Cancel Girl Scout Cookies?

 

It is that time of year again, time for Girl Scout Cookies.  It is also time for the yearly barrage of Facebook posts claiming that Girl Scouts supports Planned Parenthood (for the truth, read this post), that it exploints child labor, and now, some about how Girl Scout Cookies use palm oil (an ingredient found in the majority of store-bought cookies).  Maybe the cookie sale has outlived its usefulness and it is time to move on.  

Making Friends, Social Butterfly and Holiday Party

 One thing I've noticed about my troop is that there is an "inside" group that has been together since kindergarten and an "outside" group that has joined the troop later.  Its not like anyone is mean, its just that they really aren't one group and I'd like to do something to work on that.  Unfortunately, facilitating interactions and friendships is probably my weak point as a leader.  

Since we usually have a holiday party, I thought we could tie it into the Making Friends and Social Butterfly badges.  Let's take a look at them.

What Girl Scout Leaders Think of the Brownie Program?

 This is the second post in a series that involves surveying members of Girl Scout Facebook groups about their opinons of the current program. You can read about the Daisy program here.  

Who Replied?

With any survey, knowing who responded is important.  My gut feeling, based on replies to other surveys I've done and responses to posts on those Facebook groups was that people who responded tended to be more experienced than most leaders, and probably had a bigger committment to the program than most leaders.  

What Do Girl Scout Leaders Think of the Daisy Program

 

One part of Girl Scouts that has changed a lot in the last 15 years is Daisies.  Originally it was a one year program focused on learning the Girl Scout Law.  The only "badges" were the petals and since it was often October or November before troops were up and running, they were really enough for the year.  

When my sixteen year old was in kindergarten, the current program started and Daisies became a two  year program.  The awards expanded to include the leaves and the three original Journeys (actually one was added per year for three years so my daughter could have only earned two).

A few years later GSUSA went though a couple of years of "girls' choice" badges and added Buddy Camper and Outdoor Art to the Daisy portfolio.  Then they substantially expanded badge choices at all levels focusing on STEM, and Daisies got even more badges, an Outdoor Journey and three STEM Journeys.  

I was curious what badges and Journeys Daisies work on, how they do them and what they think of them.  Since surveying Daisies is hard, I surveyed leaders who are members of various Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders and at the time I started the post, I had 168 responses.  While I did not gather data about the leaders, in past experience with surveying members of these groups, I have found that those who reply tend to be older than the average Girl Scout leader and tend to have been leading longer than most.  Whether that is true of the respondents to this survey I do  not know.  

How Much Does Girl Scouts Cost, and How Should We Pay?

Girl Scouts is a multi-level organization that has councils all over the USA and on military bases overseas.  It  is headed by a  national organization--Girl Scouts USA---which sets direction, develops programming, does research and otherwise handles high-level big picture items.  GSUSA is headquartered in New York City and is staffed by paid professionals. 

Under GSUSA are separately incorporated councils, which are local non-profits that own and operate Girl Scout camps or other properties and which recruit, train and support adult volunteers and girls.  Councils also have paid  professional staff. Most Girl Scout programming is led by volunteers who serve the object of the organization--the girls.  

Budding Entrepreneur vs Inventor

One complaint I have about recent GSUSA programming is that it seems to be much of the same. The Think Like a Programmer Journey, Robotics progressive badges and Coding for Good progressive badges all focus on algorithmic thinking and simple programming concepts like looping. You could run a troop focused on programming and fill eighteen meetings following VTK plans. I realize few if any troops would do that, but especially as the activities repeat (move something through a maze) I have to wonder if that's what GSUSA thinks troops want.

One of the new badges this year for Brownies was Budding Entrepreneur. While I've never done the Inventor badge, I've looked at it a few times, and when I looked at Budding Entrepreneur I thought they looked similar, so I decided to do this post as a comparison. 

