Reply to Why do girls drop out of Girl Scouts in the 5th, 6th, 7th grades?

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Reply to "Why do girls drop out of Girl Scouts in the 5th, 6th, 7th grades?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was a leader for girls thru 12th grade. Here are a few suggestions. 
 
By 4th grade, the meetings should be 100% girl led.  Everything. Either one girl rotates or they all decide together.

By 5th grade tell the girls the troop will be what you make of it.  If you want to do the Junior and Cadette awards, great.  I will help you.  If you don't and just want it to be a more social gathering - that is fine too.

By middle school, change the meetings to Friday or Sunday night, no uniforms, laid back, and incorporate a movie or board game night afterwards. My only rule?  Phones stay in a basket by the door.  If you need it go to it and use it there and then rejoin us.

Pick the BEST trips to do.  The ones kids will actually miss sports for. We never did long ones because they are always so busy.  November and March are the best months because of no sports.  Throw out 4 really cool ideas and let the girls vote.  Our girls did Snow Dog Sledding, White water rafting, horseback riding weekend, Snowboarding, Murder Mystery Cruise on the Potomac. They did small things like learned how to use a pottery wheel and designed their own pot.  We also went to cooking classes and then did a night of "Chopped" which was hilarious.  We did one weekend where we rented a cabin in the woods and the girls were in charge of EVERYTHING. Supplies, packing, food, cooking, firewood, etc..  That was interesting and very eye opening to them how good they have it.

We also worked very close with Hero Dogs and about 20% of our cookie sales went to them.  We would also go there a few times a year and play with the dogs, clean up, etc...

Most of our fundraising was thru cookie sales (we stopped doing booths in 5th grade) and throwing events for younger troops.  The girls were very creative in ideas and made a lot of money.

The most important is to just chill and let the girls be a major part of their troop.  I absolutely hated the journeys and never made them do them.  I did have a handful of girls go all the way to a gold award and helped them a lot. Some girls would leave for a few months for sports or were barely involved.  They were welcomed back in immediately.  Junior year was basically once every 2 months and it was basically a gathering of de-stressing.  Cooking and movie watching.  The best was watching them all just enjoy their time together.  Some years there was caddy stuff, issues, kids not talking here or there. But they were all super close in high school and different cliques would come together like old 1st grade friends.  There was comfort there.

They are all 1st year college students and I miss them terribly.  We are having a reunion over the winter holidays.  Cookie exchange and watching Christmas movies.  [/quote]

I'm a second grade Brownie troop leader, and this post literally has me tearing up.  Imagining all my little seven year olds as freshman in college... awesome.  I just sent this post to my co-leader.  I feel like there's a ton of wisdom in here we're going to need over the next 10 years (fingers crossed!)[/quote]

Pre-Kids I was a GS leader.  My girls were in 1st when I started.  They were in 7th when I got pregnant.  When my child was 3, I had a roster of girls that would babysit for me.  Sometimes a few girls would come together.  I watched them graduate HS and go off to college.  I watched them accept their first jobs and now 1 of them is engaged.

The girls are extremely close even today.  The engaged girls bachelorette party was the girls that meant in 1st grade going to the Nats game.  They have each other’s back.  They cry with each other when something doesn’t work out and they cheer when they do.  The PP got it right, make it about the relationships, not about the badges.[/quote]

I love some of the posts on this thread. Great ideas! I'm wondering, as a troop leader, how you facilitated those friendships? My fourth graders are engaging in some clique-ish behaviors, and despite doing the friendship badge  :roll: need some help. There is more separation happening this year from those who consider themselves "cool."[/quote]

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