AnneinMpls

Hi Kris - interesting topic, but I'm not *quite* sure what you're getting at - can you start us off with an example?

Anne in Mpls

Hi folks,

I've really appreciated all your advice and wisdom as we move forward with our girls. We just arrived home last night from Lake Itasca (more in-depth overview of the trip in another topic).

All 4 of our new Juniors came and because of the bunking situation, I put our 2 most self-sufficent Brownies in with them to fill the room. Those 6 functioned like a well-oiled machine from a bygone era - I gotta say how very proud I am of these sharp young ladies.

Now this week we're heading into recruiting events for the Service Unit (District for you guys from the Red Planet ) If I bring in 4th 5th and 6th graders, can I stipulate a certain number of months in scouting as a requirement for patrol leader elections? How often should we have elections? Does 3 months give girls enough time in the position and enough rotation for more girls to learn the ropes?

SagerScout, regarding not bringing in 6th graders - I think I want to go ahead with this in order to get a critical mass together to get the troop up and running, then keep them in our troop and go to a combined Junior/Cadette program - the older ones can still participate in the Council events for their age level. If we have enough 6th grade on up, after a rotation through a patrol with all ages together, they can form a patrol of just cadette level girls. From there, it will be up to their patrol to make arrangements to take part in these council events or whatever else they want to do and we'll support them by providing the adult leaders they need in order to participate.

Right now, we have 2 critical areas to address: 1. making sure I'm not spread too thin leading both the Brownie troop and the new Junior troop - I havn't yet had another mom step up to the plate to lead the Brownies - I have a fabulous assistant leader who is my Sargeant-at-Arms when I don't even deserve to have one :] but as skilled and capable as she is she prefers to assist. 2. getting our SU registrar to get us a new troop number, whish shouldn't even be an issue, but this person has not returned my phone calls or emails all summer. 3. gotta check with our sponsoring org. to make sure they like the idea of having another troop using their meeting space.

I'm looking at http://www.wix.com/troop67/WebPages/Recruitment_and_New_Scouts/newscouthome.htm for some tips on recruiting. Any other resources you can recommend would be muchly appreciated

Peace out,

Anne in Mpls

Hi folks!

I've been wondering over this one. I think if we really looked at it carefully, most of us would agree we're better-suited to the needs and interests of a particular level in Girl Scouting. Instead, we hang in there with the same bunch of girls, usually our daughter and a few friends. This bothers me - it limits the opportunities for new girls to join, and the opportunities for our daughters to meet a range of caring adult role models.

I just heard last night at our Council's Fall Preview, that this trend of tiny troops and more troops is really really expensive. Honestly, to do a better job, we should be seeking bigger troops and supporting them adequately. Probably half our leaders would be much more effective as a co-leader, or troop committee chair, or serving at the Service Unit level.

I really wish we'd make our recruiting efforts for volunteers more focused...

So, if you were recruiting a *great* Brownie leader, what would you look for? If you were recruiting a *great* Junior leader, what would you look for? How bout a Studio2B advisor, or Cadette or Senior leader? What if you had an awesome lady in front of you saying she really wanted to help out and give some time to Girl Scouting...how would you help her discover a good fit?

And *why* why why do we only approach our already-busy troop leaders for Service Unit or Council positions? Why??!

Backpacking in the Black Forest,

riding the overnight train from Brussels to Munich with my bestest friend Cathy 2 years in a row for the older girl conferences, staying at the now gone Olave House in London with our troop, working all year fundraising to pay for our own horseback riding lessons all summer (thanks Mom!), being invited to sit in on a training session for Belgian troop leaders - it was in Flemish - I couldn't understand a word - but it was Scouting and it made perfect sense , our first co-op campout with the Boy Scout troop - we each planned activities for the weekend - the boy scouts invited us to...to...climb under this rope thing in the mud on our bellies after it'd been raining for 3 days straight?! Had a blast (Also learned to keep flashlights off in the tents ahem.) As a CIT letting a Brownie give me a *really really* bad manicure at camp, washing the camp bus, gorging on Nutella and marshmallows when we got back from 6 days out on the trail (this took precedence over showering), the singdown at Chiemsee - Cathy and I were unstoppable - they finally ended the contest after 2 and a half hours and we were still coming up with songs for the theme (a singdown is a contest in which each group or patrol has to sing a recognizable phrase from a song to fit the theme - if they can't think of a song they're eliminated - the people who planned this thought it might fill up maybe an hour...if only Cathy and I hadn't been on different teams we would have put them out of their misery a *lot* sooner...)

