Girl Scout juniors - ?worthwhile

[Anonymous]

My dd is finishing Girl Scout Brownies - we’re deciding whether to continue on to Juniors. The junior troop would be quite small. Do you think Girl Scouts beyond Brownies is worthwhile ?

[Anonymous]

That depends on the troop.

Ask the troop leader what's in store for next year besides the usual camping and cookies. Community service project? Will the girlsrun the meetings? Will the girls host events ? Field trips?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That depends on the troop.

Ask the troop leader what's in store for next year besides the usual camping and cookies. Community service project? Will the girlsrun the meetings? Will the girls host events ? Field trips?

That’s all undecided as troop will be under new leadership w moms that have never before led a troop.

[Anonymous]

Your DD will want to have a say

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That depends on the troop.

Ask the troop leader what's in store for next year besides the usual camping and cookies. Community service project? Will the girlsrun the meetings? Will the girls host events ? Field trips?

That’s all undecided as troop will be under new leadership w moms that have never before led a troop.

Then how is dcum suppose to answer your question?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That depends on the troop.

Ask the troop leader what's in store for next year besides the usual camping and cookies. Community service project? Will the girlsrun the meetings? Will the girls host events ? Field trips?

That’s all undecided as troop will be under new leadership w moms that have never before led a troop.

Then how is dcum suppose to answer your question?

Op here - question is, did you feel Girl scouting as a young adolescent was worthwhile or is it really more of an early elementary activity ? If you did find worthwhile, what aspect of the program was most beneficial ?

[Anonymous]

Our Junior troop was fantastic! So much fun! The girls are older and more mature than Brownies, and can start having more adventures. We did so much -- camping, hiking, rock climbing, whittling, swimming and kayaking and geocaching; as well as crafts like making jewelry, candles, painting, cooking and baking and gingerbread houses. Lots of games and fun times! If you have good leaders and parents it can be the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Op here - question is, did you feel Girl scouting as a young adolescent was worthwhile or is it really more of an early elementary activity ? If you did find worthwhile, what aspect of the program was most beneficial ?

Getting girls away from their parents and learning to do things on their own .. planning, carrying out and cleaning up without assistance from mom and dad. When we took our new 4th and 5th graders camping, some of them had never opened a can with a can opener before! Or never lit a match, or used a jackknife, or rolled their own sleeping bags. (The ones with us since Daisies knew how to do all those things).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That depends on the troop.

Ask the troop leader what's in store for next year besides the usual camping and cookies. Community service project? Will the girlsrun the meetings? Will the girls host events ? Field trips?

That’s all undecided as troop will be under new leadership w moms that have never before led a troop.

Then how is dcum suppose to answer your question?

Op here - question is, did you feel Girl scouting as a young adolescent was worthwhile or is it really more of an early elementary activity ? If you did find worthwhile, what aspect of the program was most beneficial ?

I’m a longtime Girl Scout volunteer. If Girl Scouts is done right, girls grow into the program, rather than growing out of it. Juniors become old enough to do archery and kayaking. They can go on longer, more involved field trips. They have the fine motor skills to do much more complicated, interesting art projects. They can do more meaningful service work, and they can earn the Bronze Award, which is a 20 hour (per person) troop project that solves a problem in their community.

My Junior troop loves camping, archery, cooking, baking, hiking, and they are eagerly taking on an ambitious Bronze project. By cooking, I mean they use sharp knives to chop veggies by themselves, etc. Adults supervise and guide, but the girls make the meals on the camping trip (and the fires, etc) by themselves.

Once girls are in middle school and above, they can go on longer trips (like NYC), go backpacking, make a significant impact on their community. There are also international travel and service opportunities.

All that said, if the leaders are lazy or unorganized, the girls will get far less out of the experience. Don’t blame Girl Scouts for that, though. Every troop needs multiple parents who will step up, get trained and lead. The best way to make that happen for your daughter is to do it yourself.

[Anonymous]

My DD started Girl Scouts as a Daisy and is now a Senior working on her Gold Award. She loves Girl Scouts and will likely continue being involved as an adult Girl Scout.

Does your DD enjoy Girl Scouts? Then it's probably worthwhile for her to continue. My daughter continued being interested enough to juggle it while playing club sports, through homework, and so on.

[Anonymous]

Our Junior troop earned their Bronze awards, which really gave their meetings focus and purpose. The leaders did a good job of letting the girls choose and plan their own projects, while still guiding them as they got started.

Having some investment in the projects does help keep their interest, I think. Mine, at least, is planning to stay on as a Cadette and work toward her silver award.