Juniors and Brownies: A Blended Troop, Part Two

For the first four years of my career as a Girl Scout troop leader, I was adamantly opposed to having a blended troop.  Over the years, we have had a couple of girls who were a grade older than the rest of the girls in the troop.  These girls were welcomed into our troop, of course, as long as the parents agreed their daughters would be doing what the other girls were doing despite the fact that Council would recognize these older girls at the level that corresponded with their age in school.  (For example, when we had a 1st grade Daisy troop, we had two 2nd graders.  Council recognizes 2nd graders as Brownies, but these two girls earned Daisy petals as members of our troop).  Now that the girls are older, my stand with regards to leading a blended troop has softened.  For some context, please check out the post I wrote about our first meeting as a blended troop.
  
Our second meeting together was a little different than our first official meeting of the year.  We began the meeting by talking about what the girls wanted to do with the money they will earn during cookie sales.  I like to have this discussion early in the year so the girls know what they are working toward throughout the year.  Everyone was given an opportunity to contribute an idea.  We went back through the ideas, asking if there were any activities on the list that any of the girls didn't want to do.  Once we had our list narrowed down a bit, the girls were each asked to choose their top three activities.  We made a list of the three most popular activities.  The girls then cast votes for their favorites.  We use a weighted voting system.  Please check out this link for a description of the process.  Our overnight at the Cincinnati Zoo this past spring was such a hit that the girls voted for another overnight at the Zoo.  Thankfully the Cincinnati Zoo offers many overnight opportunities for groups and families, so the girls will have the opportunity to experience something new.

 
At this point in the meeting, the younger girls made sit upons while the older girls discussed their Bronze Award.  As you will see in the link to my post on the sit upons, the older girls used duct tape and foam when they made their sit upons at camp a couple of years ago.  While gathering the leftover materials for the younger girls, I found some crib-size quilt batting I happened to have on hand.  We cut it in thirds and folded it to fit inside the vinyl tablecloth that had been prepared as described in that previous post.  The girls used yarn to sew their sit upons.  They used duct tape to fashion a handle.  I will write a separate post about our discussion with the Juniors about their Bronze Award. With thirty minutes left in the meeting, the Juniors prepared and performed the puppet show they created during the aMUSE Journey.  


I would love for you to check back to read about that Bronze Award discussion.  I will also be writing a post about our recent Juliette Gordon Low birthday celebration.  Thank you for reading!

Sit-upons

Merriam-Webster defines a SIT-UPON as "a square of waterproof cloth carried by hikers and campers for sitting on wet ground."  I remember making a sit-upon as a young girl with my Brownie troop.  As a troop leader, I knew our troop would enjoy making sit-upons during our overnight camping trip this past fall.  I searched "sit-upon" online and discovered many different examples of how to make this traditional Girl Scout cushion. 

I bought two vinyl tablecloths for $2 each at Walmart that measured 60"x120".  The girls were allowed to vote for their favorite tablecloth.  I explained it would be used for a craft at a future meeting.  The decision was unanimous.  They loved the watermelons!  I later used fabric scissors to cut the tablecloth at 15" increments along the 120" side which gave me 8 rectangles measuring 15"x60".  I then cut these rectangles in half on the 60" side to get smaller rectangles that measured 15"x30".  

I folded the 15"x30" rectangle in half to make a 15"x15" square.  I punched holes about 1" apart and about 1" from the edge, using a standard handheld 1-hole punch.  This was very time-consuming and tiring, so I worked on one sit-upon per night over the course of a couple weeks.  I researched different padding options for the cushion.  I considered recycling and reusing carpet remnants, plastic grocery bags, newspaper, and bubble wrap.  We ended up using pieces of thick, high-density foam one of our parents saw in a recycling bin at work and was able to donate to our troop.

I originally planned to have the girls use yarn and a plastic needle to sew the three open sides of the tablecloth together.  Days before our camping trip, I was at a Service Unit Leader Meeting, talking with another leader about the sit-upons.  She described a Duct Tape Sit-Upon she had come across on the Internet.  After some consideration, I scrapped my original plan and adopted this alternative idea.  I used a 40% off coupon at Michael's and paid only $2.65 for a roll of red Duct Tape to match our watermelon tablecloth.

We finished the sit-upons by spreading the tablecloth rectangles out on a picnic table.  The girls placed the precut 12"x12" foam square on the nearest end of the rectangle before folding the far end over the foam to cover it.  We helped them tape the edges of the tablecloth together.  The girls finished the sit-upon by adding a handle.  They folded one long piece of duct tape in half lengthwise and secured the handle to the cusion with smaller pieces of duct tape.  The girls used the sit-upons when they sat at the picnic tables for meals and to do crafts.  They also took them to sit on by the campfire later that night.  Super cheap...super useful...super fun!

Thank you for reading!