Scouts For The Ages
I love sharing with our kids that, well, I was young once, too! Our children find it hard to believe that we were young once, too. That we actually had to walk up hill in the snow, both ways to get to school. That we were able to walk home for lunch growing up and watch our favorite television shows, like BOZO! They find it hard to believe that we did so many of the same things that they are encountering, walking into and that we may indeed have some wise words of wisdom to help get them through this journey of life.
Above I’m holding my Girl Scout uniform from when I was younger and was a Scout. I helped kick off their Cookie Sale one year with our character, Manners Monkey and shared this with them. Today, I love sharing this with the Girl Scout Troops that I’m able to visit with. Times have changed! Check out the green dress and sash that we wore back in the day. While we were supposed to sew on our badges, some of mine were still pinned on because I never got around to it! And, check out the patches, they are all round and the same sizes. Today’s patches are huge, however, they still need to be earned in order to put them on your sash, or todays uniform, a vest. You can choose either one.
This is a term I learned as a Girl Scout; “make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold” As an adult, there is so much heart in this. I treasure the old friends that I have and I am always looking forward to meeting new ones. There is a foundation of friendships made as a Scout, a strong character building environment and yearning to be the best we can be. This should never change but be implemented into our daily lives, as Scouts, families and communities.
Girl Scout Promise
On my honor, I will try:
To serve God* and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.
Girl Scout Law
I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong,
and responsible for what I say and do,
and to respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place,
and be a sister to every Girl Scout.
I am so proud to have been a Girl Scout! My best friend’s mom was our leader. We had a lot of fun and went on many adventures. It’s actually where I learned to light a match because we had to light the oven where we were staying. We had bonfires, sing a longs, told stories, learned and grew with one another as young girls. I think we met monthly and on the last Friday of each month we got to wear our Girl Scout uniform to school. It was a prideful day because we got to sport our accomplishments through the badges that we earned. There were meetings after school and families could get involved in our workshops, too. I even became a Boy Scout Leader for our oldest son, while only a year, it was a great experience for everyone.
When our own children are respectful of themselves they will learn to accomplish great things. They will attract others who are on the right path of respecting who they are and exploring their needs to become a better person which reflects off of you, the parents. It’s important to be respectful of oneself as well as to others. Think about when you’re speaking to your child, are they listening to you and do you have their undivided attention? I’ve learned by my own mistakes as a parent how important this is. If you don’t have one anothers attention, then you’re wasting your breath in your words. Make sure that there is eye contact and ears are ready to listen to the conversation.
Our character Respectful Rabbit uses the ol’ cliche’ of: “Respect yourself and others” and stands by this! If you don’t respect who you are, how is anyone else going to be respectful of you? Print out the above certificate when your child has earned it. Have a discussion about what it means to be respectful, what it looks like, what it sounds like and how it feels to be respected.
When I was teaching preschool, I often took a student to the side after another student had come to me with a gripe of sorts. I would take the two of them together and ask each one, “How would you feel if so and so said that to you?” This put the gripe in perspective and the students began to think twice about being a bully or negative tactics to get attention. As an adult, it works the same way. We need to put ourselves in the other persons shoes now and again and see life through a different lense if you will. Teaching our children to be respectful is a good place to start as we prepare them for the future, prepare them to be a better version of who they are and prepare them to become a role model and one day a leader for others to learn from.
TELL me and I forget, TEACH me and I remember, INVOLVE me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin