Brownies

I stepped up this year and am the leader for Caroline's Brownie troop. I think it is a good program for girls but I am not a die hard scouting person. Mary Kate has always been in a troop so I want the same opportunity for Caroline. The leader from Mary Kate's troop in Texas was extremely organized and ran the troop with ease. I simply copied her model and it has been very manageable.

I've been a little creative and my two favorites are writing a chant for camping and making SWAPS.  SWAPS are "Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Some Where". The girls trade them with girls from other troops.  They are a fun craft project and it is interesting to see other SWAPS. 

I found this SWAP idea somewhere on the Internet.  I googled several sites so I can not link back to a specific source.  My goal was to make them with supplies I had on hand and it had to be simple because each girl needed to make 4.  Here are the supplies:

I pre-cut the felt and twine and placed 4 of the above in a baggie for each girl.  They rolled the felt around a pencil, glued the edge, wrapped and knotted the twine, pulled out the pencil, trimmed the twine, and added the safety pin.  Voila, an adorable little sleeping bag:

The highlight of the year was an overnight camping trip.  It took a good bit of effort to prepare but it was completely worth it.  The girls LOVED it.  They were well behaved and had a great time.  Going to sleep was so challenging for them.  I can not blame them - if I had 8 of my friends in the same room I would have stayed up all night!  They think Caroline's mom is the cat's meow - which is funny because I normally do not have that effect on children.  

This is the chant they sang at the campfire and they made up motions on their own:

S-C-O-U-T-S

Girl Scout camping is the best!

S is for SWAPS we trade,

C is for campfires made.

O is for our sit-upons,

U is for up at dawn.

T is for tents outdoors,

S is for eating s’mores.

S-C-O-U-T-S

Girl Scout camping is the best!