Brownie Bugs Badge

 

Because other troops have enjoyed it and because our troop did not do it during their Daisy years, I started my "Brownies only" meetings this year with the Bugs badge.  According to Badge Explorer, there are the requirements: 

Find Meeting Plans Online

 One thing I know people read this blog for is ideas for meeting planning.  If you poke around, you'll see what my troops have done for various badges over the years.  I wrote a post a year or so ago with links to on-line resources, but I decided to write another one because in the last year, some councils have put up resources for badge earning. While most of those resources were aimed at individuals or at troops meeting virtually due to Covid-19, looking over the plans could spark ideas for those meeting in person as well.  

Junior Digital Photography and Outdoor Art

My troop is Brownies and Junior and for reasons of no interest to any of you, we have one fifth grade Junior, eight fourth grade Juniors and six second grade Brownies. If you review this blog you'll see that for the last two years I've run joint meetings for Daisies and Brownies, relating Daisy petals to what the Brownies were doing.  It worked well, but resulted in a very leader-directed group.  While I polled the girls about the badges they wanted to do, in order to make things work for both groups, I was the one making most of the decisions. 

I wanted to change that this year, however, I didn't want to commit myself to running two troops   The compromise I reached, in part due to my desire to meet outside due to Covid, was to continue to have one joint meeting per month on the same night when we have always met, and one meeting per month on Saturday morning when I split the troop and meet with the Brownies at 10 and the Juniors at 11:15.  My goal is to make the Saturday mornings much more girl-led. 

How To Handle a Multi-Level Troop

 

Unless you limit your troop to girls in one grade, you are going to have a multi-level troop at least some years.  So, how do you handle having girls at more than one level?  There are probably as many different ways as there are troops.  This post will take a look at some of the most common and try to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the choice.

We Aren't Multi-Level (even if we should be)

Yes, some people just ignore the rules.  Yes, that goes against Girl Scout policy and therefore the "respect authority" part of the Girl Scout Law, but for a troop that has an odd girl out--one girl who is a grade ahead of or behind all the others, this seems like the most simple solution.  Everyone wears the same uniform and does the same activities.  Who cares?  Are the GS police going to come arrest you?  

No.

Democracy for Daisies: New Badge Review

 Just in time for one of the most contentious election seasons in my memory, GSUSA has come out with a series of Democracy badges, once for each level.  Here are the requirements for Daises, from Badge Explorer:

Outdoor Art, Part 2

 When I asked the girls what they wanted to do this year, "anything with art" was a typical answer.  I have Brownies and Juniors and one art badge for both levels was Outdoor Art, so that's what we started.  You can read about our first meeting here. 

This week we did two projects.  I counted them both toward requirement 5 for the Juniors--Design with nature, and for the Brownies, the wind chimes met requirement 3 and the luminaries, requirement 5.  The Juniors still have to do requirement 1, and one of my moms who is a photographer is going to be my artist expert at our next meeting, which will be Juniors only.  She's  going to cover outdoor art, talking about outdoor photography and she's going to cover cameras as part of Digital Photographer, which will be our next Junior badge.  

The girls had a ball with our projects tonight and I was really happy with the way they looked when we finished.  We got a little knot tying practice and, as one girl noted, what we did with buttons was a lot like sewing.

Can We Get A Badge for a Pine Car Derby?

This is one of those posts brought about by seeing the same basic question posted once again on Facebok groups for Girl Scout Leaders.  The advent of the new Automotive badges this year once again  caused someone to ask "Can we get a badge for a Pinewood Derby?"

While "Pinewood Derby" is a trademarked Scouts BSA term, you can buy generic build your own race car kits where the body of the car is made from soft pine, much like that of the BSA model.  

