Burn Ban S'mores

We are in the state of Texas, which means we are currently camping under a burn ban.  This means we have to get slightly creative when it comes to cooking.  We will be staying in a dorm for our first Girl Scout camp campout of the year, which gives us access to a kitchen, but for most of our campouts this year, we will have to be creative.  The ban has gotten so severe lately, because the ground is so dry here, that even propane stoves are being banned in some places.

Traditional S'Mores require a fire.

You can't have a Girl Scout Campout without S'Mores.

Not when the girls outnumber you 4 to 1.

Hence, I had to come up with Burn Ban S'Mores.  They are actually a godsend for our troop.  We have a few very strict vegetarian girls, and some mostly vegetarian girls, and I really try to accommodate this, just  as I do the girls who cannot eat pork and the girl with a peanut allergy.  But have you ever priced vegetarian marshmallows?  Don't get me wrong, they are the most delicious marshmallows anyone in my troop has ever eaten, and the carnivores were begging for them; but a package that is a third the size of the regular $1.99 JetPuff (or whatever) costs about $8 and can only be found at Whole Paycheck.  The halal/kosher marshmallows (guaranteed to be made using beef gelatin, not pork) are within 10% of the regular marshmallows.  

And yes, I have brought 3 separate bags of marshmallows to a campout before.

So, what are Burn Ban S'Mores?  Simple.  Instead of using marshmallows, grab a jar of marshmallow Fluff (name brand or not).  It can be smeared onto graham crackers (or tortillas!), it can be dipped into like S'More fondue, and it is vegetarian (made with egg whites, so not vegan)!  If the day is warm enough, leave the chocolate in the sun for a few minutes, or use a pizza box solar cooker, and you have ooey-gooey S'Mores without risking burning down the forest you're camping in. 

Camping with Dietary Restrictions

As my troop embarks on our year o' camping, it occurs to me that food is a difficult topic when you are talking about kids.  Some kids are adventurous eaters, but let's face it - those are few and far between.  I still remember the shocked looks I would get when my son would request a salad for lunch.  He was 3 at the time.  Most kids enjoy the familiar, comfort food they get at home.  And some would prefer even more comfortable comfort food than they get at home.

Add to that the complication of having multiple dietary restrictions within a single troop (I have vegetarians, semi-vegetarians, girls who do not eat pork, and girls with food allergies in my troop), and it can make a camp cook go crazy.  Especially if you are trying to make sure they get healthy food, and learn the principles of the Leave No Trace philosophy when it comes to eating in the woods.  No bags of stuff filled with chemicals to keep them "fresh" for years, and something other than starch and dairy with a side of starch and fat that can be the staple of a camping trip.

One of my biggest successes is couscous.  It sounds really scary to 8 year olds.  Say it with me, "couscous".  If you've never had it, you can't even begin to guess what it is.  However, explain to the girls that it is a teeny tiny form of pasta (completely true, by the way), and that you're going to make macaroni and cheese with it, and you have a winner!  I love Sarah's site, by the way.  Lots of great recipes, and she's a label reader.

I have also discovered that you can get veggies into the picky girls by serving them with ranch.  Offering a choice of green salad or just dipping veggies (a salad without lettuce) with ranch seems to do the trick.

So, periodically, I think I will post recipes or links to recipes here and how my girls liked them.  Some recipes I am thinking my girls will like: pizza couscous (couscous with spaghetti sauce and cheese, have turkey pepperoni slices on hand for the meat eaters, extra cheese for the vegetarians, sneak some freeze dried veggies into the sauce to boost the veggie content); hot dogs for all (how to not go crazy when you have to serve 2 or 3 different kinds of hot dogs);and a  sandwich bar (like a salad bar, only with bread - good for burn bans).

Convention was AWESOME!

Wow.  What a week! I didn't end up getting to listen in on the Board Governance session at GSU while I was volunteering as a teacher's aide.  There was a miscommunication back in the planning stages, and GSUSA didn't realize our Council was going to be supplying volunteers  for that, so they brought their own.  :( But, I certainly didn't get sent home!  Instead I was directing traffic, stuffing tote bags (I did a lot of that), and then acting as a bodyguard - for the bags!  On another shift, I acted as a bodyguard for food and books.  There was a lot of guarding and bag stuffing for me. ;)

I got to work a shift with our Council's camp Rangers and the Salt Lake City team, along with staff members from the National office, and local troop leaders.  Since we were just stuffing tote bags, we did a lot of chatting and having fun.  I really enjoyed it, and enjoyed watching the George R. Brown being transformed from the Quilt Festival to the GS Convention.

