[email protected]

In a message dated 9/2/2002 7:35:10 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:


> My dd worked on one on her own and I kinda nudged her through it.
> She was glad she did it, but has never worked on another one.
> We both felt that there was fun stuff to do to get the badge, but
> some pretty "dippy" stuff too.

You're allowed to be very flexible about how the girls fulfill the
requirements. I like the newer badge books more than the older ones, but some
of the requirements are just sort of too easy to feel meaningful. But,
anyway, we very often don't do the requirements as written -- you just have
to be sure that the spirit of the requirement is fulfilled.

Also - you can take all the stuff the kids do in their everyday unschooling
life and they all "count" toward badge requirements. My kid seem to sit down
every once in a while and just go through the badge book and check off
requirements they've met. If they notice that they've done a few for one
badge, they'll sometimes purposely do enough more to earn the badge. They use
the badge book more as an "idea" book, though, usually -- just thumb through
it and get inspired to do something.

--pam
National Home Education Network
http://www.NHEN.org
Changing the Way the World Sees Homeschooling!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

kayb85

There are some badge requirements that I just don't like. For
example, there's one that says something like, "Observe a teenage
dating situation on tv or in a book and discuss with your friends
whether you would handle it the same way". This is for 4-6 grade
girls. I just wouldn't be comfortable with that. I would wonder if
I had to keep my mouth shut in the conversation because my views
about dating are so conservative (bordering on courtship) and I don't
want to see dd in a conversation about dating and not give my input.
Stuff like that made me almost not do Girl Scouts.
Sheila


--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., PSoroosh@a... wrote:
> In a message dated 9/2/2002 7:35:10 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> Unschooling-dotcom@y... writes:
>
>
> > My dd worked on one on her own and I kinda nudged her through
it.
> > She was glad she did it, but has never worked on another one.
> > We both felt that there was fun stuff to do to get the badge, but
> > some pretty "dippy" stuff too.
>
> You're allowed to be very flexible about how the girls fulfill the
> requirements. I like the newer badge books more than the older
ones, but some
> of the requirements are just sort of too easy to feel meaningful.
But,
> anyway, we very often don't do the requirements as written -- you
just have
> to be sure that the spirit of the requirement is fulfilled.
>
> Also - you can take all the stuff the kids do in their everyday
unschooling
> life and they all "count" toward badge requirements. My kid seem to
sit down
> every once in a while and just go through the badge book and check
off
> requirements they've met. If they notice that they've done a few
for one
> badge, they'll sometimes purposely do enough more to earn the
badge. They use
> the badge book more as an "idea" book, though, usually -- just
thumb through
> it and get inspired to do something.
>
> --pam
> National Home Education Network
> http://www.NHEN.org
> Changing the Way the World Sees Homeschooling!
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

zenmomma *

>>There are some badge requirements that I just don't like.>>

They don't do all the badge work in the meetings. And most girls do not earn
all the badges. There are a lot of them! If there are some you just don't
want your daughter doing, you could just mention it to the scout leader.
They could either not do that badge in group, or your daughter could skip
that particular meeting.

Life is good.
~Mary

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[email protected]

In a message dated 9/3/02 7:40:35 AM, sheran@... writes:

<< I had to keep my mouth shut in the conversation because my views
about dating are so conservative (bordering on courtship) and I don't
want to see dd in a conversation about dating and not give my input.
Stuff like that made me almost not do Girl Scouts. >>

But couldn't she just say, then, that she sees dating examples all around and
she would not do it like ANY of those?

I'd think they're wanting to promote thoughtful awareness and safety, and if
she already has a more conservative point of view and belief system, that's
good.

I worry about the families that keep their kids TOO much away from the
culture because they could be more unprepared than they need to be. My
friend who was abused by a priest had never had his parents say ONE WORD
about sexuality or private parts or anything about the realities of being a
little boy. All they had told him was it was not to be discussed (when it
got to close to "it") and that he should do everything adults told him to
without talking back.

THAT is a recipe for disaster. By the time he was old enough to date he was
one messed up puppy.

So courtship is a possibility if the children are save in the meantime. I
wish I knew not one single story of sexual abuse by clergymen, but I do.
(I'd rather know them than not. What I really wish is that there WERE no
such stories.) And as far as I know there are more among protestants than
Catholics beause there are more protestants than Catholics. An Episcopal
youth minister did another male friend of mine. And tales of teenaged girls
and young women are not isolated.

For some of the girls the discussions in girl scout meetings might be the
first chance they've had to discuss those issues with people who have any
idea of the dangers (and who are willing to discuss it, I mean). For some of
them, unfortunately, sixth grade is already too late.

Sandra

[email protected]

In a message dated 09/03/2002 10:05:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
zenmomma@... writes:


> They could either not do that badge in group, or your daughter could skip
> that particular meeting.

I remember Carly had no interest in learning about "becoming a woman" with
anyone but me. She didn't want to deal with all the silliness that often
occurs in group discussions. She was in Girl Scouts when she still attended
ps. I should have realized that unschooling was her best option with her
frequent response to what badges she worked on. Carly had no problem saying
that she didn't want to work on a certain badge, and she wouldn't. The leader
allowed her to "do her own thing". It's a shame that it took me longer to
figure out that that's how our whole life should go. I'm so glad that I did.
Just more proof that we should trust our children.
Ginny


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

zenmomma *

>>I wish I knew not one single story of sexual abuse by clergymen, but I do.
>>(I'd rather know them than not. What I really wish is that there WERE no
>>such stories.) And as far as I know there are more among protestants than
>>Catholics beause there are more protestants than Catholics.>>

It happened in my formerly Lutheran, then born-again, then-who-knows-what
little church. (The church changed denominations, I didn't change churches.)
I think the discussion of what to do, how you'd date, etc. are important.

Life is ogod.
~Mary


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Shyrley

On 3 Sep 02, at 13:28, kayb85 wrote:

> There are some badge requirements that I just don't like. For
> example, there's one that says something like, "Observe a teenage
> dating situation on tv or in a book and discuss with your friends
> whether you would handle it the same way". This is for 4-6 grade
> girls. I just wouldn't be comfortable with that. I would wonder if I
> had to keep my mouth shut in the conversation because my views about
> dating are so conservative (bordering on courtship) and I don't want
> to see dd in a conversation about dating and not give my input. Stuff
> like that made me almost not do Girl Scouts. Sheila
>
>
What sort of badge does that get you? 'Peeping Tom' badge?
When I was a girl guide we did 'reading' badge, 'hiking' badge,
things like cookery and flower arranging (you can see why I left
now....)
Weird.

Shyrley


"You laugh at me because I'm different. I laugh at you because you are all the same."

kayb85

--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., "Shyrley" <shyrley.williams@v...>
wrote:
> On 3 Sep 02, at 13:28, kayb85 wrote:
>
> > There are some badge requirements that I just don't like. For
> > example, there's one that says something like, "Observe a teenage
> > dating situation on tv or in a book and discuss with your friends
> > whether you would handle it the same way". This is for 4-6 grade
> > girls. I just wouldn't be comfortable with that. I would wonder
if I
> > had to keep my mouth shut in the conversation because my views
about
> > dating are so conservative (bordering on courtship) and I don't
want
> > to see dd in a conversation about dating and not give my input.
Stuff
> > like that made me almost not do Girl Scouts. Sheila
> >
> >
> What sort of badge does that get you? 'Peeping Tom' badge?


It's a badge called 'Healthy Relationships".
Sheila