First, to decide if Girl Scouts can get a badge for such an activity,   you have to decide what a "Pinewood Derby" is for your troop. The classic BSA version is that boys (and now girls too) obtain a kit that includes a shaped block of wood, four wheels and and axles.  They further shape (if desired) the block of wood, paint it, assemble it and, if their dads (and this is one project that dads tend to supervise more than moms, on average) are smart or have familiarity with the process, add weights to the cars.  The cars are then raced on an inclined track.  

New Badge Review: Automobile Manufacturing for Brownies

 This year GSUSA released a new set of "progressive" badges dealing with the design and manufacturing of automobiles.  While in some ways badges in a progressive badge series are meant to build on each other, in general, I have not found that to mean that girls cannot do the second badge in a series before the first.  What I have found is that the badge inserts for the progressive badges give background information on the topics rather than suggested activities.  The real plans for the badge are in VTK and they are presented as unified lesson plans, not as choices of activities.
  Today I am taking a look at the third badge in the new Automotive group, Automobile Manufacturing, and I'm looking at the Brownie plan.

Requirements:

According to Badge Explorer, with this badge girls will: Experience the importance of having a plan and discover how manufacturers build lots of vehicles that are safe and well made!

In-Person Meeting: Outdoor Art

We had our first in-person meeting in over six months last night.  It was so good to see the girls!  In person is much more fun than Zoom, at least for the leader (and I'm pretty sure for the girls too).  We met outside, under a patio next to the youth building at my church (we are usually inside the building).  I put four girls at a banquet or  picnic table.

STEM Career Exploration for Brownies: New Badge Review

 This year GSUSA came out with STEM Career Exploration badges for Brownies, Juniors and Cadettes.  I reviewed the Junior version here. Today I'm taking a look at the VTK plans for Brownies.  I have not seen the insert for the Girls Guide, if you have, I'd love it if you would leave a comment telling us if it has other ideas.

According to Badge Explorer:  Find out how all the things you love—like camping, baking, and walking your dog—can become a job that changes the world.

Then, create a plan to turn your dreams into a reality!

1. Explore your interests

2. Discover the possibilities

3. Learn about the day-to-day

4. Brainstorm your next steps

5. Share your goals

When you've earned this badge, you'll know how to use STEM to help others.

Think Like a Citizen Scientist: Virtual Meeting No. 2

We had our second virtual meeting of the year, and continued working on Think Like a Citizen Scientist.   We also played a Bingo game with Leave No Trace to being working on our Eco badges. 

Since the last meeting I distributed Memory Books and when I did so I provided the handouts for this meeting.  I also put them online in case anyone lost them or needed another copy.  You can find them here.

To prepare for the meeting girls were asked to view the SciStarter site and to pick and do a Citizen Science project.  I told the parents that iNaturalist was dead simple and that's the one everyone chose.  The packet had a short report for the girls to do.  With iNaturalist, you download the app and take pictures of living things (or you can upload photos already on your phone or your Google account).  The app grabs your metadata as far as the time and place of the photo.  It asks you to identify what you photographed and offers suggestions.  It asks if the item was wild or cultivated.  You then upload it.  If you can't identify it, chances are someone else will.  Other people or groups can add your photo to their collection.  "Louisiana Biodiversity" grabs my photos.

New Badge Review: STEM Career Exploration for Juniors

According to Badge Explorer,  with this year's new STEM Career Exploration badge for Juniors:

Girls will find out how they can turn what they're interested in and what they care about into a future career. They explore different jobs in STEM, focusing on ones that make a difference for people, animals, and the environment. Then, they create a plan with next steps for how they'll change the world!

1. Explore your interests

2. Discover the possibilities

3. Learn about the day-to-day

4. Brainstorm your next steps

5. Share your goals

When girls earn this badge, they'll know about STEM careers that make the world a better place.

Discover, Connect, Take Action

As anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows, I'm no great fan of Journeys, especially the original ones.  However, one thing I will say they got right is the sequence "Discover, Connect, Take Action"

Last night southwest Louisiana was decimated by Hurricane Laura.  Because we are Americans and because that's what Americans do, I fully expect that people around the country will be trying to help those people in the upcoming weeks, and that is a good thing.  However, if you are one of those people, please discover and connect before you take action. 