Then it was time to actually go visit the Hall of Exhibits with my daughter, as a sneak peek for our troop's visit.  I am SO glad I went.  The GS Shop Megastore had ALL of the skill building activity sets for sale!  So I was able to grab all of the Junior sets.

My Girl's Guide is now packed full, seriously full.  With all three sets of skill builder packs, I can barely turn the pages.  This makes me glad that each badge has its own little packet of information.  Once we have finished a badge, I can remove it from the Guide binder.  I finally feel like I can start planning the rest of the year.

Now, what badge to work on when we go camping at the beach? . . . 

Hiatus-ish

So, in case you missed it, I have been less than prompt about posting things lately.  Unfortunately, I have been super busy getting ready for National Convention (I'll post a pic of the uniform I am sewing! *grin*), and taking care of my Service Unit's Fall Product Sale.  Well, and with non-GS stuff like family and a new job.

I will be back to more regular posting after Convention (November 8-13).  You can look forward to posts about what I did and saw and Convention, Texas-themed SWAPs my troop is making to swap at Convention, and discussion about the awards and badges available in the new Girl's Guide.  I will be looking specifically at the Junior Guide, but because of the new more progression-based badge system, this will be similar to the other levels.  Perhaps if YOU have one of the other levels, you can comment and talk about the differences! :)

Got my Girl's Guide!

Well, we got the first batch of the new handbooks for our troop this week.  Our Council wasn't sure how many to order, so they just started ordering as soon as they were allowed and kept ordering every time National offered them, starting back in the Spring.  So our books are coming in waves, and we just finished the second wave.  Unfortunately, it turns out that the very first order I made was for 2 Brownie Handbooks. Gahhhh . . . Luckily, I made my second order for 5 books almost immediately after that.  I will have to wait until the last shipment for the rest of the books for my troop.

So, first impressions (second actually): They look really empty without the additional modules in them. But, I do like the modular concept.  I don't like the art, and I don't like all the purple, but I'm not really the target audience. :)  The art is similar to the art in the Journey books, and they are brought up all over the place in the Handbook.  For those of you who are hoping the Journeys are simply a phase, I think these books are a pretty definitive "no" to that.

First impressions from my daughter: She liked it.  She loved the stickers in the back and immediately wanted to stick them everywhere.  I couldn't see whether they were "supposed" to be used for something in particular, but I stopped her anyway.  Just in case. :)  I do like the fact that the first thing she commented on after looking through it and reading through some of the awards was, "I wanna be a Junior Aide".  She explained the steps, and told me she wanted to do this because she enjoyed working with little kids.  She came up with several different ideas on how to help out at a Daisy meeting, and asked if I would help her get in contact with a Daisy Troop.  

This is exactly what I want to start seeing during the Junior years - my girls start initiating projects that are actually doable for them.  They have such good hearts and high expectations of themselves that they think they can cure cancer, save the whales, and stop water waste all before dinnertime. :)  I would like to see them thinking more critically of themselves, not in a negative way ("I can't do that!") but in a realistic way ("I don't think I can do this by myself, or even with the help of my troop, but maybe we can talk to some adults in our community to find a way . . .").  It seems like a hard task, helping girls to grow into good strong women.  You want them to strive, to try, to reach for the stars.  You don't want to tell them a task is impossible, even when it is.  

You even want them to fail.  

At least I do.  I want my girls to learn that failing doesn't make you a failure.  It means you have another chance at completing the task, but that you need to come up with a different strategy.  It astonished me when I heard a Leader talk about NOT wanting to let her troop have a chance at failing.  Nobody learns from being successful all the time.  Failing is not a problem.  Having the wrong attitude about failing is a problem.