The coolest part is...there are more great memories yet to be made )

Greetings all! Hehe - yup, first thing I saw in my inbox today was the email from the Service Unit for recruitment night - I've volunteered for doing one of the parks, so I'm definitely on the lookout for those Junior age girls!

Brownies troops traditionally were often divided into smaller groups of about 6 girls each - hence the British term "sixes" to call the group, and "sixer" to name the girl taking care of such things as attendance (compares to "den" and "denner"). They're very careful to train Brown Owls that sixers are only in charge of "things", not other girls, because that is a responsibility that requires a level of maturity that Brownie age girls don't yet have. (I worry that we do girls - and boys! - a disservice when we call something "patrols" when they're really not - if it's truly girl/boy-led let's call em patrols, but if it's convenient grouping led by adults, let's better call it something else to help differentiate...) Current terminology in GSUSA is to call these smaller groupings "Brownie Circles" - now, that to me is pretty goofy when we've also got our main form of troop government at that age level called the Brownie Ring! But oh well...

Congrats and good wishes on your growing troop, MomScouter! I think 3 patrols is really great if you can do it - put the bug in the girls' ears to do some recruiting to get their patrols to full strength )

For our camping trip this weekend, we're grouping the girls into "cabins" - the junior patrol gets their own cabin to themselves, and is expected to be more self-sufficient.

I'm not at all certain our troop will be able to grow beyond one-patrol size this year, but I guess we'll see how things are looking with recruitment night coming up.....hmmmmmmm...I think I'll ask those Juniors of mine if they want a piece of putting together recruitment night...

I guess at this point recruitment is our big need! It's all becoming clearer

G'mornin

I'll preface this by saying I have a small amount of backpacking experience - not extensively enough to experiment much and compare and contrast, nor am I degreeed in physiology or anything!

Seems to me that men and women metabolize sugars differently - that piece of hard candy or caramel at a rough spot in the trail doesn't seem to give women that same sort of burst of energy - small meals more often of the peanut butter/cheese/crackers sort seem to work better for us - I'd suggest to plan plenty of trail protein snacks for your co-ed venture crews!

www.melpomene.org here in the Twin Cities is a cool resource.

Thanks bunches for your reply - yes, I agree patrol method is not appropriate for younger 'uns. And I apologize for asking you to compare Martian apples and Venusian oranges!

If I might suggest a (necessarily flawed) rubric,

GSUSA BSA

Daisies - Kdgn. Tigers - 1st grade

(both have parent and kiddo participating together)

Brownies 1st-3rd Cubs/Webs 2nd-4th+

(pretty differently structured - for Brownies, every meeting is like a pack meeting, kinda-sorta - GSUSA recommended troop size at this age is 15 to 25)

Juniors 4th-6th Boy Scouts 5th on up

This is where we introduce patrol system (or method as called on Mars!) and looks like with our fairly frequent rotation of PLs works similarly to the New Scout Patrols but without the milieu of the experienced patrols.

So this is where we're at, this is the girls' summer before starting 4th grade (roughly developmentally most similar to entering 5th grade Martians) - if you look at 4th grade class pictures, you'll typically see the girls kinda head and shoulders above the guys at this age). I guess our situation parallels that of a brand new troop of incoming Webelos with no experienced SPL around - how to do it without the built-in modelling from older scouts?

(And thank you muchly for putting up with me on this forum! A lot of GS'ers have simply given up on using the patrol system, and I'm beginning to see that maybe it's tied directly to our brief-tenured troop structures - I hear BSA folks complain once in a while about the huge age range they have to deal with, 10-18?, but maybe that's what it takes to have successful patrol method?)

Hi all - I'm really enjoying learning more about the BSA lifeguard certification.

Also, find myself comparing and contrasting G2SS policy with GSUSA's Safety-Wise policy which I've been having to comb through these last couple weeks.

