up after you were done.
Another thing I remember about that Journey was the group garden. The plans called for the girls to plant seeds at the first meeting and then to water this garden at each successive meeting. I remember reading in the book that this was supposed to be a group project, not an individual botany experiment. Ok. I also remember reading that bringing this group garden to each meeting would not even be a problem for leaders who had to use public transportation to get to the meeting. Really?
So, we started the Journey according to the book plans. After I spend an entire evening looking for seeds in September, I ended up paying too much money for an herb kit that had seeds in it. We planted those seeds and for the next three months I showed up at school twice a week before the bell rang and we watered our garden and watched it grow. Yes, it was a lot of trouble, and really only worked because the girls were all (except one) in the same school. Otherwise, they would only see their garden twice a month.
After a couple of meetings it was obvious that I had not been wrong about the story. I'm pretty much an expert at reading to kids and I couldn't hold them. One of my moms was a kindergarten teacher and I asked her if it was me or the material. She said sometimes you have to adapt the material. After that I skipped the story and no one missed it. We ended up planting a garden in the church yard which, due to factors of no interest to any of you, was dug up a few weeks later. Needless to say, I never wanted to do another Journey after finishing that one.
GSUSA just doesn't want to admit that the Journey program has been a complete failure and discontinue it. However, two years ago they instituted three new STEM Journeys and, this year, put out new plans for the original Journeys. This post will look at the plans for Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden
Meeting 1 Plan
Meeting 1 begins with the girls coloring pages in their book, or pages you have printed for them (provided in VTK). In the opening circle girls share what they know about gardens and then the leader introduces the Girl Scout Promise and the Girl Scout Law. The next activity practiced the Girl Scout Law by playing a game where the girls act like animals in a garden.
Evidently GSUSA hasn't heard that their stories are awful, because reading the story is the next activity, and VTK gives a script to read to introduce the main characters. You can either use a script that focuses on the countries of the girls' heritage or you can use a shorter version that focuses more on the girls.
After reading the story and discussing it, the girls plant a mini-garden using lettuce or basil seeds. The VTK plans suggest sending the garden home with girls between meetings, which I guess makes more sense than the leader hauling it on public transportation, but doesn't account for girls who may have to haul it to school.
Next, leaders are supposed to solicit ideas for an end of the year Take Action Project. However, the script doesn't really define a TAP or give suggestions for eliciting ideas from the girls. It does tell you to write down their ideas.
After reading the story and discussing it, the girls plant a mini-garden using lettuce or basil seeds. The VTK plans suggest sending the garden home with girls between meetings, which I guess makes more sense than the leader hauling it on public transportation, but doesn't account for girls who may have to haul it to school.
Next, leaders are supposed to solicit ideas for an end of the year Take Action Project. However, the script doesn't really define a TAP or give suggestions for eliciting ideas from the girls. It does tell you to write down their ideas.
Meeting 2 Plan
Meeting 2 begins with the leader showing the girls the Girl Scout Sign and then teaching them the Girl Scout Promise in either English or Spanish. Also, the girls greet each other in Spanish, saying "hola". Next it is time to water the mini-garden and talk about its size, texture, color etc. and to talk about how it is growing.
The Garden Scamper game is next--act like an animal and run between two lines of Daisies. After riling them up with this game, it is time to sit the girls down to listen to the story. The plan gives you ten minutes to read it and discuss it. I just read it out loud to myself, and it took me eight minutes. If memory serves me, the first two stories weren't that bad--a little heavy on the adjectives but not overly long, and the girls were able to remember the characters--at this point, just the three girls and a bee.
Following story time, the leader leads a discussion about keys and how they are important. She then tells the girls that it is important for Girl Scouts to discover who we are, to connect with others in our community and to take action to change the world. She is then to tell the girls to brainstorm for ideas for a Take Action Project. The meeting closes with a wrap-up discussion led by the leader, and a friendship circle/squeeze.
The Garden Scamper game is next--act like an animal and run between two lines of Daisies. After riling them up with this game, it is time to sit the girls down to listen to the story. The plan gives you ten minutes to read it and discuss it. I just read it out loud to myself, and it took me eight minutes. If memory serves me, the first two stories weren't that bad--a little heavy on the adjectives but not overly long, and the girls were able to remember the characters--at this point, just the three girls and a bee.
Following story time, the leader leads a discussion about keys and how they are important. She then tells the girls that it is important for Girl Scouts to discover who we are, to connect with others in our community and to take action to change the world. She is then to tell the girls to brainstorm for ideas for a Take Action Project. The meeting closes with a wrap-up discussion led by the leader, and a friendship circle/squeeze.