Training

Check out all the SWAPs I got! :)

Last weekend, I got to go to Girl Scout Training! ^.^ Now in my Council, they firmly believe that no Leader should walk into a situation feeling unprepared. We have trainings for EVERYTHING. We train you to be a Leader, to be a First Aider, to be a Troop Camper, to be a hiker, to be an archer, to ride horses, to sail ships, to sell cookies, to do arts and crafts, to sing songs, to cook over a fire, to cook when you can't light a fire. We even have training to train you how to train people!

I have talked to guys who volunteer with the local Boy Scout Troop and had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I heard that they don't really do training. Unless they want to go camping. Or become the head Scoutmaster. O.O

Yeah, that's not our way. Sometimes, the training is just stuff that NEEDS to get done. You NEED to know which forms you must have filled out every year by your troop's parents. You NEED to know how to run a meeting. You NEED to know different ways to try to build a young girl's confidence. You NEED to know what a SWAP is. :) Well, you do if you are in Girl Scouts for very long. . .

But then there's the fun trainings. This was what I did last weekend. I and 250 of my fellow Girl Scout Leaders and Volunteers met up at our Council's best camp and spent the weekend pretending we were girls. We didn't have to organize the activities, or come up with the crafts, and plan the meals, or even COOK the meals. I had a camp kaper to do, sang songs, and performed skits with my new friends around a fluttery fabric "campfire". I got to sleep in one of the tall cabin "treehouses" so coveted in our Council, and got swayed to sleep in the most perfect camping weather I have ever experienced.

And I got overloaded with information. It will take me months to digest all that I learned, and I only took about 10% of the trainings offered! I took trainings geared towards my troop's level: Bronze Award information, Field Trips, Extended Troop Travel, Geacaching (more on this next week), and a fun Texas-themed arts and crafts session.

I think that the information I gained is almost as important as the feeling of community I shared with all of these women (and 2 men).  I spent the weekend feeling like I was included in everything, like I was among friends.  It didn't matter that I had never met any of these people before in my life.  We were Girl Scouts.

I can't wait for the National Convention! :)

aMuse FC Red Carpet SWAPs

For the Final Celebration, our little divas will be walking the red carpet and celebrating all that they have accomplished during this Journey. Here's a SWAP to commemorate their celebration.

This is a simple SWAP, but it will still tickle your girls. Using sticky back felt makes this more expensive, but soooooo much easier and faster. Use the picture from the Leader's Guide as a guide for your trapezoid. Using the self adhesive felt, you could probably make about 24 out of a single sheet of felt, which puts each SWAP at about 5 cents each (including a scrap of paper and a safety pin).

Here's your recipe card:

Recipe Cards

Why recipe cards?

As I was searching for SWAP ideas for my Troop, I noticed that most of the SWAP ideas were just pictures.  Sometimes, there would be a brief description, which may or may not have told how to make the SWAP.  On the Making Friends website, I noticed how a very good description of a SWAP, including how to make it, was just like a recipe.  A list of ingredients (supplies) and instructions.  I started thinking that this would be helpful with making SWAPs with the Troop, as well.  

During previous camping trips, I put pictures of some traditional SWAPs on notecards, punched holes, and looped binder rings through.  I kept this set of cards in our SWAP/craft box.  I started thinking how much they looked like recipe cards.  And then I started daydreaming of a recipe box filled with SWAP instructions, or a recipe card binder, categorized.

I mostly like the idea of the recipe cards because it means that I can have a set of SWAP ideas for my girls, that are all the same size, same shape, give them the information they might need to recreate them, and have a picture if they just want inspiration.

Why are they all about the aMuse Journey?

The short answer is that they won't all be.  Last weekend was a camping SWAP.  I plan on having a Camping set of SWAP Recipe Cards.  As well as one specific to my local Council.  I also have plans for a set of Brownie Journey SWAPs.

When I was planning for this year, I noticed that there weren't many SWAPs specifically relating to the new Journey books.  Lots and lots of traditional vests, sashes, bedrolls, s'mores, tents, campfires, flashlights, and all those adorable film canister SWAPs no one can do anymore, because who can find film canisters?  But no Dez the Fashionista Spider.  No Flower Friends.  No Brownie Elf (at least not the blue one from the books).  these books are going to be part of Girl Scouts for some time in the future, so I think it only fair that they should get the same SWAP treatment at Hermie the Worm. :)

Okay, but what do I do with them?

