A Smiling Bee and a Special Key

Today we worked on "Buzzing Toward Girl Scout Values." Since we are working on this journey from home we have integrated caring for the mini-garden into everyday life. This morning before breakfast we set the mini-garden, and the bean's flower she planted this year, out on the front steps to soak up some sun, and the bean watered them. It has been two weeks since they were planted and they are coming along nicely! We also had to pare them back, making sure that only the strongest 2 - 3 sproutlets stayed.

Before breakfast we also set up the base for our craft. We were making bumblebees from our footprints, so I painted her foot yellow and she stepped on a flat 8x10 canvas (them come in a set of 3 for something like $5 at the craft store). She painted my foot, and I pressed the canvas against my foot, as my size 9 feet could barely fit on the canvas, and I didn't want to miss. :-) We set them aside to dry, and I told the bean that what we were making with them was a surprise - which she loved.

After breakfast we read Chapter 2 in the Daisy Flower Garden book. We discussed what keys we had, and what keys she may want in the future, and she was so proud that she could write about it all by herself (with some minor spelling help) in her book. She then colored in the 'Draw it!' Activity, while my husband and I got ready for the Garden Scamper. 

Now the Garden Scamper is supposed to be where a troop of girls line up in two lines. A garden critter is called out and one girl each from of the far end of the lines is supposed to run down the center of the lines together, using the movements of that critter. In theory this is something that would be more fun with a group of  year olds, but I think the three of us could give them a run for their money. :-)

A Bird

(top left - Bumblebee, bottom left - Hedgehog, right - Grasshopper)

It felt a little ridiculous pretending to be different animals as an adult, for all the world to see, but only for a moment or two, then it was just a lot of fun. Some of the animals we tried were butterfly, frog, fox, bird, rabbit, bee, grasshopper, and hedgehog. The bean and I were called to be earthworms at one point, and somehow she turned into a snake, who tried to attack my husband - with love of course. <3

We finished working on our journey today by completing our crafts. Once we were done playing outside we finished our butterfly footprint paintings. She figured out it was going to be a bumblebee from the story, but wanted to pretend she hadn't figured it out, so it could still be a surprise. Once we started painting, the bean decided she wanted to flip hers upside down, and I think it is super cute that way!

New England Air Museum Space Expo 2014

My wonderful husband LOVES space, so the bean does as well. This weekend was the Space Expo held at the New England Air Museum.

We got there a bit after 10:00 am , and we had to peel her away to take her back to her Father's house (it was his weekend after all) a little after 1:00. She had so much fun!! She met R2D2, tried building a rover landing parachute, touched a 70 lb meteorite - and held a 5 lb one. She tried on a space suit (HILARIOUS watching them try to get the adult sized suit to fit onto her tiny little body), and drove a Segway.

I was excited to visit the Girl Scout booth. The bean got to watch videos of Girl Scouts doing great Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math activities, while I talked with the representative who had a lot of literature about STEM things to get girls into. I was extremely excited about the Girl Scout partnership with TechBridge who offers science and engineering programming to Girl Scout councils - amazing Programs-in-a-box, including one where girls can engineer their own carnival. I honestly can't wait to do with the bean and her troop, once she it older!!

My bean gets really shy when there are a lot of people that she doesn't know, and this was an extremely popular event (the line was 50ft or so long outside the door when we left) so we took turns visiting the tables at the Space Expo and checking out the rest of the air museum, which was much quieter. Although we didn't get to see everything there was to see, and we weren't able to get back to the vendor that was selling model rockets-something we will definitely be doing this summer when the weather is nicer, we had a really fun time, and the bean earned a fun patch at this amazing event!

Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden

The bean belongs to a wonderfulyear's Scout troop in our area, who meets once a month. The girls are sweet, and the groups are being led by older girl scouts, which makes it even more fun. Being that they only meet once a month though, they are working on earning their Daisy petals, and not much else.

Spring has finally arrived, making it the perfect time to start out first Daisy Journey. And since the bean's troop is not able to expand thier focus at the moment, we decided to work on the Daisy Flower Garden Journey independently. We have the book, the guide, Pinterest, and Google, so away we go!!

We began our Journey by reading all the introductions and the first Chapter of 'Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden.' The bean took great pleasure in singing 'Sandy's Song' with me. We then moved on to planting our mini-garden.

As the Journey "isn't about individual botany experiments - it's about teamwork and understanding that a garden is the coming together of many elements" we are making this a family activity. We used a 4x4 planter that had soil pellets that simply needed to be hydrated and fluffed in order to be ready to plant. My husband worked as water bearer, while the bean and I rehydrated the soil. The guide suggests planting basil, leaf lettuce and greens. I know from last year's gardening attempt (which was completely successful but just as completely devoured by our local wildlife) that the bean wanted salad veggies. So we planted 4 rows each of 4 vegetables - carrots, roma tomatoes, leaf lettuce, and cucumbers. I made the holes, then the bean sprinkled in the seeds. And while I smoothed over the soil, she and my husband worked on the markers. My wonderful husband spelled things out when the bean needed help, and she wrote out the makers (using colors related to the vegetables they described).

While we worked on the mini-garden, we discussed that as a family activity we are all being friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, and responsible for the mini-garden, and we would be fair in sharing the responsibility.

It was fun, and we got to instill some of the values of the Girl Scout Law through example. I have crafts and other activities planned for the rest of the topics, but I thought this was a good start!