No lifeguards on duty up at Itasca State Park where we're headed for the weekend, so I signed up to get my Red Cross Lifeguard training (trained lifeguard for *all* swimming required by GSUSA) - wow, things have changed a !!lot!!! since I got my RC Advanced Lifesaving 20 years ago. (BTW, to share the good news, I passed all my tests today - woohoo!!!!!! Really didn't think I'd be able to do it at 35 and asthmatic lungs and not having exercised too much in the last few years - but amazingly a lot has stuck with me - just gotta stop trying to "chin em and pit em" - we don't do that anymore )

Safety-Wise also requires that we have a full complement of rescue equipment on hand, and all they have there is a ring bouy. Gah....anybody know if it's proper to go ahead and make my own backboard?? Those things are expensive! So are rescue tubes....sheesh. Our Brownies already voted to pay the $180 out of their own funds for my training. Is there a way to borrow this equipment or get it on the cheap??

Also, for the number of girls we have going, I'm required to also use two "watchers" and it's "recommended" that they be trained in Basic Water Rescue - ok, so...I downloaded the Basic Water Rescue course guide off the 'net, and I'm taking my watchers out to a beach next week to practice some basic reaching assists, and lots and lots of emphasis on what NOT to do, etc - it won't be certification but as it's a recommendation and not a requirement, this is the best idea I've come up with..

Still want to get an actual Small Craft Safety course in, but I'm using my canoeing instruction training from way back when at CIT as my "documented experience".

I know - I have a truly nutty bunch of girls - they even get excited about the serious "boring" adult-sounding stuff. Anyway, I restructured a bit so that they're forced to choose only *some* of these less fun-filled sounding activities Somehow I ended up with a troop of little professors like my own kid - at least they like fishing I think I do need to remind them we can always come back another time if we don't have time to do it all!

We got filler activities up the wazoo - some are projects in progress, some new stuff. The girls are preparing all the meals (even though we're rotating patrols for the meals, most of the meals have things for every girl to do to make her own - the patrols are in charge of prepping ingredients and getting the fire going mostly)

From what I remember from my Cub Scouter days, cubs seemed to need a *lot* more "entertaining". Brownies from my experience seem to get a lot of fun out of doing "grown up" stuff (think about it....girls do a lot of playing house...not too many cub scouts would put up with more than 2 and a half minutes of *that*. Camping out with Brownies becomes playing house on a grand scale - from the differences I see in what young boys and girls appreciate, I do wonder how co-ed scouting programs make it work - from what I saw of co-ed scouting groups in Belgium, it looked like the boys found other outlets outside of scouting to burn off that typical boyish energy, and the girls in the same way did their more "girlish" play at home - the scouting program kinda fit in the middle overlapping areas, but umm...I'm digressing badly!)

But I do share your reservations about the driving tour - since you spoke up I found a website (my original info only came from park staff) and I've emailed them asking whether the program will be of interest for the kids I'm bringing.

http://pioneerfarmers.tripod.com/index.html

I'm guessing that once I get the kidlets in on and around the water, that's where they'll want to be (forgot to mention the wading and hopping from stone to stone across the baby mississippi )

hehe - it's always the adults who are the trouble makers I have one mom apparently really unhappy with the 5 am departure time I've set, and now they seem to have the idea this is negotiable....sigh. It's a 5 hour drive....add in stopping for a quick breakfast, etc and the whole day can slip by pretty quick.

I'm already writing up a lil page regarding expectations for chaperones, including a substantial message regarding allowing daughters to enjoy their own experience of camp apart from mom (and to avoid allowing special privileges!), and the girls have already gotten to identify adults *other than mom* that they can go to (meaning that, they can go to any adult on the trip, but this helped them to already begin acknowledging their mom's different role for the trip - I did this on the same page that I made up for girls to select cabin mates/buddies - all kept confidential)

The girls already are very skilled in packing and carrying their own belongings. We work on this at troop meetings and I do very detailed specific packing lists. I have to work a bit with our 15 yo helper, as she is happy to be used as a pack horse by anyone who gets tired or whiney.

I do like your idea for the trip back - keeps things upbeat (though gotta say it...I'm really proud of these girls! They are cheerful to the core)....hmmm, I might do this with the girls voting...awards for keeping each part of the promise and law....that's 3 plus 10....I need two more...umm, oooh! Motto and slogan

My bigger concern right now is the pacing of the weekend. I know that some of the very best stuff happens when nothing else is happening...