You can either keep them as a saved image file, or you can print them off.  They should print 4-up landscape on a letter sized piece of paper or cardstock.  If you print them on paper, you can cut them out and glue them to index cards.  Then you can keep them on binder rings, in an altered recipe box, or in a binder made for keeping recipe cards.  I am considering laminating mine with my Xyron so they won't get messed up at camp.  Once I have a final destination for mine, I will post it.

Burn Ban SWAP

Since we are in Texas, we are going to be doing a lot of burn ban cooking this Fall.  I wanted to make a SWAP for this for our first meeting, since our first campout is this weekend.

These were easy, done with Shrink Plastic.  You can use one of the commercial varieties, or you can DIY it as a re-using project.  I used commercial.  The amount of shrink you get will depend on what plastic you use, so make sure you test it out, or they might be too small.

Drawing:  I used crayons for these samples.  Bad idea.  They are very vivid, but when I heated up the shrink plastic to shrink it, the crayon melted and got all over.  Icky.  I don't recommend it.  I recommend  colored pencils or markers.  The colors intensify as you shrink the image, so don't worry if you can barely see what you drew. :)

Prep by cutting out all the circles ahead of time.  I used a 2" hole punch used for scrapbooking.  You can also pre-punch the hanging holes with a one-hole punch, but that makes it hard to color in that area.

If this is the first time your girls have worked with shrink plastic, I would shrink one while they watch.  It's fun to hear them go "Ooooooh!!" "Wow!" "Cool!"  I used a heat gun specifically for crafting (not paint-stripping).  You might be using an oven, if you have access to one in your meeting space.

Now, for my troop (17 girls), I had planned on each them doing two, one to keep and one to SWAP.  34 little circles to punch, 34 little holes to punch, 34 little charms to shrink.  I had the girls color them, had another adult go around marking their initials on the backs, and then hole-punched, shrank, and pinned them at home.  It took me 20 minutes!  This would not be effective use of meeting time.  However, if you are using an oven, you can do all the shrinking at once, so it would be easier to do during the meeting.

I love shrink plastic for SWAPs, and can't wait to try running some through my printer!  However, please be aware you are MELTING PLASTIC.  Have good ventilation, keep girls with breathing issues away, and for safety's sake, read the instructions completely!  :)  Have fun, but be safe.

Here's your recipe card:

Uniform Choices

Vest or Sash? If this seems like a totally silly thing to argue over, then you have never seen a group of 15 eight and nine year olds go at it over which makes more sense and which they would be less likely to be ashamed to be seen in. Okay, my girls didn't put it QUITE like that, but that was definitely the gist of the argument. The two sides seem to fall out like this: 

Vests:

People who like vests tend to be people with plans.  Like Troop Leaders.  If you plan on doing more than one or two activities with your troop per year, if you plan on fundraising with your troop, if you plan on earning more than a dozen patches, you like vests.  The other people who like vests? People with children likely to hit a growth spurt at any time.  You can buy a large vest for your daughter and not be concerned about whether she will be able to keep it on her shoulders when she walks.

Sashes:

People who like sashes tend to be younger people.  Like your Troop.  Vests seem so practical.  Sashes are cool.  They are easy to hide if you don't want to be identified as a Girl Scout.  And since they are okay for older girls who may not be doing anything because they are saving money to go to Europe, the younger girls (at least in my neighborhood) think that they're for OLDER girls.  And if there is anything a Junior Girl Scout wants more than anything else, it's to be seen as OLDER.

