Kristie's Craziness

I always tell my daughter that I am the mean mom. I refuse to over schedule her and put her in every extra curricular activity available. Instead I limit her to two. We do Girl Scouts together and then she gets to pick one other activity. The last 2 years, it’s been dance. Somehow I fail to follow the same guidelines for myself. Last year I got conned into running not only my daughter’s brownie troop, but I started a Daisy troop for the district, and got my niece involved in scouting.

I love the friendships, lessons and skills that Girl Scouts teaches. I’m not going to sugar coat it though; Daisy scouts are semi-feral. They have very little attention span. They need to move their bodies on a regular basis. An hour meeting can feel like the longest day ever. Hopefully this posts and ones that follow will assist new leaders with running their Daisy meetings.

It’s recommended that the first Daisy meeting be a parent meeting. It’s a good time to discuss how often you want the troop meet, make sure that you have enough parent volunteers, and discuss dues. Our meetings ran at the same time as our PTO, so we skipped the parent portion of the meeting, and I paid for it with lack of support for the entire year.

We jumped right into earning our Daisy Promise Center.

Snack – Blueberries and Vanilla Greek Yogurt (10 minutes)

I always give the girls snack at the beginning of the meeting. I find we get more done when they aren’t hungry.

Activity 1: Introductions (10 minutes)

• Gather your troop together and sit in a circle.
• Start by introducing yourself and tell the girls about your experiences as a Girl Scout.
• Go around the circle and have each girl say their name, and tell you something they hope to do this year. My girls wanted to do things like have a dance party, play at a park and make crafts.

Activity 2: Introduce the Promise (10 minutes)

• Show the girls how to hold their right hand with their 3 center fingers up.
• Say the Girl Scout Promise, line by line, and ask the girls to repeat after you.
• Ask the girls to tell you what they think the promise means.

Activity 3: Daisy Chain Hide and Seek (10 minutes)

• Have one girl volunteer to be it.
• The other girls go hide.
• When the seeker finds a girl they have to link arms and form a chain to find the next girl.
• The game ends when everyone is found and the troop is in a Daisy Chain.

Activity 4: Girl Scout Promise Flower Pot (15 minutes)

• Supplies – mini clay pots, printed promise squares, popsicle sticks, glue, green index cards, shredded construction paper and foam flower stickers. Sharpies to decorate the pots are fun as well.
• Let the girls decorate their pots with the markers and fill them with shredded construction paper.
• Glue the promise to the index card and decorate around it with the flower stickers.
• Glue the card to the popsicle stick and “plant” it in the construction paper.

Activity 5: Closing Ceremony (5 minutes)

• Say the promise together again.
• Pass out family information packets to be returned next meeting. – Health forms, event schedules, etc.

My daughter’s Daisy troop ran for 1 hour every week. My niece’s troop ran for 1 hour every other week. We obviously did more doing weekly meetings, but were able to complete all the petals doing bi-weekly meetings. I do recommend keeping the length of time to about an hour though, due to attention spans.

I hope this helps you get started with your Daisy troop.

Have fun!

Kristie