girl scouts » Four Against Two

They Are Listening

Mar 212011

At my Girl Scout Cadette meeting last Friday I brought up the crisis in Japan. We are doing a Journey (A new Girl Scout badge book) named Breathe this year and are learning about the aspects of air. Radiation leaks seemed to fit in nicely(okay, that sentence is weird) so I thought we would discuss it.

First off I asked them “What is going on in Japan?” Several girls ( I had about 14 girls there) shout out “Earthquake, Tsunami, Flooding, It is flattened”. Then after some time someone says “Radiation”. Bingo.

What is radiation? ” Um, bad for you.” “Gives you Diarrhea.”

Where does radiation come from? “Bombs from war.” “Nuclear power.” Bingo.

What is Nuclear Power? “Bad.”For War.” “Dangerous”

Is there anything good about Nuclear Power? ” No.” “No.” No.” “Well, it does give us power.”

So Nuclear Power can be useful and dangerous? “Yeah.” “You have to be careful with it.” Bingo.

So in about five minutes fourteen girls were able to concentrate, after school no less, on a current event. They knew what was going on, even though they wanted to act as if they didn’t. They are listening to what we talk about, they are catching some of the news we watching. They can figure out problems and solutions even though they act like they cannot. We need to realize that and make sure we are talking things out with our kids so they are getting the full side of the story and are able to verbalize thoughts and fears.

I am editing out the diarrhea conversation that happened between the above comments. Once the word diarrhea entered the subject matter they all got silly and talk of atomic toilets and nuclear flushers went rampant. Fourteen 11, 12 and 13 year-old-girls silly. Who would have thought?

To end out the lessons we wrote Haiku to send to the Girl Scouts in Japan. They wrote two. On silly diarrhea one and one serious one. Here are some samples, don’t pay to close attention to the 5-7-5 rule please!

Were sorry about

What happened things will turn out

Do not lose your hope.

DH age 11

Did you hear the news

Japan is having problems

Our prayers are with you

LT age 13

Your flag is still

Waving white and red

Haiku is for you

EN age 11

White flying Japan

Stand proud honor repeat yeah

You’re in our thoughts yeah

RS age 12

This one is great, though not quite a Haiku

True-fully I am

Sad to see your destruction

Your arches, once so beautiful

Are tearfully torn apart

Rain is before the rainbow

Your luck is to start.

JGK age 12

Some things are not good

What’s happening is not good

Good things are coming

MM age 11

I love these girls!

Our Week In Pictures

Family Pictures, girl scouts, Moments with Elle, Moments with Enu, Moments With Meg, Moments with Mita 2 Responses »

May 202010

This has been a bit of a busy week. Most of our weeks entail me running around, mind you, but we had some major events this week. Major for us, anyway, the world didn’t stop spinning and CNN didn’t call. We did however, have two girls Fly Up from Brownies to Junior Girl Scouts and it was Elle’s last day of pre-school today. Definitely a time for pictures!

Meg later helped Enu get into her new Junior (green sash).

Mita wouldn't put on her sash, but liked the flowers!

The Flying Upceremony in Girl Scouts can be a simple affair or a major ceremony. The leaders for Mita and Enu planned this ceremony perfectly. There was food, goodie bags, some official ceremony of the pledge, the promise and a song and of course the girls walking across the stage (pretend bridge) receiving their badges and pins they earned over the last year.

Elle attended her last day of pre-school. Last day EVER! She starts Kindergarten in August and will be a full-time student for about two decades. She is excited of course, but I will miss our days at home with just the two of us. Don’t tell the other girls, but sometimes Elle and I would just watch TV or eat popcorn after the kids went to school. It was like having our own little Neverland, where she didn’t have to share with her sisters and I didn’t have to make her share! Here Elle is after I picked her up today. They did clown face-painting as a last day of school activity.

Not to leave Meg out…she had to decorate a potato as a book character this week. She choose to make a Hermione Grainger potato (big surprise there!). Hermione Potato Head was dressed in purple netting for the Yule Ball. I failed as a mother and didn’t get a picture taking of said potato before Meg took it to school. No big deal you say? Just take one when she brings it home from school? I would if some potato mashing bully hadn’t wrecked poor Potato Hermione at school! Ruffians. Anyway, Meg is confident she can repair her creation, so I may have a photo in the next few days!

How was your week?

Photo Credits Mandy W. 2010

What I Learned At Girl Scout Camp

Summer Fun No Responses »

Jun 132009

I was a counselor at Girl Scout Day Camp this week. Don’t ask me how I got roped into this, I don’t have a clear memory of it, just the lure of getting one of my girls getting to go for free. I really don’t mean to be so negative about this. It was a good time. The girls had fun. Meg just adored it. Mita and Enu were exhausted and didn’t go the entire week, but had a lot of fun. Elle went for two days, and then spent the rest of the week being treated like a queen by the Grandma’s.

A few things that I learned. When dealing with 9 year olds, they are torn between wanting to play on the playground and doing “big kid” activities. We balanced out this struggle pretty well I think with fun crafts and activities that were not to “babyish” and just letting them run and play octopus tag and red rover. Some of the things we made: Flower boxes, body glitter, fruit pomanders, wildlife journals, toilet paper tube planters, grilled banana boats. Of course the thing the girls worked on all week and loved were the keychains, necklaces and bracelets made out of that plastic laynard string that is so popular right now. I also had charcoal drawings and stress balls planned, but we didn’t have enough time for it all.

On top of those crafts, we hiked, learned canoe safety, learned archery, fishing, survival skills, local plants and trees, water games, team building exercises and we picked up literally bag upon bag of trash to clean up Dillon State Park. Dillon is a cleaner place this weekend thanks to us Girl Scouts. I hope others will learn to use trash cans and ash trays!

I was so proud watching Meg learn new things and work on her leadership skills. We worked on decision making skills and how to work as a team. These skills are sorely lacking in many adults as you may have noticed and I really want my girls (and their friends) to learn how to work with others and make decisions.

Enu really made herself known this week. She was in the Kindergarten-First Grade group, and they only had four kids most of the week. This group was sooooo loud that no-one could miss them. They had an adorable candence that used their group’s name,”The Chattering Chimpanzees”. They did two skits at the end of the camp program and did great!

Mita’s group was very busy. They earned nine Try-Its and did 54 activities in five days. She missed Thursday and Friday day programs as she was so very tired and overdone! She did do the skit tonight and stood with her group proudly. I think she did extremely well for her first year at day camp.

So what did I learn? I took a fish off a hook for the first time. I also learned how to get in a canoe without tipping it over! Mommy-wise, I learned that next time I cannot be a counselor again, but should volunteer at each of the girls groups instead. It was hard on everyone having me with Meg with whole time, and jealously ensued. I also learned that I cannot keep up with this pace anymore, and will be looking for someone to help take over my troop next fall…. anyone interested?

P.S. We did not teach Elle how to start a fire, but she did watch well enough to build her own A-frame pile of wood correctly. This is scary I know!