Meeting 3 Plan
Meeting 3 begins with the girls practicing the Girl Scout Sign and then greeting each other in French. After saying the Girl Scout Promise, girls learn and practice the Girl Scout handshake. Next, water the mini-garden and discuss how it is growing.
Story time follows, and again the time frame given is ten minutes. Following the story, you can just discuss it, or you can use a map to show the girls where the introduced flower friends are from. This is where I started to lose the girls when it came to the story. In this story they meet four flower friends whose names mean little to the girls. Each friend stands for a line in the Girl Scout Law. Each is from a different country. Nothing happens in the story except that the girls and the flowers meet. It took me six minutes to read the story out loud to myself. Of course discussing the story either while reading it, afterward or both would extend this time.
Next, the girls name articles in nature and describe them. Next, they act out natural items as the leader names them. Act like grass, trees, cats, rocks....
Following the drama, the leader gathers the girls and reviews the lines of the Girl Scout law represented by the introduced flower friends. She reads Shel Silverstien's "The Oak and the Rose" and presents the Watering Can award for being responsible for the mini-garden and for learning about the Girl Scout Law.
Meeting 4 Plan
After saying the Girl Scout Promise, girls learn to greet each other in Dutch. Next, they feel natural items in a bag, while blindfolded, and try to identify them. Then it is story time again. This time the story introduces SEVEN of the flower friends. There is no link to the story in VTK, so I can't tell you if there is any plot or not.
After the story it is time for the Take Action Pause. This time the script asks the girls if they would like to help a garden in the community. Then it tells leaders to review the girls' ideas and help them pick a Take Action Project.
Just before the end of the meeting, the girls water the mini garden. The leader asks the girls to start to think about what they want to do with the mini garden--who they want to donate it to, or where they want to plant it.
The meeting closes with a wrap-up and a friendship squeeze.
Meeting 5
At the beginning of the fifth meeting, the girls are supposed to decide what to do with their mini garden. I remember that when my girls had to make that choice, they chose to take it home--by that time we had transplanted the seedlings into mugs and they were starting to develop flowers. You know what they say about girl-led.
At this meeting the girls greet each other in Japanese, which is the language spoken by the new character introduced in this week's story. The story isn't in VTK and if memory serves me, by this time I had given up on the stories. This story talks about worms and ladybugs, according to VTK.
After the story, VTK says to do the TAP the girls decided on. They Honey Bee Award is given at the end of the meeting.
Meeting 6
Meeting six begins with watering the garden, if the troop still has it. After the Girl Scout Promise the girls greet each other using one of the greetings leaned during the Journey. Story time follows, and then the Amazing Daisy award is presented. This is followed by a party in which the Daisies share their TAP with their guests.
My Comments
I chose this Journey to review because I had actually done it in more or less an official fashion and wanted to compare the old with the improved version. However, now that I look at it, I'm not sure this is an "improved" version. On VTK right now there are plans for the other two original Daisy Journeys that are illustrated by the girl book, and plans that are illustrated with the award patch. This Journey has only the award version. Perhaps because this Journey was only six sessions to start with, GSUSA did not see the need to re-do it substantially.
My problem with this Journey both when I did it originally and now, is that it seems like a two-headed monster. The garden is planted or tended at each meeting, but the Journey isn't really about gardening. The other activities are repetitive (how many different ways can you act like an animal?). The stories have too much information introduced at once for easy recall.
I guess they got negative feedback on the ladybugs and worms because they weren't mentioned as TAPs in this version; however, the scripts ask the girls about TAPs without ever explaining what a TAP is--they don't even tell you to ask the girls who they want to help.
Now most leaders are guided toward the petals as their first activities and so they hopefully have some experience with the girls before they try this Journey However, it was clearly developed to be an introduction to Girl Scouts, and I can't imagine a new leader, particularly one who is not experienced at working with groups of kids, succeeding with this Journey as originally written or as scripted on VTK. GSUSA should be ashamed of themselves for not eliminating it or radically revising it.
Did you do the Daisy Flower Garden Journey? Did you use the stories? What did you focus on? Was it a success? How did your troop pick your TAP?
Thank you so much for this post! We just finished our first meeting as part of the Daisy Garden Journey and holy cow, what a hot mess. My girls (7 kindergarteners) HATE the stories, so I skip them all together. But the bigger problem is that I'm not even sure what this journey is all about?? I thought it was about gardening, but they are learning about different countries and then they are learning about animals, then keys!! What?
ReplyDeleteUgh, I'm exhausted. For the next meeting I think I'm going to take them to a garden center.