Well, in just a couple weeks I'm bringing 15 girls up to Lake Itasca. As this is our first overnight outing on our own (we've done overnights with the whole Service Unit where all the activity is planned for us) we are sleeping indoors, cooking outdoors. We're staying at the Mississippi Headwaters Youth Hostel - if we like it, we'll keep this as a future destination for winter overnights once we move on to tent camping. We have 6 adults and a 15 year old helper. (Too many adults to my mind - comments?) I'm encouraging the 15 y.o. to function as an SPL. Due to the configuration of the space, the girls are divided into 4 "cabins/patrols", the 4 4th graders are in one group, and the younger ones in 2 groups of 4 and one group of 3 - each patrol assigned a turn at cooking for the group.

We've got lots of activity options - I'm wanting to avoid a pressured/overscheduled weekend. I have an adult who wants to teach map and compass, another adult who is an architect that can take us around on the historic buildings tour/hike (lots of old CCC log cabins etc.) I'll be lifeguarding for swimming and canoeing and fishing (our girls *love* to fish - never seen anything like it!). We got a boat tour of the Lake shortly after we arrive on Friday and use of the Visitor's Center to get oriented to the area. Also have a pioneer farmers driving tour we can opt in on and a campfire program led by a naturalist, and I have an email off to the director of the Biological Station to see if we can get a tour there. We've been prepping for the trip using the Junior Park Naturalist materials from the state dnr, so we've done lots of habitat/biome study. Thing is, for a 2 night 3 day trip, our plate is looking pretty full. I don't want the girls thinking they have to do it all, but knowing them, they'll want to - our girl planning tends to go like...do you want to do xxx? followed by resounding yeas - in other words, everything is a yes - I showed em the brochures from Lake Itasca, and every activity listed they wanted to do.

Dunno....how's this weekend grabbing you? I think right now I'm just feeling all the stress of the preparations (have been renewing my lifeguard training the last week and a half so the girls can do all the on-the-water stuff they want to do - big test on Thursday...) and making sure every GSUSA t is crossed and i dotted. They also wanted to do the bikeriding up there too, but we ran into logistics and budget issues at that point. I'm almost feeling like I need to get kinda arbitrary and help them to do some forced choices among activities, split into groups to do different things comcurrently, plan in some down time...whaddaya think?

might try hooking up with the SCA folks..

www.sca.org

rotflol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Cooperative approaches" indeed! I need to hold onto that tactful phrasing

Yes, here on Venus we do things differently

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

So, I bring all our girls out to the Mississippi River Clean up Day, and we're taking a break for lunch. Charlie McGuire was there singing and playing,too.

Then Ronald McDonald shows up.

He raises his hand, and *shouts* over Mr. McGuire's playing and singing, "Heeeeeeeey, Kids!!!!" and proceeds to get numerous pictures taken of him with our girls in uniform by his handler, then slaps Ronald McDonald stickers all over their uniforms.....cringegroancringegroancringegroan. I had the girls move the stickers off of their vests.

Yeech.

(I don't know really how this relates to the present conversation....just wanted to share.)

oh...hmm...how to say this without giving offense to anyone...

Women are...different We have a volunteer position called a "leader mentor" but it's "understood" that leaders come to the mentor (and rarely that), not the other way around. The whole comissioning style just doesn't fly well on this side of the Tiber. Shame, that.

Wow, I wish Girl Scouting had this kind of supporting structure. Our service unit finally got a *really good* hardworking field manager (paid council staff) who came to nearly *all* of our SU mtgs and encampments - really helped us feel like what we were doing was *important* and recognized. She's moved away now, but now we have other council staff coming by to see what we're doing - the PR dept people, etc - looks like she's told people there we got it goin on Our girls have gotten to see themselves in print and pictures in council publications too. It's a neat thing you're thinking of doing as long as you can avoid the perception of "checking up on folks" (though sometimes checking up on is a good and helpful thing too!)

I especially wish we had something akin to a Unit Commissioner position just to help point troop leaders in the right direction - girl planning, troop size, diversity, etc. Ah well, mayhaps someday we can learn to take the best of both programs

Peace out,

Anne

Choosing songs for Cub Scouts becomes easier when you use the theme - I wrote up songsheets for our Cowboy theme and our Water theme (we did the raingutter regatta)

Here's a very simple repeat-after-me song for the Cowboy theme:

I'm going to leave!

"

Ol' Texas now

"

Aint got no use

"

For the long-horned cow

"

They've plowed and fenced!

"

My cattle range!

"

And the people there

"

Are all so strange!

(There's a couple more verses - a lot of the songs I use come from Girl Scout songbooks (shhh! Don't tell!) and from the KidsSongs songbooks with tapes - these are very helpful if you're not so good at remembering tunes.