Now, these aren't hard and fast, this is just how it has seemed to me over the past few years.    I had quite a discussion about this last year, when we voted.  There were many girls who were convinced, when I held up my daughter's uniform, that we should indeed do vests again.  But the fashionistas prevailed.  There was much haggling and vote-wrangling involved, but the lure of "Sashes look so much cooler!" could not be denied. We did Daisy tunics, Brownie vests, and now Junior sashes.  I am hoping for Older Girl vests, because I don't see my girls wanting to slow down on the activities.

aMuse S8 Megaphone SWAPs

Ready, Set, TAKE ACTION!  In honor or the girls' big presentation, I created this Megaphone SWAP:

This one is super simple, but it does have one trick.  As you can see in the SWAP Box, the megaphones originally had "Go Team!" or some other such Homecoming nonsense on them.  This will need to be removed to make room for "Take Action!" or "Girl Scouts!" or "Juniors!" or some other such cool thing.  Goo Gone is what worked for me.  It takes a little elbow grease, but it works like a charm.  Then grab your faithful Sharpie and doodle away.  If your megaphone (like mine) has a loop on the top, then you can simply stick a safety pin through that, otherwise you can hot glue a safety pin to one side or use a self-adhesive pinback.  This is probably the most expensive SWAP I will ever recommend at nearly $0.50 each, which is why I recommend getting these megaphones after Homecoming when the price should come down.

Here is the recipe card:

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aMuse S6&7 Clapperboard SWAPs

In Sessions 6 and 7, the girls begin work on their Take Action Project, as is illustrated in the Girl's book, in "Turning Acting into Action":

I just did a quick Google search for "clapperboard" and found a good copyright free image, printed it off, cut it out and then glued it to some foam.  I used brown because that is what I had on hand, but white or black would look better.  Once the glue is dry, cut out the foam around the clapperboard, you can either attach a pin back (as I did), or simply stick a safety pin through it.  Again, the cost for this per SWAP is based almost entirely on the pin you use. :) 

Here is the recipe card:

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Coming up with Project Ideas

My first Co-Leader was amazed when I was prepared with projects and meeting topics for the rest of the year within a couple of weeks after finishing initial training.  She couldn't believe I came up with all those ideas myself!  Especially since I hadn't been a Girl Scout myself, so this was all completely new to me.  Well, let me let you in on the secret:

I didn't.

Just like you, I started combing the Internet for ideas as soon as I got my leader's book.  I found some really awesome resources (which can be found on the Handy Links page), and did a LOT of googling.  I modified things as I went along, especially as I started to get to know my girls and what they enjoyed doing.  

But once, you have looked through what other Troop Leaders have done and exhausted those ideas, then what?

I like looking through general Crafting and DIY projects and seeing what I can modify to be appropriate for the topic of a given meeting.  Or sometimes I find a fabulous project, and then I see if I can work a meeting around it.  For instance, I found this daffodil project on a wedding website (via Pinterest).  It looks pretty, well designed, and simple enough even for Daisies to do (with a little help).  The only real change I would make would to ditch the floral tape and just use green chenille stems.

Now, what would I do with it?

Well, with a Daisy Troop, I would incorporate it into a Journey, possibly finding tutorials on making similarly constructed Daisies, Tulips, Roses, and Hyacinths to match the Flower Friends from the Daisy Garden.  For Brownies and Juniors, this would make lovely Mother's Day projects or even SWAPs (in a smaller version).  Older Troops could use this as a recycling program or as a way to work with younger girls.

This is kind of the way it works for me.  I collect files of ideas (right now, I have a Girl Scouts pinboard on Pinterest in addition to paper files) for projects, and try to correlate them to things I want to cover in meeting.  I probably have 3 times as many project ideas as I will use.  But I know that I will never be without something to do, a direction to take, a project my girls will love.

What process do YOU use to come up with ideas?

aMuse S5 Junior Doll SWAP

In Session 5, the girls start discussing the power of stories:

To go along with the "Good Yarn" opener, I decided on these yarn doll SWAPs, made using a technique directly out of the Girl's Journey book. I used one wooden bead for the head, 2 chenille stems, that fabulous yarn I found, and some green yarn I've had. This SWAP cost 16 cents to make with a self adhesive pinback. If you use a safety pin, maybe 11 cents.

Or, these could be used during Session 2, as yet another role that your girls play.

Here is the Recipe Card:

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Filing

After three hours, I think I have my filing system down for my troop. Yeah, three hours. With 2001: A Space Odyssey running. Not the most fun time I've had with Girl Scouts! :) but it needed to be done. My girls are becoming Juniors, and keeping good records is about to become VERY important.

