As we all find our footing with the first few weeks of the new school year under our belts, it’s time to also juggle all those fun extracurricular activities. One constant in our family, for as long as my oldest daughter has been in school, has been Girl Scouts. This will be her eighth year of Girl Scouts, and the fourth year for my youngest daughter.
No matter what else we’ve had going on, we’ve always made time for it because it’s so much more than just selling cookies. I see it molding my girls into future leaders. And if we want a better future we have to start with developing our present children, especially our girls. When I was younger, there were things I dared not to dream because I was a girl. Pilot, senator, preacher, CEO? I didn’t know of any women who were in these professions, and so I didn’t know it was possible. Currently, only about 20 percent of U.S. Senators are women, but about 70 percent of them were Girl Scouts when they were younger. And 80 percent of all female business owners once were Girl Scouts. Those are impressive numbers!
If you’re looking for a worthwhile activity for your daughter, I encourage you to look for a local troop. Here are 5 things I love about Girl Scouts.
- Girl power! Teach your girl she can do ANYTHING because in Girl Scouts she can…
- Try new things! The more things you try the more you figure out what you like or don’t like. Our troop has done things like hiking, zip lining, painting, and science experiments. It’s always exciting when a girl gets to try something new for the first time, in a supportive and loving environment.
- Serve the community! Girl Scouts believes in the power of girls and their ability to affect positive change. At the end of each badge journey, there is a community service project tied in. Girls are encouraged to look for problems and think of ways to solve them.
- Spend time in the great outdoors! We have one troop camping trip a year and my girls always look forward to it. If it weren’t for Girl Scouts, they would probably never get the chance to camp since I’m not naturally a very outdoorsy person! It’s so important for our kids to unplug and spend time in nature.
- Learn important, life-long skills! Cookie sales teaches girls so many valuable skills. The most obvious is math skills – knowing how much a box costs, and multiplying that by how many boxes are bought. But they also learn how to set a goal and meet it. They have to go outside of their comfort zone sometimes to talk to strangers, and sometimes have to be persistent to make a sale. They learn teamwork and the importance of making a contribution. It’s been amazing to see the growth of my daughter, starting in kindergarten with selling cookies and applying what she knew then – to selling cookies in 6th grade and being able to apply so much more knowledge.
Girl Scouts troops are forming now, and you will probably get information sent home from your child’s school. Girl Scouts doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment (our troop meets twice a month) and it doesn’t cost a whole lot, compared to other activities, but it will give your daughter so much to carry with her for a lifetime. So check it out!
