We’ve been busy with travel, but Juliette has still managed to earn some new things.
STEM Sister Patches
The girls in STEM Sisters earn patches for everything… truly. Juliette attended quarterly meetings (Q2 and Q3) and attended a virtual panel of women in cybersecurity positions. She also completed the second quarter challenge – Health Sciences. As a Daisy, she had to complete four of the activities, so she attended a STEM Sisters virtual meeting, Health Sciences Career Exploration (we looked up info on surgical technologist – women in the position, what they do, how to become one), Women in Health Sciences (we looked up women surgeons and found a bunch that had made big contributions to medicine), Fingerprint Forensics (she did pencil rubbing, then took each member of the family’s fingerprints and taped them in her notebook. She looked at the loops and whorls and arches and could see that each fingerprint was different).
God is Love, Mass
The National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) has religious recognition programs and patches for children in Girl Scouts and other scouting-type programs. I’ve ordered Juliette almost all of the available patches (the store is closing and will reopen differently, so they recently had a big sale). Anyway, earlier this year, she began to go through the God is Love program and she finally finished it a few months ago. According to the booklet and website, we’re supposed to go through our diocese/ archdiocese for the awarding of the pin and/or patch, but they said that we should ask our pastor and have it presented at mass. I’ve reached out and she should be receiving the medal soon!
Recently, we visited the Girl Scout Shop and saw a Mass fun patch. I asked Juliette if she wanted it as a Daisy (already earned) or Brownie (to earn in the future). She chose Daisy, so she’s already earned it by participating in Mass, bringing the offering to the altar and the priest several times.
Global Action Award Year 2
Just like last year, Juliette attended a virtual program by a Girl Scout troop in California to earn her Global Action Award. This year, the focus was on Sustainable Development Goal #14: Life Under Water. Although GSUSA hadn’t updated the goal in the website, the steps as I understand them are:
- Explore the Global Goals and Global Action Award.
- Explore what it means to be a global citizen.
- Create a global citizen challenge.
- Explore what protecting life under water means.
- Create a life under water challenge
Through videos, games, coloring, and slides, the Ambassadors of troop 11302 walked attendees through all the steps. They even provided infographics and bookmarks for the girls to hand out as their action project.
Math in Nature Badges
I purchased these badges before our December 2024 vacation (we were going to Hawaii and planning to be in nature a lot, but I wasn’t able to focus on these badges – though she did earn several patches and a badge on that trip!), and we finally chose to work on them.
Shapes in Nature
- Search for shapes in nature
- Find and make patterns
- Create art inspired by nature
We planned to do this at the park after the homeschool meetup… then the meetup ended up being moved to the park so the kids were too tired and thirsty to stay. We moved this badge indoors, but Juliette looked out windows and looked at nature indoors (I have a LOT of plants). Step one, Juliette looked for shapes in nature by looking outside, but then couldn’t see enough, so she watched a webcam of an aquarium on the Bronx Zoo website. Step two, she looked at my snake plants and explored how each leaf was a different pattern and came up with her own pattern ideas. Step three, Juliette and Cub cut out the nature pieces from the Volunteer Toolkit guide to the badge. I helped her to string them up to make a mobile.
Numbers in Nature
- Search for shadows
- Sort natural objects
- Make your own unit of measurement
We started this badge while driving to Home Depot for the kids workshop. Both Juliette and Cub looked outside at the shadows. We talked about how the sun created the shadows and observed how the shadow of the car in front of us moved around the car as we changed directions. Juliette was able to point out where the sun was based on the shadows. At home, we traced each other’s shadows once, then returned to the same spot later to see that our shadows got taller when the sun moved lower in the sky. For step two, both kids picked grass and flowers and then compared their sizes. For step three, we talked about units of measure than measured a stick. Juliette guessed the length, then we measured the length in flip flops, crocs, hands, etc. I shared that we could measure the flip flop and other items later to determine the length of the stick in inches or feet or other common measurements.
Design with Nature
- Count with birds
- Identify parts of nature
- Make a map
I’ve never really heard the birds around our house… or have only rarely heard them. Based on this, I found a YouTube video of birds singing for the first step. Juliette was able to listen to the birds and I asked her to pay attention to the variety of bird songs. For step two, we recently visited a nature preserve that had an animal track scavenger hunt in their discovery center. Juliette and Cub ran around looking for the animal tracks and used the handout to identify which animal would’ve left those tracks. For step three, Juliette created a map of our neighborhood.
An Update on Progress
I believe Juliette has 15 badges, journeys, and awards left as a Daisy, and only 3.5 months until she’s officially a Brownie, so here’s the plan:
- We’ve started the 5 Flowers, 4 Stories, 3 Cheers for Animals! Journey and plan to work on the other journeys this summer.
- With the awarding of the God is Love medal upcoming, we will also work on the My Faith Pin Year 2.
- After completing the NASCAR program, Juliette just has the Board Game Design Challenge to finish up the mechanical engineering set.
- I left space for the Aloha patch on Juliette’s uniform, so that’s coming up soon also.
- She got a Year of the Horse fun patch so we need to do that too.
Badge Numbers 42, 43, & 44
- 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)
- Daisy Snow or Climbing Adventure (Outdoor)
- Digital Leadership (Summer Reading, Read Across America, Outdoor meeting, STEM Sister Superstar)
- Art and Design (STEM Sisters, STEM Sister Early Bird, STEM Sisters 2025/2026, Brought My Bestie)
- Create and Innovate (Cybersecurity)
- Model Car Design Challenge
- Roller Coaster Design Challenge
- Fun with Movement
- Toy Business Designer (STEM Sisters – Attended Meeting 1, Women in STEM GSTFL, Gingerbread)
- Cookie Goal Setter (Cookie Rally, I met the CEO, Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin Year 2)
- My Money Choices
- Shapes in Nature (STEM Sisters – Attended Meeting 2, Attended Meeting 3, Attended Cybersecurity Panel, God is Love, Mass, Global Action Award Year 2)
- Numbers in Nature
- Design with Nature
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