We have an ambitious camping schedule planned, a Bronze award to plan for, additional fundraising to think about, and of course badges to be earned. If I want to be able to keep track of all those things, I needed to come up with a better system than the haphazard "keep everything . . . maybe" method I had been using.

So this is my filebox. There are four different kinds of files in there: Girl Files, Troop Files, Fall Product Files, and Other Files.

Girl Files

These are actually split into two, with active girls' files in the front of the box and inactive girls' files in the back. Each girl only has one file folder (until I need to split them because they get too full). My original plan was to have a folder for each girl for each year, which would require less active organizing (just drop it in the right folder, and then search when you need something), but with 15 ish girls in my troop, will get EXPENSIVE! :) Since my Council requires that parents need to fill out EVERYTHING (basically) every year, I clean out my binder of everything for each girl. Each year's papers get paper clipped together and labeled with a post-it note. This is the order I am going to use:

1. Permission Slip(s) - to tell me what events each girl participated in
2. Badge Documents - I keep on badge record for each girl for each level until we bridge (so I have the final Petals worksheet with the First Grade documents, and the Try-It worksheets with the Third Grade papers), as well as paperwork on badgework done at home.
3. Girl Medical form - One of the other major forms for my council
4. Everything Else - I might get more OCD with this year's papers, but for the past 4 years this works

Troop Files

There are two hanging files for each year: one for Fundraising, one for everything else. Financial documents stay in the treasurer's binder.

• Fundraising Folder - All permission slips (stapled together), Fall Product Troop and Girl Summaries, Cookies Troop and Girl Summaries, any other fundraising documentation (not receipts, those go in their treasurer binder).
• Everything Else - In order: Attendance/Dues records, single page Troop Calendar, SU Calendar, Troop and SU Directories, other documents that pertain to the entire schoolyear, and then in chronological order all Service Unit meeting agendas and flyers to events we actually went to.

Fall Product Files

Since I am Fall Product Manager for my Service Unit, I also need somewhere to keep the documents I need to keep on file. I just have these divided by year. I also want to keep a girl packet for each year, so I can keep a record of what we sold and what the theme was, etc.

Other Files

• Fundraising - ideas from the internet and other local troops for additional fundraising
• Service Projects - SU and other troop service projects from the past, as well as ideas from the internet
• Masters - One copy of each document I need to make copies of that I keep for making copies, so I don't use the last one and then have to recreate it.

To keep me on track in a year when I have to file this year's papers, I wrote down all this, and am placing it in the box in front.

I hope this gives you some ideas for organizing your own Troop Files! :)

aMuse S2 Roles SWAPs - Student

In Session 2, the girls discuss stereotypes and what "girls are supposed to be" and what roles they themselves play. I created several different SWAPs to illustrate some of the roles they might play. The third one I am going to show is the "Student Role":

One role all Girl Scouts play is that of a student. This little SWAP is easy and very easy on the budget, because essentially all you really pay for is the pinback. I used a free printable from Hittie Print Mini for the composition notebook. There are other style of notebook on the site as well. I used a tutorial from Zakka Life for the miniature pencil. This SWAP cost 5 cents to make with a self adhesive pinback. If you use a safety pin, maybe 1 cent. Maybe. :)

Here is the Recipe Card:

Next week, I will have the last in my set of Session 2 Role SWAPs!

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aMuse S2 Roles SWAPs - Artist

In Session 2, the girls discuss stereotypes and what "girls are supposed to be" and what roles they themselves play. I created several different SWAPs to illustrate some of the roles they might play. The second one I am going to show is the "Artist Role":

This is another simple little SWAP. Merely some paint daubed on a shaped piece of foam. I really like the self adhesive bar style pinback on this one, but you can also use a regular safety pin poked through the foam. With the pinback, this SWAP cost maybe 10 cents to make.

Here's the Recipe Card:

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I got to touch them!

The new Girl's Guides, that is. I had my SUFPM training this past weekend, and they had copies of all of the new books to look through. They looked huge, to me, and half empty. But they do seem to have everything in one place (as opposed to having a handbook and a badgebook and a bronze award guide and prints of stuff off the internet, etc., etc.). I went ahead and pre-ordered mine and my daughter's, which means I will get them sometime in November. Maybe.