DISCOVER

Having lived through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but having not seen more than random pictures of the Lake Charles area, I can tell you that a lot of people's homes were either badly damaged or destroyed.  Businesses, many of which were hurting from the corona virus shutdowns, are now damaged or destroyed.  While insurance will help many rebuild, since the storms of 2005, homeowners' policies have started carrying hurricane deductibles that are substantially higher than the deductibles people choose for other perils. 

New Badge Review: Brownie Automotive Engineering

Right now, I'd say there are two classifications of GSUSA badges--regular badges and "progressive" badges.  The regular badges cover a gamut of topics and are characterized by the format of the materials offered by GSUSA.  For each of the five requirements, the badge insert and VTK offer a choice of three different activities per requirement.  (If you are not aware, VTK changed a lot of its meeting plans during the summer of 2020) The progressive badges deal with STEM topics and the badge inserts are background information on the subject.  The plans in VTK are unified lesson plans where the leader talking points turn something like drawing a quilt block into a coding activity.

This year a new set of progressive badges was released. They are K-5 Automotive Engineering Badges.  The first in the set for Brownies is Automotive Design and it involves designing a work vehicle and then sculpting it out of plastic clay.   The second in the set is Automotive Engineering and it involves designing an emergency vehicle and building it out of junk/craft supplies. The third is Automotive Manufacturing and it involves making vehicles out of craft supplies assembly-line style. This post is about the second badge, Automotive Engineering.

My Virtual Meeting: Think Like a Citizen Scientist

My troop this year is Brownies and Juniors, and like many troops we are beginning the year online.  In planning this meeting I wanted something that all the girls could do together, something at required minimal supplies and preferably something that went toward a Journey.  I have one second year Junior and she/her mother are the type to want to do the Bronze Award.  They were in another troop last year and did not do a Journey, so I wanted to get that done, so she and anyone else who was interested could work on the Bronze Award.

I decided on Think Like a Citizen Scientist simply because it seemed to be the easiest Journey and because I could do the multi-level version with both groups.  I summarized the plans here.  

Before the meeting I posted the VTK handouts with the snails, as well as the map to our Facebook page so parents could print them. I told the parents that if they didn't have access to a printer, to let me know and I'd stick a set in the mail.  One person requested them and she got them.  I asked the girls to cut the snails apart, and, before the meeting to spread them around the room.

Junior Business Jumpstart

 

The current iteration of the Girl Scout program has four pillars:  STEM, entrepreneurship, Life Skills and Outdoors.  This year GSUSA released new entrepreneurship badges.  The Junior badge is called Business Jumpstart.

Requirements:

According to Badge Explorer, Girls will find out how to come up with a business idea that improves their world, learn how to get feedback, and pitch their idea to others.

1. Create a prototype for a product, service, or technology that solves a problem

2. Get feedback

3. Revise your prototype

4. Come up with a pitch

5. Pitch your idea to an audience

When girls earn this badge, they'll have the entrepreneurial skills to come up with an idea that solves a problem, get feedback, improve their idea, and pitch their idea to others.

VTK Has Changed--For the Better

Last year I wrote a post talking about VTK, using the Brownie First Aid badge as an example.  I found plenty of problems with it, but liked the badge activities that I found more practical than some in the badge inserts.  While I could see that scripts could be helpful for new leaders, I found the plans overly wordy and I found it difficult to correlate some of the activities with the badge requirements.

I've been planning meetings for this year and I have gotten the feeling that VTK has changed some, and tonight when I looked at the Brownie First Aid Badge I realized that there had been significant changes to at least this badge plan, and my feeling is, to others as well.  