Typing up the words to the songs can help get more voices to join in - once you have that critical mass the rest generally feel more comfortable singing.

Hey folks...not sure why people are getting bent out of shape over someone taking some initiative to put a new piece of programming out there...not like he's upping the 10 commandments to 15

Anyhoo, this discussion reminded me that at one time Senior Girl Scouts used to have Mounted Patrols or Troops who after developing their horseback riding skills and horse knowledge would put it to use doing horse camping, horse shows, gymkhanas, service projects such as maintaining bridle paths, etc. Mebbe your idea might mesh better with the Venturing program now? Controlling a horse at the level you're describing seems to me better-suited to older'uns...

Also agree with the poster who suggested hooking up with a group like the Pony Club - excellent idea - these other orgs have already developed levels of certification that might serve to further develop the program piece you have in mind.

(and I also want to humbly point out that skill progression is a *good thing* - in my opinion not emphasized enough in the BSA though there is a great deal in the BSA admire - GSUSA seems to have this better-understood. Currently GSUSA has 2 badges - one beginner level and one more advanced, and an Interest Project which recognizes higher application of skills coupled with service and career exploration - again, this might be worth looking over - there are a few areas where your program could be fleshed out a bit (horse diseases, etc come to mind)

I'm fearful I may have much too much to say on this subject! I'll try to condense it down...

I was a foster parent to a boy from my cub scout pack many years back (boy and his younger sister). Both seemed to have ptsd related to pretty severe abuse early in life. L. was on both antidepressant and ADD meds and enrolled in an EBD program school (emotional/behavioral disorders). L. was a kid who'd climb any building (this in a good mood generally), take off running for miles if scared or upset, and bust out windows if angry. We kinda had our hands full...

Turns out his antidepressant meds cancelled out any helpful effect of the ADD meds - the really big window breaking episode occured when his meds were misprescribed (different dosages of pills but looked identical!) - his MD accidentally *doubled* his antidepressant meds....

L. definitely benefitted from lots of routine - helped both with his attention deficit and with his undiagnosed panic attacks. Lots of school phobia (heck, his school scared *me*). I did lots of schooling with him at home and found him able to progress 2-3 years beyond where they had him placed in school. Smart kid - truly believed himself to be stupid. Learned long division in 2 20 minute sessions over two days - I think he decided maybe he wasn't stupid after that

Regarding the coddling mentioned in a post above, yha....sometimes. Then sometimes you *know* that maybe a certain item - their own pillow - a particular brand of toothpaste can help them have one less core meltdown (sometimes it's an excuse for a worried parent to check in with a kid - not necessarily a bad thing - as with many things, it depends...)

Mainly just want to toss out there that oftentimes ADD isn't the only load these kids are carrying...

Have worked with more "typical" ADD kidlets too - don't forget sometimes a lower awareness of pain goes along with this...I'm remembering a certain Webelos den meeting where we were practicing whittling... nearly sliced his flinger off..."hey...umm, C....you're bleeding, you know that ,right?" "Huh? Oh..."

Do the first aid deal - pressure elevation call mom...Mom laughs..."Oh, guess it's another trip to the ER huh?" "Yup!" From what I remember C. was unmedicated - family was pretty goodwith routines and was pretty able to "roll with the punches"

Thanks for your reply!

Good thought on maybe 4th and 5th. Let me clarify what I'm planning on doing...keeping the Brownie troop going inperpetuity (sp?) and adding a separate Junior troop - I like the 3 year age spread, much beyond that and I'm a bit lost )

I think you're right about not recruiting 6th graders right now - we would be shortchanging them. I'll let our Service Unit registrar know More 1sts and 2nds for the Brownie troop and more 4ths and maybe 5ths for the Junior group.

Any of the rest of you reading, I still would like more guidance on omplementing patrol method with this tiny group - can it be done??

Anne in Mpls

Hi folks - I've already gleaned all I can from the Girl Scout forum so here I am to partake of your advice!

General idea here is, how do I build up my 3 bridging 3rd graders into first, a strong patrol, and then a good strong troop?

Background: I lead a Brownie troop of mixed ages - 1st 2nd and 3rd graders all together - this is what I like best because they get the experience of learning from one another - older and younger. I prefer larger troops - right now we have 15 and that's not quite big enough for my tastes. Bigger numbers allows greater opportunity for girl leadership.

