First Daisy Meeting, First Patch Earned!

Ella had her first official Daisy meeting last week. Look at the excitement in that face, she didn’t even give me her fake half-smile. This was all genuine excitement.

Ella’s original troop meets at a nearby church in a great little “cabin” on the church campus. I kept trying to explain to Lily that this was Ella’s meeting and she would have to sit on the side with me and watch, not do. We enter the cabin and the girls are huddled around a table creating their nametags. Lily puts her giant smile on and saunters over to the table, grabs a nametag and bellies up. Ella also got to work, focused on the task at hand. I practically had to grab a shepherds hook to yank Lily out of the action. This soured her mood completely. The leader told us we were free to leave, so we did. Lily was heartbroken that she couldn’t stay. I did win her back by taking her to a nearby park where here and I climbed around and raced one another down the slides.

Ella was all smiles when we picked her up. She loved it. The girls started learning the Girl Scout promise and earned their first badge – the center of their daisy, the Promise Center.

The Promise Center

The center of the flower is called the 'promise center.' When the girls have done an activity or skill or task or craft that you feel sufficiently helps them understand the girl scout promise, you award them their 'promise center'. This can be a 'several meeting' process, such as reciting their promise at each meeting until they can recite it by heart; or a task, such as making a 'I know my promise' pin or book.

I’m excited to see what the first year of scouting brings. Now to see if we can tide Lily over with park visits for two more years…