I wrote extensively about the Snacks Badge last year, including a post comparing the badge insert with VTK. I found that the VTK plans were more focused on teaching nutrition than on teaching cooking, and in fact, had the girls doing very little cooking and seemed to me to carry activities that were more likely to result in trash than in snacks.  I just looked at it, and it too has undergone a significant revision.  

New Badge Review: Democracy for Brownies

GSUSA recently released the new badges for 2020. They include Democracy badges for each level.  This is a review of the VTK plans for the Brownie version.

Requirements

According to Badge Explorer, Brownies find out how people in the government decide what rules are made and how they are followed.  

1. Find out about local government
2. Find out about state government
3. Find out about our country's legislative branch
4. Find out about our country's executive branch
5. Find out about our country's judicial branch

When girls earn this badge, they will know the three branches of government--and some of the things each branch is responsible for.

Back In the Day: Comparing Today's Badges with Those of the Past: First Aid

A few months ago I compared today's Junior Simple Meals badge with cooking badges from past programs.  I found it to be an interesting exercise, so today I'm taking a look at First Aid badges over several programs.  The section headers will link you to my source material.

How Girls Can Help Their Country

The book I reviewed was copyrighted in 1916.  It had two badges similar to today's First Aid badges.  The first was called "Ambulance" and the other "Home Nursing". I think both reflected that people in those days were expected to do much more for themselves than even adults do today.  The girls who used this book were between ten and seventeen years old, so were probably closer to today's Cadettes than Juniors. 

Democracy for Juniors: A Review of the New Badge

GSUSA just released this year's new badges.  For the record, I'm disappointed.  I don't think there is anything wrong with any of the new badges, its just that I think they tend to repeat the same themes we already cover well and there are so many areas the girls and leaders want to explore that aren't covered.  That being said, I'm going to have Brownies and Juniors this year, and it is an election year, so I thought I'd take a look at the new Democracy for Juniors badge.

How Many Girls Earn the Gold Award?

Every so often a topic that makes the rounds on Girl Scout Facebook groups is our higher awards--the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards--and how they compare, at least prestige-wise to BSA's Eagle.  One thing I've noted over the years both by observation of my parish's troop and by on-line conversations, is that a reasonably high percent of boys (now youth) who stick with BSA through high school seem to earn the Eagle, whereas it seems that few girls earn Gold.

Today I got my council's Annual Report, and I decided to do some math.  For the record, I'm a word person, not a numbers person.  I have made a lot of assumptions in my figures and the post will tell you what those assumptions are, but I'll tell you right now I know they aren't super accurate. They are easy, and I think get me close to where I want to be without needing to borrow my daughter's graphing calculator.

Girl Scouts Louisiana East had 10,281 girl members during the covered year.  Of those 24% were Juniors, 12% were Cadettes, 3% were Seniors and 2% were Ambassadors. 

My Virtual Meetings

I have a troop of 16 girls--6 Daisies and 10 Brownies.  Generally I have very good attendance--usually no more than 2 or 3 girls absent per meeting.  This is our third weekend under a "stay at home" order and we've missed one meeting so far and will miss another this week.  We will also miss one more this month.  Our camping trip was cancelled and who knows when or if we'll have a summer cookie event.  On the plus side, our cookies were gone before this all got going, so we didn't have that to worry about.

I'm used to going places and doing things, not sitting at home all the time.  In some ways I like working at my kitchen table--though I admit it would be hard to do if I had small kids.  Since all I have is a teenager who does her own virtual schoolwork, I don't have a problem getting my work done.  The commute is great and I love the dress code.  On the other hand, even though (or maybe because?) I'm an introvert, I miss the people.  I have my own office and like it that way, but it is nice to say hi to people as I head to the restroom or kitchen or to get something in another part of the office.  Here, it is me and my computers.

