I'm the PP who is doing the Aerospace badge, etc.

The new programming is too much like school b/c they made a decision to align it with Common Core -- i.e. SCHOOL principles. So they made a decision to get rid of a lot of interesting badges to focus on more school curriculum types of ideas. We find that our FCPS students have done a bunch of the badge/journey requirements already.

What girls want is outdoor activities. Unfortunately, the pool of adult women who have outdoor experience is very small and the pool of adults (either men or women) who are willing to take a group on an outdoor activity is even smaller. We need adults willing to (a) learn and (b) lead. My theory about why girls leave scouting in the upper elementary grades is that they out grow the program (get bored with just selling cookies and doing throw-away crafts in a school cafeteria at night). They aren't being challenged and that's b/c the leaders are still plugging along with the skills they used for the K-3rd grade girls... and no other parents have stepped up to bring new skills to the girls. The girls want to be challenged, but in order to challenge them, we need adults who are trained and willing to use their weekends to spend with a troop. Most parents (of girls in scouts) are more comfortable with "spa days" than with campfires.... and they are very attached to keeping it that way. Eventually the girls realize they can go to spa days without being in GS and they really don't have any need for scouting anymore b/c they have BTDT with the cookies and "make the world a better place" stuff.

Unfortunately, Nationals is actively destroying some of the best badges in GS -- which are the "council's own." No, our local GSCNC council doens't have any good ones, but there are some really great badges offered by other councils (oceanography, archery, archeology, etc., etc. -- just tons of interesting topic). Nationals is telling all the councils to get rid of their CO's unless they can make it specific to THAT particular location (so girls outside the council can't earn it). This is just a travesty b/c they got rid of all the interesting badges that used to be national (outdoor cooking, horse rider, etc.) and now they are getting rid of the remaining interesting badges.

Again, I still think GSing is worthwhile, especially for kids who are not on athletic teams and need to learn how to work as a group... but nationals is making it harder to find fun -- active -- things for girls to do under the scouting label.

This is so informative. I LOVED being a GS and learned so much from both the financial responsibility and outdoor survival skills tracks. Have a preschooler now and am looking forward to her joining in a few years. This thread has inspired me to be an active parent and help the troop leader out with the outdoors experiences as much as possible. Thank you OP and pp who is a troop leader for posting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of my daughters ultimately dropped out because they resented that their brother got to go camping all the time in Boy Scouts but their own troops never did anything outdoorsy. Damn shame.

If you wanted outdoorsy so much, why didn't you volunteer to be camp trained and take the girls camping? As a former leader, I can tell you it's a huge time commitment to be a leader and those of us who work full time can't necessarily do it all. If parents think a particular activity is important, they should step up to the plate instead of complaining.

YES! I am a GS leader and complaining about what other troops are doing is a major pastime for the mothers in my troop. Girls can go camping but it requires parental participation, not just the leader.

To be fair, though... there is almost NO official programming in Girl Scouts that points to girls going camping or doing outdoor things anymore. There are no badges for swimming, water activities, canoeing, kayaking, "beach fun", horseback riding, rock climbing, outdoor cooking, fishing, etc.. There is ONE badge for hiking (Brownies), ONE badge for camping (Juniors) and ONE badge for backpacking (Cadettes). Oh, and there is a letterboxing badge for Brownies and Orienteering for Jrs -- but going on ONE hike, ONE letterboxing trip etc counts for these badges.

NONE of these badges are required for anything, though, or are used towards earning any of the "higher awards". It used to be to earn Silver and Giold awards you had to earn a certain number of badges and interest patches, at least.

In Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, outdoor skills and camping a certain number of times are required for advancement, which is why as a part of the official program, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts go camping and hiking a lot more than most Girl Scout troops.

Anonymous wrote:Is there Campfire anywhere in maryland. It definitely used to be - I remember my cousin doing it years ago.

