I think it’s been a little over a month since I last updated so I want to get everything added that’s been going on!
Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden Journey and Daisy Journey Summit Pin
I had originally misunderstood the Daisy Journey Summit Pin. I thought it was earned by completing three journeys in a year. It’s actually earned by completing three journeys as a Daisy, so that would be within two years since Juliette started in kindergarten. Either way, she wants to earn every badge, including all seven journeys, so she’s quickly moving through them. She set a goal to receive the pin at her first Court of Awards, so we chose to do the Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden journey next.
Here are the requirements:
- Explore the world of gardening—plant a mini-garden, learn about composting, find out how ladybugs help flowers, take a field trip to a public garden, or talk to a beekeeper.
- Plan a Take Action project, such as planting vegetables in a community garden or flowers at a nearby hospital.
- Earn 3 leadership awards: Watering Can Award, Golden Honey Bee Award, and Amazing Daisy Award.
Although there were plenty of plans and ideas online, we used the journey book and guide for this journey. Juliette learned a little about Juliette Gordon Low and we planted and replanted a bunch of things at our house, as well as visited several garden centers, learned more about composting, and I reminded her about ladybugs and bees and how they help plants. She helped water our plants, which represented the “be responsible for what I say and do” line of the Girl Scout Law. This earned the Watering Can Award. In a Reddit thread, someone noted that their council had done a Journey-in-a-Day and the girls planted a flower to give to someone for their Take Action project. I found a small egg container daisy garden at Dollar General, so Juliette planted daisies to share as her project. (Unfortunately, we went through a heat wave and the daisies sprouts died before she could give them away, but I believe it still counted since she’s only 5… though she may try again when the weather is better.) Completing a Take Action Project means she earned the Golden Honey Bee Award. The Amazing Daisy Award represents knowing and living the Girl Scout Promise and Law. She earned this by reviewing both and saying them as she strives to do better. By earning the Journey, she completed her third journey (Think Like a Citizen Scientist, Between Earth and Sky, and this one), so she also earned the Daisy Journey Summit Pin.
Money Explorer
I’ve been wanting to do the Money Explorer badge for months, but we were working on a ton of other badges. Since there are two money badges that seemed similar, I figured this one was more of a first year badge. Here are the requirements:
- Find out about different coins
- Know more about paper money
- Practice using paper and coin money
For this badge, we grabbed the badge requirement workbook from the volunteer toolkit. Juliette reviewed current coins and their values (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters) and we watched a video on YouTube about different ways to make a dollar using coins. We also talked about paper money and learned that it’s not actually made out of paper (so that’s why it’s not destroyed by rain or the washing machine!). Next up, Juliette drew pictures of things she’d want to buy or sell and we used play money to buy the items and talked about if the play money was enough or too much/ if we needed to pay more or receive change.
A Few Fun Patches
She also earned some fun patches recently. I finally decided that we’d start with the 2025 Lunar New Year patch instead of continuing to search for a 2024 one. For the Year of the Snake fun patch, I reminded her about the red envelopes that she and her brother had received from her Chinese grandparents and from her daddy and me. We also watched two videos about the zodiac and snake. Next up was the Big Sister fun patch – Juliette planned a fun activity to do with her brother, and then they did it (blowing and chasing bubbles outside). Juliette earned her Police Department Visit fun patch when cookie season ended. She had decided to use any money she collected at her cookie booth to buy cookies to donate to our local Police Department. I reached out to the chief and mentioned the three officers she knew from attending speech therapy at the middle school. When we delivered the cookies, he arranged for all three to be there. They gave our family a tour of the station and left 5 beanie babies for Juliette and Cub to find. The kids also got to sit in the driver’s seat of one of their vehicles, use the lights, sirens, and PA microphone, as well as take picture with the officers in the courthouse.
Court of Awards
We also attended Juliette’s first Court of Awards ceremony this month. This event was put on by our local service unit and also included bridging, but my in-laws were visiting and Juliette was too impatient to stay for that part (Daddy had already taken Cub for a walk because he was bored, so we left early). We were there for the welcome and investiture in which Juliette went to the front and was welcomed to Girl Scouts with a handful of other girls that were new to scouting – apparently they also had a ceremony in the fall that we missed so that’s why there were so few up front for this part of this one. Juliette was told that her membership pin had to be flipped upside-down and only fixed when she did a good turn (she was thoughtful and grabbed snacks for her brother and herself).
Next was the rededication for all other Girl Scouts, which included me. This was followed by the award ceremony. I expected the various troops to each share, but Juliette and I went first and I awarded her anything she had earned in the two previous months, and then the service unit leader presented the awards to all other girls. Maybe if I had attended a leader meeting she would’ve been included with the others, but I was happy that Juliette could attend and share in the excitement, and that I was able to present her badges since she didn’t know anyone else there. We left soon thereafter as one of the older girls read a story that everyone was supposed to help with sound effects. I think Juliette will enjoy it more when she’s older, but hunger and boredom struck. I realized when we left that I hadn’t given her a membership star and disc so those were added to her uniform later on. This was the end of the year, sort of. Although we’ll continue over the summer, most troops only meet during the school year.
An Update on Progress
Here’s my usual update on the badges, journeys, and awards that we’re working on or have planned. Currently it’s not much with the end of the school year, but I’m planning to check in with Juliette to see what she wants to do:
- STEM Sisters quarterly challenge: Outdoors – the quarter is July-September, but we just received the packet in the mail. Juliette has chosen a few of the challenges she’d like to do (she needs to choose 4 as a Daisy)
- Daisy Snow or Climbing Adventure – one of the challenges above is to earn an outdoors badge. Juliette chose the climbing adventure!
- Daisy Trail Adventure, Outdoor Art Maker, Buddy Camper, Daisy Outdoor Journey – since it’s now summertime, I think we’ll also be working on the rest of the outdoor badges. The Outdoor Journey consists of two of the badges and a Take Action Project, so she may complete another journey this summer.
- Non-badge related – I’m working on starting a troop for homeschoolers in September/October so we’ll see how that goes. I plan to continue to work with Juliette outside of meetings so she can earn everything, but I think she’d enjoy having meetings and doing activities with other Girl Scouts.
Badge Numbers 30 & 31
- 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
- Robotics 1: 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
- Eco Learner (Chemistry, Weird Science, and Meet-the-Pro Chemistry, Robotics, Space Science)
- Between Earth and Sky Journey
- Robotics 2: How Robots Move
- Robotics 3: Design a Robot (Stall Catchers fun patch)
- Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden Journey (Daisy Journey Summit Pin)
- Money Explorer (2025 Lunar New Year – Year of the Snake, Big Sister, Police Department Visit)