Think Like a Citizen Scientist for Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors

Think Like a Citizen Scientist is one of the newer STEM Journies GSUSA put out in the last few years. This post is an attempt to summarize the lengthy VTK plans into an easy-to-read quick resource. Once you have decided to lead the Journey at a particular level, I highly recommend reviewing the VTK plans and their talking points. I also recommend going to the GSUSA store and downloading the (at this writing) free packet for this Journey.  It does the best job of explaining the TAP process of anything I've seen GSUSA publish

The way these Journeys are designed, it is clear that the TAP is an integral part.  The purpose of the Journey is learn scientific skills and then to apply those skills to conceiving, planning and carrying out a TAP.  If you as a leader are trying to come up with TAP ideas before the Journey ever starts, you are doing it wrong.  

As the girls are brainstorming for their TAP the girls are reminded that the same process is used in developing projects for the Silver and Gold Awards and that they can use projects the group decides not to do, or they can expand on a group idea or design other projects to solve the same problems.

Painting!

My current troop is the third group of girls I've lead through Brownies with the current program.  I can say, without a doubt, at as far as badges earned at meetings, the two favorites with all the troops have been Snacks and Painting.  Our last two meetings have been devoted to the painting badge, and we will need one more more meeting to finish it.

Requirements

According to Badge Explorer, the requirements for the Painting badge are:

Get inspired
Paint the real world
Paint a mood
Paint without brushes
Paint a mural

Get Inspired

I went to the library and grabbed a big stack of books showcasing artwork.  I thumbed through them first to make sure that nude paintings were not a major part of what was shown.  When I did my pre-meeting Facebook message to parents I told them that I had thumbed through the books I would be showing the girls, but that I had not checked every page.  I told them the girls would be looking through the books for paintings they liked, and that if one found and made a big deal over a naked male, my response was going to be "yes, boys and men look different than girls and women.  Is that your favorite painting in the book?"

I told the parents that if they had a problem with this activity, that the books would be picked up by 7:15, they should just be late. As it turned out, no one found, or at least mentioned finding such a picture.   We showed off the pictures the girls found and each got to say why she liked the picture she found.

This is the same activity I used the last time I did this badge. The time before, I sent it home for homework.  I sent out a link to a website with paintings, and asked the parents to email me with the name of the painting their daughter liked.

Paint Without Brushes

I passed out Q-tips and gave each girl white, blue and black paint and told them to paint whatever they wanted, using the Q-tips to make dots.  I let each girl do two paintings, and thought they were really creative in what they decided to do.

In the past, I've done finger painting and stamping.  This was easy and not too much mess.

Paint a Mural

As a leader, I see real value to group projects that make the girls plan and execute something together.  It is a real-world skill that will pay off in school and in work.  That being said, my problem with most group projects that end up making something is deciding who gets custody once we are done.

VTK and the badge inserts present painting the mural as a group project, so when deciding when to do this badge, I look for something to do with the mural.  This year our murals (I had five groups of three girls) will be used to decorate cookie booths.  I had each group sketch their mural on regular paper and then paint it on roll paper.  They are the right size to tape to the front of a table.  Our theme was things we like about Girl Scouts.

In the past I've used the murals for cookie booths and to decorate our booth for the church fair.

Next Meeting

At our next meeting we will paint the real world and paint a mood.  I'll let you know what we do once we've done it.  Thanks for reading.  

Image by bodobe from Pixabay

Philanthropist, Money Counts, Respect Authority and Thinking on My Feet

For this meeting, my plan was to walk across the parking lot and visit the parish food bank.  I had made arrangement with the lady who runs it for a short tour; however, she never showed up. 

We were working on the Philanthropy Badge for Brownies, pretty much following the guide of Girl Scouts River Valleys. I made a chart for "Can I Be a Philanthropist" but none of the girls would respond until I told them what a philanthropist was.  We talked about ways we were philanthropists, and some of the girls talked about school projects. We had done needs/wants posters at the prior meeting.