Yes, Camp Fire is still around: http://www.campfireusa-patuxent.org/clubs.asp

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP and also a Girl Scout Leader. There's a group trying to encourage GSUSA to make outdoor skills part of the official program again -- not mandatory, but adding an optional Outdoor Journey so leaders and girls who WANT to get a lot of outdoor/camping experience can still do so easily under these new "Leadership Experience" Journeys that became the program a few years ago.

It is so hard right now to follow the program in the books, and keep your girls interested, because whoever wrote the Journeys obviously didn't have any experience with actual Girl Scouts!

This is a fantastic idea. I hate the Journeys, but you have to do them if you want to do any of the major awards. An outdoor Journey can teach leadership skills, too.

They are trying to be all things to all people. They have certainly dumbed down the number and requirements for badges and made the colors and styles of them junky and childish-looking. The Journeys are so much like "school" that my troop (all classmates) refused to do them meaning they were no longer eligible for higher awards. I did my best to change it up and make them fun, but the emphasis is on these big projects that frankly a working adult troop leader and 19 girls busy with other afterschool activities simply cannot get done. If I had a troop that could meet once or even twice a week and the kids had no other activities and commitments, it might be different. The new format doesn't work for us. My girls want to camp and earn badges for hands on things that are new experiences. They are not interested in the "business-oriented" badges.

Is there Campfire anywhere in maryland. It definitely used to be - I remember my cousin doing it years ago.

Interesting, I thought this was going to be about the fact there are now Girl Scout cookie flavors of candy bars. So gross. I love the cookies, but they should encourage some healthy foods to the scouts (they may do that, I'm not involved since I was a brownie jealous of all the cool things my brother's boy scout troops did).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of my daughters ultimately dropped out because they resented that their brother got to go camping all the time in Boy Scouts but their own troops never did anything outdoorsy. Damn shame.

If you wanted outdoorsy so much, why didn't you volunteer to be camp trained and take the girls camping? As a former leader, I can tell you it's a huge time commitment to be a leader and those of us who work full time can't necessarily do it all. If parents think a particular activity is important, they should step up to the plate instead of complaining.

YES! I am a GS leader and complaining about what other troops are doing is a major pastime for the mothers in my troop. Girls can go camping but it requires parental participation, not just the leader.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Journey program sucks. My DD wants to do the fun stuff the boyscouts do.

That is kind of how I felt when I was a Brownie. My brother got to go camping and participate in the soap box derby. We Brownies just did macramé.

My kids (both genders) just finished doing a Camp Fire Organization outdoor camp in the Midwest. My girly-girl daughter LOVED it. They fished, did a rock-climbing wall, canoed, and cooked out. My daughter (especially) gained a great deal of confidence from it. Too bad Virginia doesn't have Camp Fire. I like it so much better then GSA.

You should look into Baden Powell Scouting -- it is for both boys and girls and is very outdoor/skills focused.

I'm the OP and also a Girl Scout Leader. There's a group trying to encourage GSUSA to make outdoor skills part of the official program again -- not mandatory, but adding an optional Outdoor Journey so leaders and girls who WANT to get a lot of outdoor/camping experience can still do so easily under these new "Leadership Experience" Journeys that became the program a few years ago.

It is so hard right now to follow the program in the books, and keep your girls interested, because whoever wrote the Journeys obviously didn't have any experience with actual Girl Scouts!

Anonymous wrote:Sell more shitty cookies.

They should sell trash bags instead of cookies!

Anonymous wrote:All of my daughters ultimately dropped out because they resented that their brother got to go camping all the time in Boy Scouts but their own troops never did anything outdoorsy. Damn shame.

If you wanted outdoorsy so much, why didn't you volunteer to be camp trained and take the girls camping? As a former leader, I can tell you it's a huge time commitment to be a leader and those of us who work full time can't necessarily do it all. If parents think a particular activity is important, they should step up to the plate instead of complaining.

Sell more shitty cookies.

My daughters troop goes camping twice a year. It's up to the troop how much camping they will do.