Junior GS Journeys
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Anonymous
I liked the old badge layout. They listed maybe 9 or 10 different activities, and girls had to choose any 6. Now they list 5 topics, with three choices within those topics. So 15 different activities, but you can't do any 5. It needs to be one from each group. And the topics jump around so much within the badges that some of the badges feel really disjointed. |
Anonymous
| And most of the activities are idiotic. |
Anonymous
| Our girls looked through a couple different old badge books and were quite disappointed with what they have available to them. They wanted to work on some of the older badges! |
Anonymous
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Can any Junior badges be worked into the path toward a journey?? We too are contemplating a Bronze, but we'd have to work a journey in and start planning. We meet as a troop 1.5 times a month. so not sure it will work. |
Anonymous
by "cany they be worked into the path toward a journey" --- do you mean "do any badges satisfy journey requirements?"?? If that is your question, then the answer is "no." I guess, in truth, it depends how much "connecting" YOU do to pull in the ideas of the journey. For instance, my troop did Playing the Past (Medieval theme). In meeting the badge requirements, the girls had to research/learn about the lives of someone who lived in Medieval times. If I had spent some time discussing the gender differences in medieval times vs. now, that would have fit with the ideas of Amuse (which is about gender and discrimination). We also did the Flowers, Gardener and Camper badges ... if I had spent time discussing energy and conservation during these badges, I could have counted it toward the Get Movin' Journey and we might have used a service project that we did to spruce up the school to satisfy the Take Action Project for Get Movin' journey. BUT -- my troop is adamanty opposed to doing the journeys (partly b/c they sound like school and partly b/c the name "journey" sounds long and boring and partly b/c they are intimidated by the requirement of coming up with a "take action project." Since GS is supposed to be "GIRL LED" -- I feel strongly that they do NOT need to do any journeys. That said, if you are doing a journey, there are some other councils that have distilled them into two meetings plus a Take Action Project. http://www.girlscoutsrv.org/volunteers/troop-leaders/junior-leaders/junior-planning-guide/ IMO, leaders have to adjust to making fewer decisions and letting the girls take more decisions as you move up from Brownies to Juniors. Be cautious and aware of whether your plans are based on the GIRLS goals or your own ideas of what scouts "should" do. Sometimes the leaders are more committed to the awards than the girls are -- it's o.k. if the girls don't value the journey awards or the bronze award or whatever. It's not crucial for them to earn any particular award just b/c it exists. |
Anonymous
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The Journeys are awful. Many of them are so poorly written they don't even make sense. Most leaders I know just ignore the Journeys or only pretend to do them.
And I also preferred the old badge system where you picked X of 10 activities to do to complete the badges. The new system allows a lot less creativity by the leaders and girls to customize the activities for their own troop. I don't know who thought these were a good idea. |
Anonymous
People who had never lead a troop before, and tought "teaching" Girl Scouts was something that happened after school, in a classroom, with a captive audience of after school girls who were in need of more, remedial school-like curriculum, with a workbook, and lots of "reflection". |
Anonymous
no doubt, PP! I can see how the journeys looked good on paper with an eye toward creating an agenda/curriculum that could influence grant givers, but from the girls' perspective -- they look like preachy schoolwork. |
Anonymous
| Glad I'm not the only one who thought the Journeys are awful. We made it through one the first year of Brownies and then just did badges the second year, and it was so much better. They will be Juniors this year, so I will see what they want to do. My older child did the Bronze award in Juniors, but so far in Cadettes, I haven't heard mention of anything. |
Anonymous
| IME everyone thinks Journeys are awful! Don't know who the hell came up with that crap. |
Anonymous
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Any avenue got a girl who wants to do a silver project, got a bunch of badges but has no documentation of journeys? Is she just no longer eligible for GS projects?
Thanks. Too bad if they are eliminating members and volunteer parents this way.... |
Anonymous
She needs to do a journey in order to earn the Silver. |
Anonymous
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15:07 again. Just rec'd an email about GS Barbies. ugh.
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Anonymous
She needs to earn a Journey to be eligible for the Silver Award. However, everyone I have heard from says it's OK to customize the Journeys. People are doing a Journey in a day and you do NOT have to do all the activities suggested in the book. As long as you meet the bare minimum requirements (however you define that!) you are fine. To my way of thinking the most important part of the Journey is learning to carry out a Take Action Project. That experience will help your daughter to be able to do a Silver Award Project. Have her do whatever to "earn" the Journey (maybe do a few related badges) and say she is "customizing" and then have her do a really good Take Action Project. |
Anonymous
| How come GSCNC doesn't offer Journeys in a Day like other Councils do? |