Since my food bank lady did not show, I talked about the food we had brought in, and how it would help people in the neighborhood.  We also talked about how we could take our old clothes to Goodwill.  Finally we talked about big disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.  I pointed out that money was the best way to help those people.  All in all it was more talk than I like at a meeting but I was kind of winging it. 

My Daisies were finishing their Making Choices leaf and the discussion tied into that., learning how to help others with what they want and need.  We took pictures with the food we brought for the food bank, and left it in the room for them to get in the morning. 

From there, we moved on to the "Respect Authority" petal.  We talked about what it means to be in authority and how we should treat those who are.  We named some people who were in authority.  Then I had the girls make cards for people who were in authority, while I readMortimer byRobert Munsch. 

I ended the meeting with a short Court of Awards, passing out the badges we'd earned in the last few meetings.  All in all, not the best meeting we ever had, but not awful either. 

Coding for Good: Brownie App Development

The third badge in the Coding for Good Series is App Development.  You can review the badge insert here. According to GSUSA, "when I've earned this badge, I'll know about user-centered design and the process computer scientists use to develop apps".  As with the other progressive badges, the badge insert provides information on the subject but no activities.  The plans for earning the badges are on VTK, and they are what will be summarized in this post.

Financial Literacy Time

GSUSA has gone to a lot of trouble to turn the necessary evil of fundraising into a fun and educational process for the girls.  Each level has a selection of "Financial Literacy" badges that often coordinate with the skills and processes for selling cookies.  My troop started their financial literacy badges this week.

Last year my Daisies earned two of their financial literacy leaves: this year we are working on Money Counts and Making  Choices.  My Brownies are working on Philanthropist.  For Money Counts the girls have to learn about different types of coins and paper money and they have to figure out the cost of fun.  For Making Choices they have to learn the difference between needs and wants, learn to set goals and learn to help others with what they need and want.

Philanthropist which requires the girls to learn the meaning of Philanthropy, find out what every person needs, investigate how to hep people who are hungry, find out how to help people who need clothing, and find out how to help in times of emergency.

My meeting plans for these badges are loosely based off the plans of Girl Scouts River Valleys and VTK.

Herding Cats: How to Keep Your Troop On Task And Out of Trouble

One question or topic that frequently makes the rounds on leader Facebook pages, particularly those aimed at Daisy and Brownie leaders, is how do you maintain order and keep the girls on task. Over the years, through trial and error, I've learned a few tricks I'd like to share with you today.  The main thing to remember though, is that it is far easier to MAINTAIN control than it is to REGAIN it.

Keep Them Busy

That is the #1 rule for small kids--give them something to do.  For the most part, if Brownies and Daisies do not have something to do, they'll find something to do, and it often involves running around the room.  If you aren't okay with that, you need to provide an alternative.  

If your meeting time/place is such that girls are being dropped off over 10-15 minutes, your meeting plan should include some "bellringer" activity--something the girls can do without much direction from you and which, preferably, can be put down at any time to finish later (or not).  Examples are play doh (the stuff is cheap, buy some for your troop supplies), coloring sheets or, if you have them and are willing to share with the troop, blocks or Legos.

Have your meeting planned and move from one activity to another.  Downtime is playtime, and once they start to play (and run around) getting them back  is tough.

Using Resources Wisely: VTK Really Can Be Your Friend

If you read this blog regularly (or go poking through past posts now) you'll find that I'm no faithful unthinking robot cheering GSUSA and its programming choices.  For an organization that is pushing STEM STEM and more STEM, I think they have picked horrible technology and/or implemented it badly.  However, the Girl Scout Law says we are to use resources wisely and VTK is a resource provided to leaders that will answer many of the questions I see posted on multiple facebook groups. No, there is nothing wrong with asking other leaders what they have done or whether activities have worked for them but so many people seem to have tried VTK briefly, found it wanting, and abandoned it.  While I have posted about my complaints (and compliments) about VTK, I encourage you to give it another try, but first, understand what types of programming are offered on it: