A few days ago, Juliette asked to earn her next badge, so we continued through the Girl Scout Law to start the next petal, Friendly and Helpful. When I looked at the requirements and the plan in the volunteer toolkit, they looked more appropriate for a troop than for an individually registered member, so I went to the internet for ideas. While there, I discovered a fun program that would earn a different badge, and Juliette was excited to attend.
Friendly and Helpful
The idea of this badge is quite straight-forward:
- Be friendly and helpful at home
- Be friendly and helpful in your troop
- Be friendly and helpful in your community
As a new mentor, I haven’t gotten into the habit of modifying the action plans yet, so this was my first time looking at a badge and figuring out what would best work to help my daughter earn it. One of the ideas in the Daisy Handbook was to create chore cards. It had colorful cards to fill out, so I made a copy of the page and Juliette wrote down the chores she was willing to do: clean up her bedroom, clean up the family room, and babysit her little brother. I then had to hide the cards because she was trying to be stealthy, as only a 5-year old can be, and tried to take the chore cards back.
I looked up ideas at this point and she chose to make “Helping Hands” that I found on Troop Leader Mom’s blog. Juliette enjoyed cutting out the handprints and decorating them. I told her that she wouldn’t earn her badge until she had done at least three helpful things without being asked and left her handprint. (She started by helping me make her daddy’s lunch for the next day and grabbing him snacks from her supply… 🥰)
Since both of the previous tasks were about being helpful and taking action, for the third task, I asked her what it meant to be friendly and what that looked like. Once we got past the silly answers (cleaning people’s toilets… again, she’s five…), we were able to come up with friendly things that she could do and things that weren’t friendly so she shouldn’t do them. She started this badge first, but finished it after the next one since she needed to finish being helpful for the handprints.
A Lost Astronaut in Space!
While researching fun patches we can earn in the future, I discovered Girl Scout News and Activities. They not only sell patches (and seem to have sales once or twice a month), but they also host fun badge-earning events through Eventbrite. When I looked, they had 3 different “immersive escape room experiences for Girl Scouts” that they were regularly hosting, A Trip to Mars, The Ghost of Pandora’s Manor, and A Winter Wonderland. The first two said they earned or contributed to badges for each level of Girl Scouts and earned a fun patch, and the last one only earned a fun patch. I gave Juliette the option and she chose to take A Trip to Mars. Unfortunately, no one else signed up for our session, but the organizer/host, Rebecca, emailed and gave us the option to switch sessions. Luckily, another girl signed up to attend the following session, so Juliette was excited to attend.
We got in the Zoom room a few minutes early, and Juliette grabbed her tunic so she could look like a Girl Scout. The other girl was older, so I was happy I was there to help Juliette to better understand some of the things and read words or point to things she may have missed. From the site:
Rumor has it that there has been some foul play on the planet Mars! After a secret mission went awry, an astronaut has gone missing. The final transmission was concerning and we were hired to investigate. Can we solve the mystery and find a way home?
I loved seeing Juliette’s excitement during this experience. She was able to work on pattern recognition, use logic, and just have fun. She was also able to learn from an older Girl Scout and Rebecca was great at asking questions directly to each girl. And as an added bonus, it gave Juliette a chance to be friendly and helpful!
Although the description said that the full Space Science Explorer badge would be earned during this event, the badge requirements talk about the Sun, Moon, and Stars. After the experience ended (and Juliette began asking to do the Halloween experience next!), we reviewed information about the Sun, Moon, and Stars to make sure everything was covered. She hadn’t learned about constellations yet, so she checked them out and I hope she’ll be able to see them live soon!
Badge Numbers 5 & 6
The other day Juliette told me that she wants to earn all of the badges/awards, so I’m trying to find opportunities for her to earn each one. I think there are only three awards that are based on Girl Scout year (they have one each for Daisy year 1 and Daisy year 2), and World Thinking Day (February 22) can be earned each annual year (i.e. 2025, 2026). Based on that, there should be 57 regular badges/journeys/awards, plus 4 for the first year and 4 for the second year, and then all of the fun patches or council-specific patches. I wonder if they’ll all fit on her tunic? We’ll see!
- Promise Center (and Home School patch)
- Democracy for Daisies (and 2024 Election patch)
- Make the World a Better Place
- Honest and Fair
- Space Science Explorer (and Mars patch)
- Friendly and Helpful