Current situation: after seeking desperately for a good established troop for my 3rd graders to bridge into, I came up empty. (One leader said "the more the merrier" but after she *screamed* at our Brownies at encampment for not dishing food fast enough....uh huh...) So, I'm thinking I'll do what I can.

This week was our first "patrol meeting" - the three girls and I set up chairs in the hallway during the brownie meeting. I did an overview of how patrol method works - put the bug in their ear that we will want to do some recruiting this fall to get our numbers up so we can have a strong troop (hoping for eventually 3 patrols of 6-8 girls each) Then for their first activity let them have the task of fleshing out/finalizing the menus for our troop campout this month up at Lake Itasca (indoor camping with outdoor cooking - we're staying at the Youth Hostel - coolies!!)

Questions...what's our next step?? These 3 are going to be 4th graders....do I only recruit other 4th graders this year, or do I bring in all 3 grades (4th 5th and 6th)? My thought is that these 3 girls will make primo patrol leaders but not if they'll be the youngest ones in the new bunch...or does that not matter so much? What ought to be our focus right now? So far it seems to be a good fit to have them practicing some leadership skills with the younger brownies. One of the 3 girls right now is on a big health & fitness kick so we're looking at building program and badge work around that interest. One of the girls is a super-quiet introspective type who's mom is single - she's a carpenter and loves deer hunting, etc - wants to help the girls learn orienteering etc. Great girls - lots of good potential - but I'm just sitting here pouting over how to do "good scouting" with just three (kinda silly of me! I know!)

Thank you kindly for your words of wisdom!

Anne in Mpls

page 12 of the old pink book "Games for Girl Scouts"

It's not in the new yellow edition - I just checked. Your council might have a copy of this older edition that they could lend out or photocopy from - or try interlibrary loan.

ISBN number: 0-88441-301-1

Hi Midnight,

Just to clarify a bit,

You may or may not be a "mandated reporter" - these laws vary widely from state to state. If you are a mandated reporter this should have been covered in your job orientation (although given the climate - they may have skipped gleefully over it...)

1. If you make your report as a mandated reporter, you are under more obligations to have credible real allegations. You might also have a right to hear back what actions have been taken by Child Protection or other agency in your area.

2. You also always have the option of making an anonymous report. In this case, you will not be able to receive back any information about what actions are being taken. (Because of confidentiality you're never given a whole lot of info anyway though..)

3. Another thought...is your local council supported through the United Way? Sometimes these big funding agencies can exert a kind of pressure one lowly camp counselor could never bring to bear. Have a chat with a friendly person at the United Way. Ask em what they would do if they were in your shoes.

Just wanted to share my experiences so far with the Studio2B program.

(Let me preface this by saying that I'm a green-blooded long-time Gold Award Girl Scout active on 2 continents during parts of 4 decades....(there's a scary thought!!))

Currently, I'm my daughter's Brownie troop leader - we are a multi-age troop - meaning that I actively seek girls from 1st 2nd and 3rd grades so that they have all those great opportunities to learn from each other. Now I have 3 3rd graders ready to start Junior GSing and can't find a good troop to take them in - though I've been putting bugs in peoples' ears all year, so I'll be starting a Junior patrol for them - hoping it will grow into a full troop. (But that's a whole nother topic!)

My co-leader is a foster mom to a super-terrific 15 year old who we went ahead and registered with our troop so she can help out. Last week I asked her if she wanted to hop over to the GS store with me to look over some of the supplementary resources for Juniors, and at the same time she could look over the materials available for girls her age.

She *really liked* some of the Studio2B stuff - it was....neat to see that there was an appealing way for her to come onboard with scouting. She *also* really *really* liked the Interest Projects...so, we picked up the main Studio2B book and the IP book...(The senior handbook held no appeal at all - and...I kinda agree...it's been a long time since they've done a good job with the cadette and senior handbooks)

So, we now have one girl with no previous GSing who is overcoming a lot of the junk in her life (s'why she's a foster kid) who is connecting with GS resources that speak her language. For now she's soloing (peer relationships are difficult for her). So, after my initial feeling of "oh ick" I can see these materials just might have a place.

My biggest complaint is the glitzy perfect hair/makeup airbrushed look...I really miss American Girl magazine with its features of *real girls and young women* but I cant dismiss the resources as a whole.

Anne in Mpls