It was very frustrating to be told that there will be a whole new set of books, that will become the GSUSA standard at the end of this coming schoolyear, and then be told it won't be available until September. As I have mentioned before, I like planning out my school year during the summer. So that I don't feel like I am scrambling to get prepared the weekend or day before a meeting.

It is becoming even more frustrating to be told, "well, I know we said it would be available in September, but really, honestly, you'll be lucky if you get it by Christmas. And we're not even going to really tell you when you can expect to get it."

No word yet of whether the badges will be embroidered or printed. I prefer sewing the printed ones, but I prefer the look of the embroidered ones - by a large amount. I think based on the price, they are likely to be printed and iron-on.

Incidentally, the old books:

Handbook $10.95

Badgebook $11.95

Adult Book $6

89 Junior Badges @ $0.95 each

Girl's Guide:

Binder $22.50 ($16.87 if you pre-order)

extra badge modules $12 (all 3)

26 Junior Badges @ $1.50 each

aMuse S2 Roles SWAPs - Friend

In Session 2, the girls discuss stereotypes and what "girls are supposed to be" and what roles they themselves play. I created several different SWAPs to illustrate some of the roles they might play. The first one I am going to show is the "Friend Role":

This is, of course, a variation on the classic, "Make new friends, but keep the old" type of SWAP. This one features chenille stem and silver and gold pony beads. This SWAP cost about 7 cents to make. Here is the Recipe Card:

I will feature another Session 2 SWAP next week.

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Paperwork Prep

Erg. The annual paperwork shuffle for the troop. I keep all working documents in one big binder (attendance, award records, permission slips, medical info, etc. etc. etc.) for the current year, and keep everything from previous years in a large file box by year. My filing system is still under construction, and probably will be until my girls have gotten their Gold Award.

My system starts with a series of binders and folders. It would be pointless to tell exactly which forms I put where, since each council is different, but I can give you a general idea.

MAIN BINDER 

This is my work horse. I bring this to every meeting and am constantly updating things in it. After 4 years, it is looking a little sad. I probably need to spiff it up. The sections are:

• Attendance/Dues,
• Permission Slips (the originals),
• A section for each girl in the troop with all of the forms I need to have (medical history, allergies, etc.), an individual girl record (lists camping experience, service activities, and additional awards), as well as records of all past badgework (petals and try-its at this point),
• Service Unit roster,
• Service Unit meeting agendas for the year,
• Snapshot of Troop Fall Product/Cookie Sales for the year,
• Documents which state I am approved as Troop Leader and Service Unit Fall Product Manager,
• and for some weird reason I have a whole bunch of song lyrics in the binder.

TROOP FINANCIALS BINDER

This binder goes to the troop treasurer. It contains all of our banking documentation, receipts, and income statements.

TROOP FALL PRODUCT FOLDER

This is the folder I will be giving to our Troop FP Manager. It will contain permission slips, contact information for all girls participating in the sale, FP handbook, and a calendar with the important dates on it.

TROOP COOKIES FOLDER

This is the folder I will be giving to our Troop Cookie Manager. Pretty much the same thing as Fall Product, but for Cookies.

TROOP TRAVEL FOLDERS

Anytime our troop travels together to an event or campout, each driver needs one of these in their car. It contains the medical form and permission slips for each girl, as well as emergency forms for each adult, itineraries and maps for the current activity.

FALL PRODUCT BINDER 

From the beginning of September through the end of November, this binder goes everywhere with me. And since it definitely goes to Service Unit meetings with me, it becomes a temporary landing zone for SU meeting agendas until I can put them in my main binder. In it, I keep:

• all the paperwork I use to hold trainings
• all MY training documents
• a calendar of the sale dates
• a list of all my troop managers with contact information
• and all the forms and charts and lists I print out to do my job.

