My friend Mrs. H and I look forward to a Girl Scout event planned by our troops in October: a camping trip with Brownie Girl Scouts!
We decided our theme will be "Fire" with a side of cooking. Safety lesson first, of course, and then the day will be filled with lighting matches, collecting twigs, and avoiding snakes. Aaahhh, nature!
Mrs. H will brainstorm with the girls at their family picnic tomorrow, butI think she hesitated to agree to that because she takes brainstorming more seriously than I do...not that I don't take girl-planning seriously mind you, butI suspect that a dozen soon-to-be second graders will pretty much run the gamut of "mac and cheese" up to full out "Osso buco with tagliatelle" when asked what they'd like to cook on their camping trip, thereby killing two Girl Scout birds with one stone so to speak: girl-planning and progression. Girl-planning by getting the girls' ideas, and progression by some of them finding out that the world isfull of wonder, mostly of the food variety.
My idea behind brainstorming is to work it like a thunderstorm: little warning, suddenly the time is NOW, get all of the downpour at once - then relief! You can get a sheet full of ideas in two, three minutes tops. Make sure to have an exciting activity planned for right after, because the girls will be totally riled up after screaming at you and jockeying to get their ideas on the sheet. You and your coleader can sort through the lists, plan ahead, get the supplies, do all the legwork - but the girls feel like they had a say in what's coming up and that's the main goal in Girl Scouts.
