Juliette asked to take a short break in between homeschooling subjects today to work on Girl Scouts. She has a dream to become a Brownie soon, so she is trying to get into first grade asap. But I reminded her that she wants to earn every badge, so she asked for Girl Scouts. I don’t remember where I got it, but there was a place online that had a Girl Scout Memory Book which included a page for every badge with the requirements and a place the mark it earned and for the scout and leader to sign and date it. I handed Juliette hers, and she chose to work on the cybersecurity badges.
Cybersecurity Badges
When I went into the VTK, they now have printable badge books (the same ones they sell in-store). I downloaded the book for Cybersecurity Basics and discovered that it covers all three cybersecurity badges! After completing the first badge, Juliette asked to do the entire booklet and earn all three. Here are the requirements for each badge:
Cybersecurity 1: Basics
- Find out how computers work
- Find out how to protect something valuable
- Discover how you are connected, just like computers!
Cybersecurity 2: Safeguards
- Discover what makes you different from others
- Find out what information is private
- Discover who is in your trust circle
Cybersecurity 3: Investigator
- Find out how to search for an answer
- Use clues to figure out who someone is
- Test your powers of observation
The booklet mostly shares information without adding extra activities, so I tried to add in some of my own. We started Basics with learning about the parts of a computer and compared where to find the parts on my laptop, her tablet, and my phone. Like the mouse is a pad on my laptop, but is a button and our fingers on the tablet and smartphone. We spoke about protecting a computer and that we do software updates, can use an antivirus, or password protect our things. She showed me how someone in her game (Avatar World) had a hiding spot in a bedroom, under a space rug, and under a floorboard. It’s the same idea – a place to keep things safe from prying eyes. We then spoke about how computers connect people around the world. I found a world map online and pointed out other states and countries where people we know live. I asked her how we connect with them (talking, texting, or emailing with or from computers). (Badge 1 earned.)
For Safeguards, there is a “Who am I?” worksheet that Juliette filled out… and led to questions about our different hair and eye colors and she shared things she’s learned about eye color from some educational shows on YouTube Kids. We talked about what information is ok to share online/ with strangers. Juliette usually shares too much information with strangers, so it was a little ironic when she erred on the side of caution on what was okay to share. We then discussed her circle of trust and made sure she remembered who it was okay to share information with. (Badge 2 earned.)
Moving onto Investigator, the booklet had a very short section on searching for an answer – basically it explained a few places to look and not to look to find out what birds eat. Taking it further, Juliette showed me how to find the same answer by searching YouTube Kids. There was also a worksheet to match animals to the website to learn about them. The next step was about using clues… which seems to better match the aforementioned worksheet, but instead it said it was for the following worksheet which was observing and comparing pictures to see what was missing (which better matches step 3…). For step 3, Juliette sat quietly for a minute and tried to pay attention to what she could see, hear, feel, and smell and then shared her observations with me. She also commented on what she should observe in several other situations to make sure she’s safe. (Badge 3 earned.)
Quick shoutout to the kids’ show “Fixies” for teaching Juliette a lot about computers and safety in a fun way!
An Update on Progress
Here’s my usual update on the badges, journeys, and awards that we’re working on or have planned.
- Between Earth and Sky Journey – earned the Bucket and the Firefly and finished reading the story. We have the Take Action Project planned to do next week.
- Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden Journey – we are planning to start this month as a third journey that would also earn her Daisy Journey Summit Award Pin
- Money Explorer Badge – we haven’t started yet, but it seems to go well with cookie season
- How Robots Move Badge/ Design a Robot Badge – would make sense to follow up the first robotic badge with these
- STEM Sisters Chemistry – it’s a fun patch, not a badge, but chemistry is the focus this quarter, so we’ll be doing that too. Juliette already chose the 4 things she wants to do to earn this patch, including fuzzy painting, weird science, alka-seltzer reaction, and campfire chemistry.
Badge Numbers 23-25
- 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
- Animal Observer (and fun patches: Girl Scouts of Hawai’i, Queen Liliʻuokalani, WWII Remembrance, I Love to Travel, Cruise Ship, Hawaiian Luau, STEM Sisters, Space Science)
- Considerate and Caring
- Courageous and Strong (and My Promise, My Faith Pin Year 1)
- Responsible for What I Say and Do (and Daisy Global Action Award Year 1)
- Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey
- Respect Myself and Others
- What Robots Do (Robotics fun patch and Total Eclipse)
- My First Cookie Business (GS Council CEO, GS Council, and Cookie Rally fun patches, and Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin Year 1)
- Respect Authority (Safety Award Pin and World Thinking Day Award 2025)
- Use Resources Wisely (Techie, Booth Sales, Gift of Caring, 200+ bar, Embrace Possibilities, 2025 Year bar, Charm patch with Embrace Possibilities charm, My First Cookie Sale 2025, STEM box)
- Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout
- Good Neighbor
- Automotive 1: Design
- Automotive 2: Engineering
- Automotive 3: Manufacturing
- Craft and Tinker
- Cybersecurity 1: Basics
- Cybersecurity 2: Safeguards
- Cybersecurity 3: Investigator