Girl Scouts

Hi S.,

I was a new Junior Girl Scout Troop Leader as well... I am finally getting into the groove of things. I whole-heartedly agree with Jen C. Let the girls pick badges they would like to work on. I have just recently started doing this and it has worked wonders. The girls are old enough now that they are supposed to be "leading" the meetings. Also, you could set up an executive board with a president, vice president, etc, and assign jobs to each position with one of them being that attendance is mandatory. This will give the girls more of a feeling of ownership over their troop as well. Good luck and best wishes!

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S.,

How fun to be a Girls Scout troop leader. I remember our troop leaders working hard and keeping things fun. I do have a couple of suggestions, one I would love to help you with, and others that might work well depending on your meeting space.

1) This is the age that girls start thinking about their appearances and time to get into good habits. I am a beauty consultant with Mary Kay Cosmetics and could teach a skin care class and do mother/daughter make-overs for you. It's been a big hit with a couple of troops my friends have worked with.

2) A cooking class featuring healthy snacks/meal ideas. You might be able to get Central Market (they do cooking classes) to help, they are very community oriented. If your meeting space has a kitchen, that could be fun to group up and prepare different parts of the meal and eat it when it's done.

3) I think the zoo has traveling exhibits (at least all of the zoos in the cities I've lived in before did). If you all are camping and doing outdoor badges, you might see if the zoo can bring some animals native to TX woods...racoons, birds, oppossums, friendly snakes, etc. and talk about their habitats and habits. You could even tie this back to environmental issues. (A local veterinarian might be able to help with this, too.)

I hope these suggestions help. And if I can help you, please let me know. I'd be happy to do so.

I am going on my 5th year as a leader and what I have found to be successful is to get the badge book out and allow the girls to pick the badges that they are interested in. I have them vote on their favorites to make it most fair. I also pair the girls up for each badge and allow them to plan it out the way that they think would be most fun. Then we go over it together before presenting it to the group. This helps leadership skills and it also keeps the interests of the girls since they are the ones choosing and planning.

A great resource is to attend the council sponsored activities. They are fun, educational, and are offered for a very low cost.

Attending your community meetings is highly recommended. You will get great advice and new ideas from other troops.

Good luck! Email me anytime if you need any more advice. It's so much fun being a Girl Scout leader!!!!!

S. what types of activities are you talking about. Are you talking about ARts and Crafts or can you elaborate. You can contact me directly at ____@____.com. I have been youth activity coordinator at my church for years but I need more details on what t ypes of activities you are looking for.

S. C

I am a Junior Troop leader as well.

Recently my troop made cookie infomercials and they loved that. We enjoy arts and crafts and camping. I would love to share our favorite meeting ideas with you.

A.

I was a Girl Scout until age 18 and now I'm a Lifetime member. Jr. Girl Scouts can be the start of a difficult age because the girls start to be pressured to drop out because it's "dorky" or "not cool" to be a girl scout. I would suggest you pick activities that are fun for the girls or better yet, let them pick. Maybe every other week assign a girl to coordinate the meeting and she can pick the activities. It doesn't have to be anything significant. If they just want to do a "facial & a movie" night, let them. The interest project book (i.e. the badge book) has lots of activities or ideas in it that will ultimately lead to earning badges. The badges they have now aren't like the old days - they are fun and pertinent to today's girls. Also, your service unit and local council should have great resources for you for girls this age. If you want some more specific ideas, send me a private message and we can chat more.

Depends on your troop, but when I was in Juniors, the leaders took us on a couple of field trips, eg:nursing homes to sing or just visit, we also did lots of crafts, painting ceramics and such. I don't know what city you are in, but in Las Colinas there's a place called Arts a Fire, ceramic studio that's pretty cool. Not real cheap, but not extremely expensive either.

Best of luck!

Loads of activities at http://www.jmgkids.us

Most can be easily tweaked to fit badge requirements. There are also 2 stand-alone curriculums in food & nutrition in the garden and a sort of garden literature book club.