Girl Scouts of America prides itself in adapting and supporting the abilities of all girls. New friends, virtual and in-person, participate together in a curriculum that is guided by the Girl Scout council with the flexibility to go a little rogue as needed.
This lovely organization was the perfect opportunity to engage my child in peer interactions in a way that fed her creativity, silliness and need to move her body.
Here’s the story of how we found our way to Girl Scouts.
The decision to keep our littlest, August babe in a victory lap of kindergarten was agonized over at great lengths by yours truly. What can I say? I’m a Libra through and through. Despite the obvious, youngest of the class situation, there was the added component of a pandemic halt to learning mid-year and a shift to virtual, occupational therapy (read: less than ideal) for fine motor deficits that pretty much highlighted the answer already resonating through my bones. Yet, as we solidified everything with the school, continuous feelings of loss seeped into the cracking foundation of “my plan” and I found myself consumed with worry about it in the deepest, loneliest hours of the night. You see, our surprise exclamation point of the family was already a significant stretch in years from the oldest. This bonus ride through kindergarten now meant that we would have one toe in kindergarten, a chunk hanging in middle school and another toe dipped into high school life. I mean… that’s a pretty big straddle and I am not that flexible.
Or am I?
I now accept that a large part of that loss was ME having to come to peace with a change in MY plan. I was reinvesting in a space of time, I felt we were moving past. Longer days in little kid land. Don’t misunderstand! Little kid life is lovely and full of all sorts of magic. I just didn’t know how to juggle that and the fast-paced demands of bigger kid world. I would need to be intentional about investing in her little world to build predictability and a sense of belonging. But hooooowww? How do you find the space of involvement while socially distant in a pandemic? How do you connect to others when peers are shared through a screen or at best, behind masks, 6 feet apart? All those kids running on the soccer fields or finding some normalcy within the comfort of sports? Um, yeah. My accident-prone Mini would rather pretend to be a “water cat” and pounce in a puddle. Where was the common space where creativity, energetic and playful children could explore the world of friendship – pandemic be damned? Well, we found it. God bless, Girl Scouts.
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Not feeling like diving into all things cookie sales your first year in? No bigs! Wanting to “meet” once a month at best? You do you! In our daisy curriculum, our little girls are strengthening their honesty, friendliness, courage, respectfulness, responsibility, kindness, listening skills, environmental awareness and support of each other. Recognizing that I, too, needed to engage in her world a bit more encouraged me to organize the troop and help lead it. The Girl Scout Council made it so easy to volunteer. Everywhere I look there are resources to help me feel best prepared for this role. Now, I have had the privilege of meeting these ten, independent, uniquely beautiful, ever inquisitive girls and their families. My circle of support has grown tremendously, and it is all thanks to the Girl Scouts of Central Texas.
In a world where our ladies are now told they can be smart, beautiful, imaginative, curious, mathematical, presidential… why not find an organization that also supports those standards? For more about the mission behind the Girl Scouts or find a chapter near you, I encourage you to visit here!.
Maybe it could be your perfect dose of something new, too?
