Daisy, Daisy

I was amazed to realize this morning that I have not touched a pair of knitting needles for a week.

But Girl Scouts are starting up for the new school year, and as it happens I am going to be a Daisy leader this year.  Daisies are the newest level of Girl Scouting -- new since 1984, at least, after my time in Scouts -- they are in kindergarten or first grade, before Brownies, who are in 1st-3rd grades or ages 6-8.  Things are getting very busy for me now, organizing a brand-new troop, registering girls, planning crafts and actitivies, and wondering what I've gotten myself into!

I remember having mixed feelings about Scouts when I was a girl, but as happens so often as one gets older, sentiment tends to win out.  I remember feeling left out when my school's Junior troop folded and I had to go to another troop where the girls all knew each other at their school and were more than a little clique-ish in some cases.  I remember feeling utterly dismayed (and not a little disgusted) when we were doing the sewing badge and I went ahead and finished the pinafore top we were all making because I already knew how to sew, and the girl whose mom was in charge of the project got catty and said that I should have waited for everyone else -- my first experience with the bitchiness of preteen girls.  But I also remember laughing a lot, and singing, and washing my mess kit in a ditty bag (delightfully bizarre), and feeling very brave that I'd actually knocked on strangers' doors and sold them Girl Scout cookies, and the delight of sisterhood when I recognized one of those pinafore tops on another girl for years afterwards.

One of Laura's preschool teachers has been a Brownie leader for many years, and so Laura fell quite easily into that troop when she entered kindergarten -- a year earlier than usual for Brownies, but I've noticed that leaders can be very flexible!  Julia, I was pleased to find, decided that she wanted to do something different from her big sister, and wanted to be a Daisy.  I started looking for a troop, but since the Daisy level is only for a year, troops form and disband fairly quickly, and it soon became obvious that if Julia was to be a Daisy, mommy would have to put her own hand up a little higher.

I must add that while I am, I think, not your bra-burning-type feminist, I am very strongly convinced that girls still need more than a bit of extra encouragement in this world, and that while I am frequently something of a fencer-sitter on political issues, I am firmly in the women's-issues camp.  It's kind of weird to think of myself as a role model, but I seem to have found myself in that position almost without my realizing it, as a parent and now as a Girl Scout leader-to-be.  I've always thought that role models are more effective when not promoted as Role Models, anyway, by themselves or others, and so I'm hoping that my so-called parenting style will suit the small-l leadership style as well.

(I love that little Daisy patch!  The artwork reminds me a little of Lauren Child's, whose Charlie and Lola books are a favorite of ours.  I've bought the patches as a little present for the girls, a thank-you for being part of my first experience as a leader.)

Comments

[amy]

Good luck and have fun! I worked in our local Council for a year and the volunteers are amazing people. (I found working there not so much amazing, but that doesn't change the wonderful-ness of the volunteers!) It sounds like a really fun activity to do with your daughter.

[Alice]

The Daisy troop my daughter started are now Brownies and since my darling daughter is now going off to college I have inherited a Brownie Troop!

I just love Girl Scouts as an adult...welcome to the club!

Alice
justafewskeins.blogspot.com

[Felicia]

I always wanted to be a girl scout when I was a kid. Part of it was the sense of belonging and part of it was because they did such groovy stuff.

[valeria]

I was really surprised recently when I discovered that GSA now no longer allows churches to have Girl Scout troops. My niece's school doesn't have one and her church can't offer one. Shame.

[Rachel]

Good luck with your new role, and I love the pink top you knitted. It's really cute!

[annmarie]

The Girl Scouts seem to have done better at keeping up with the times than the Boy Scouts have done. I was a leader for a Cadettes troop when my daughter was that age and I found GS to be on the cutting edge of understanding women's issues even then. To this family anyway, the Boy Scouts seemed to get caught in a time warp that we didn't feel comfortable with.

[Happy Knitter]

I wanted to share this quote with you, because it speaks of knitting in such an eloquent way! Do you recognize the author?

"Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye."

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

[PICAdrienne]

http://anneknits.blogspot.com/

This is off the topic of Daisy scouts (my girls started as Juniors,) but I thought of you when I saw this.

[sarah]

Hi
I am a Rainbow leader in the GirlGuides in the UK. We have 15 girls age 5-7. I have been a leader for a year and love every week. In 2008 we are celebrating the 21st birthday of Rainbows. I was a Brownie and a Guide. my older daughter was a brownie and guide, and my youngest was a Rainbow and is now a Brownie.
What is your uniform like? Our Rainbows wear a purple tabbard over their school uniform, but many of the rainbow groups wear the new red trousers and a t-shirt.

[Alice]

You will love it! My daughter started a Daisy Troop last year and I has her 'adult' and since she is now off in college I have inherited the troop. Scouts is the best thing in the world!

..right up there with chocolate, red wine, and knitting

[craftydabbler]

How is it going being a Daisy leader?

[Bernadette]

Hi - I know this is an old posting but I was wondering if you could please let me know where you got that adorable Girl Scout Daisy patch of the 5 girls. Thanks!