AWARDS BINDER

This is a new binder for our troop. Since we have big plans for the next two years (a camping patch which involves visiting every camp in our Council, and the Bronze Award), as well as the normal badgework, I decided to get this a little bit more organized, and may even pass it off to an assistant leader. I will probably have 3 sections:

• Badgework - Each girl has a form which shows which badges she has earned, and which steps she has completed toward each. I will probably also put a sheet for Journey awards for each girl.
• Camping Patch - This will be a small section, probably just a table listing the ten camps, and the girls names, so we can check off who went to which camps.
• Bronze Award - All the paperwork for getting the Bronze Award.

aMuse S1 SWAP - Dez the Spider

What better way to start the Journey than with a SWAP of our guide, Dez the Fashionista Spider? I found some fabulous packs of chenille stems (pipe cleaners) and a ball of variegated cotton yarn which coordinates so well, it looks like they were meant to go together! For more information on the specific supplies I bought, check out the SWAP Box. These SWAPs cost about 5 cents each in supplies. You can easily add googly eyes (the ones with eyelids and lashes would be especially cute!), stickers, or even a foam beret to give Dez more personality.

Here's the Recipe Card:

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Basic Supplies for Cheap

There are some supplies that every troop is going to need in their supply box. Glue, scissors, crayons (or colored pencils when they older, and more refined), paper, rulers, erasers, you know, school supplies. Most drugstore and office supply chains around here each have a particular item they sell dirt cheap (less than a quarter each), and then have some really good coupons on other things. I'm not a couponing fan in general, but I do think these are worth it. I have only hit 2 stores (which I will probably hit again tomorrow), and got the following:

3 4-packs gluesticks for $0.50 each

2 24-pack crayons for $0.01 each

1 pack index cards for $0.10

2 10-pack black pens for $0.20 each and a third for free

2 10-pack pencils for $0.10 each

2 2-packs of Sharpies for $0.69 each

6 2-packs of pink erasers for $0.29 each

4 4oz bottles of glue for $0.59 each

3 pair of Fiskers kids scissors for $0.79 each

6 folders with prongs for $0.11 each

for a grand total of $10.73. Some of this will actually be going into the stash for my kids, which is why I paid for this out of my pocket, but I am thinking about going back for another round with the troop's money tomorrow, and maybe again next week, depending on what's on sale.

Most of these are not the best quality, but I have noticed that my girls don't really care if I buy dollar store crayons that are mostly wax or the most highly pigmented artist's drawing sticks. At least, it doesn't matter for the average Scout project. If we were delve into studying art, I would delve into some of my personal art supplies. I like the highly pigmented stuff, myself. :)

What do you do to supply your troop, but pinch pennies at the same time?

Planning the 2011-2012 Scout Year

With the impending release of the new Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting, I had been having a hard time finding resources for leaders trying to plan the 2011-2012 school year. They have just released a catalog showing us what the books will look like, how they will generally work, what the new badges will look like, and not a whole lot else.

Last year by this time, I had the first 6 months of meetings planned, along with field trips and which Try-Its my Brownie Troop would be working towards. Because I had all the information I needed. This year I feel kind of lost. I am betting other leaders feel the same way, those of us who will be diving into the new badge system this year, and not next.

So what do we do?

The only answer I can come up with is the answer GSUSA wants us to use: the Journeys. It is pretty obvious by now that the Journeys were not meant to be an "addition" to the core books, but the cornerstone of the new core books. Everything has been redesigned to center around the Journey books from the new handbooks to the badges to the leadership awards.

As the release date of the Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting seems to get pushed further and further away, the only thing I can do to plan my year is work through the Journeys. My troop voted to start with aMuse (I have a troop of very extroverted melodramatic young ladies, so this didn't really surprise me!). I don't really like the format, personally, because there is NO WAY my troop of 15 loud and highly curious girls can get through a single session in the hour and a half we have, much less the 1 hour usually recommended for troop meetings. But we will give it a try.

And because my girls and I all love SWAPs, I am going to try to incorporate SWAPs into each session. If you are also doing the aMuse Junior Journey book, please feel free to give me some input as to how your troop is doing and what special events or activities you have planned. I will try to post my thoughts on Wednesdays, after our meetings.

I will also be posting special SWAP "recipe cards" each week on Saturdays. These are going to be fun little printables that you can use for your troop. Some will be oldies but goodies, but most will be things I came up or redesigned to coordinate with a given book or theme. First will be SWAPs for the aMuse journey book, and then I will begin on SWAPs for the Journey books we used as Brownies: the Brownie Quest and Wonders of Water.