At one of our last meetings before bridging to Brownies, the girls earned the Democracy for Daisies badge. I figured this would be a good one to go along with voting for which Brownie uniform everyone wanted - vest or sash.
Here's what we did to earn this badge:
1. Find out about local government
To start the meeting, I had the girls fill out ballots and place them in a cereal box I had decorated to look like a voting box. The girls were voting on whether or not they wanted to wear a vest or sash as a Brownie AND whether or not everyone in the troop should have the same Brownie uniform. The results? The girls agreed that not everyone had to have the same Brownie uniform, so the girls who wanted the vest could get the vest, and the girls who wanted the sash could get the sash. (*see below for a note on this)
From there I explained to the girls that they had just participated in the democratic process. We talked about why our country holds votes and what people vote for. I told them the name of our city's mayor, when she was elected, and for how long she'll be in office.
2. Find out about state government
Continuing on, I told them the name of our state's governor, when he was elected, and for how long he'll be in office. Per the Volunteer Toolkit (VTK) instructions, I asked the girls if there was anything they'd ask the mayor or governor to change, but the girls were pretty quiet and didn't have any ideas. I didn't press the issue, as I didn't really like the VTK's activity suggestions for this part. I didn't feel they were appropriate for this age range.
3. Find out about national government
To talk about national government, I read the book Grace for President, about a girl who runs for class president.
I asked the girls if they knew the name of our current president, and then told them the three requirements someone must have in order to run for president of the United States. "BUT," I said, "boys AND girls can run for president." And yet, we haven't had a female president EVER. I asked the girls to travel to the future and imagine that they have become president. Then I gave the girls canvases and paint pots with paint brushes (all purchased from Dollar Tree) so they could paint their own presidential portraits. (We looked at examples of presidential portraits first.)
I changed things up for this meeting because, as I said before, I wasn't wild about some of the activity suggestions in the VTK. Throughout the entire Daisy troop experience, I often wondered who was creating the curriculum, and if they were forgetting that the girls doing the activities were 5- and 6-year-olds, not 15- and 16-year-olds. Some of the activities just seemed a little too deep and boring for this age group.
*One thing I will also say about Brownie uniforms - GET THE VEST. If your troop is like ours, you'll be earning a badge a month plus fun patches. The sash just does not have enough room for two years of badges and patches.
Did your troop earn the Democracy for Daisies badge? Let me know what activities you did to earn the badge.
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