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).

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?

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! :)

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.

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.