It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted. Part of it is that Juliette hasn’t earned much in that time, but another part of it is that sickness and life got in the way.
Another Petal
Since I last wrote, Juliette earned the Respect Authority petal.
- Respect home rules
- Respect authority at school
- Respect authority in your city or town
We mainly utilized the Daisy Handbook for this one. For step one, we imagined the rules for a family of dragons (such as when they could breathe fire and that they should be cautious around water). Step two was a bit of a challenge. As homeschoolers, we don’t have typical school rules yet, but we talked about various rules that would be worth incorporating. For step three, we followed The Badge Archive’s suggestion of reading (watching a video storytime of) Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen.
Safety Award Pin
I’m excited to say that Juliette finished earning the Safety Award Pin! This wasn’t easy because it’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of work to even find the requirements. I couldn’t find them on the Girl Scouts official website or in the Volunteer Toolkit. They’re supposedly listed in the Girls Guide to Girl Scouting (a retired binder at this point). Luckily, The Badge Archive has the requirements listed and also redirects to the Girl Scout Safety Award Directions for every Girl Scout level, a handout from Girl Scouts of Maine.
- Understand what to do if you get lost. Know your phone number, address, and who it’s safe to ask for help (police officer, teacher, person in charge).
- Find out what you should do if you or a friend is choking.
- Learn how to do “Stop, Drop, and Roll” if your clothing catches on fire.
We were able to find videos for steps 2 and 3, and we also watched a video with a catchy song “in case of a fire, call 9-1-1.” Step 1 was a process we began before Girl Scouts. I’ve been teaching Juliette our address in case she ever gets lost for awhile now. She’ll say the pieces of the address out of order (number, state, town, road) most of the time, but I continually reinforce and remind her often so she’s getting better. As I’ve mentioned, I take the kids to a local school for Juliette’s speech therapy. One day, Cub asked the safety officer (police officer) to hold his hand as we walked back to the car. Officer K was wonderful and she and I spoke to Juliette about what to do if she gets lost, about not sharing personal information with just anyone (but okay to share address and phone number with police if she’s lost or needs help). Side note: I really love how good the officers have all been with my kids! And to finish off the requirements, Juliette has now been able to write, type, and recite my cell phone number… all 10 digits… on multiple occasions. I try to reinforce address and phone number a few times each week in hopes that she’ll easily remember in case of an emergency.
World Thinking Day Award 2025
World Thinking Day is celebrated every year on February 22nd by Girl Scouts and Girl Guides worldwide. Although it can be earned at any point during the year, having February 22nd land on a Saturday sounded like the perfect time to earn a new award!
- Explore World Thinking Day
- Experience World Thinking Day with purpose
- Investigate this year’s World Thinking Day theme
- Share what you learned and commit to a better future
This year’s theme is “Our Story: Reflecting the symbolism and values of our Movement” and GSUSA conveniently made activity guides for earning the award. For step one, Juliette and I listened to “The World Song” and she wrote and sang her own song based on the idea of World Thinking Day. I don’t remember ever hearing “The World Song” before, despite it being the official song of WAGGGS since before my mother was even born. The comments on the YouTube video lead me to believe that it’s commonly shared nowadays, so I’m guessing we’ll be hearing it in the years to come. Anyways, here are the lyrics to 5-year old Juliette’s song: “I love you Earth, I love you Earth, You are a gift and I love you. Deep in the stars and I love you. Stars stars stars, I love you.”
We skipped ahead to step three and Juliette drew herself as a superhero (because superheroes have the confidence to speak up). Some of her powers include being good at arts and crafts, being creative, and loving learning. We went back to step two and spoke with a friend who was born in Jamaica and moved to the United States as a young adult. She spoke about growing up in Jamaica – the weather, food, transportation, and more of her experiences (which we compared to Juliette’s), as well as a little about moving to the United States. For step four, the activity guide includes a pledge that girls can fill out including how they will share what they learned. I wrote it out in Juliette’s kindergarten notebook and she filled in the blanks. She chose to share her song to make a difference.
An Update on Progress
Here’s my usual update on the badges, journeys, and awards that we’re working on or have planned.
- Use Resources Wisely and Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout petals – the last two petals! Juliette should earn within the next few weeks.
- 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 in March/April.
- Money Explorer Badge/ Good Neighbor Badge – we haven’t started yet, but they seem to go well with all of the cookie badges.
- How Robots Move Badge/ Design a Robot Badge – would make sense to follow up the first robotic badge with these
- Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden Journey – we haven’t started, but we have the books and this would be a great third journey that would also earn her Daisy Journey Summit Award Pin
- Automotive badges – she’s signed up for a virtual event with NASCAR in April to earn all three badges
- Daisy Craft and Tinker Badge – we plan to work on this badge at an upcoming Home Depot or Lowe’s kids workshop
Badge Number 15
- 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)