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deannac94 #556346 10/14/09 10:42 PM
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I'm one of those leaders caught between a rock and a hard place because my troop is interested in the silver award, but it now requires you complete a Journey. I've stayed away from them since they came out, but may have no choice. The girls looked over the one copy I bought, and weren't thrilled. But what I just got back from my Council when I raised issues was either get with the "program" or decide if it's not for you. I'm afraid I'm at my wits end with GSUSA and the Council, but after 8 years of leading and watching the girls grow and learn, I'm having a hard time walking away.

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PSBranch #556551 10/15/09 05:26 PM
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Since my first post, I have tried and tried to figure out someway to get past using these journey books. I have expressed to my field director the girls dislike for the books, and I got pretty much the same thing as some of you. She says to make copies rather than purchase books right now... (apparently there is a clause that states volunteers are allowed to copy)and to do some of the activities with the girls so they can see how fun they are....... "Are ya kidding me?" Take the workbook... and turn it into a freakin' worksheet.... well THAT MAKES IT ALL BETTER!!! Are any of you from the newly formed NYPENN Pathways? Not only has our council merged with 4 others, but my service unit was disband and merged into a larger one. This is extremely hard on me. I've been with girl scouts for going on 5 years. My daughter is in 7th grade and wants to continue so she can get her Gold Award, but I am fed-up with the whole thing. What exactly does the Gold Award mean anymore? I imagine that Juliette Gordon Low is turning in her grave right now. I do not believe this is what she would have wanted.

Lora2470 #577561 01/12/10 07:40 PM
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I am so glad we am not alone! We are working on the Junior Agent of Change books and YUCK! The girls are basically insulted by the immaturity of "Dez" the spider among other things. I have had to just omit her from what we do. They feel a lot of it is below their level and like school work. I have been working SO hard to make it fun and get as creative as I can even tho it goes against what Council wants. They want it to all be decided by the girls. Well they would just sit and flame the book the whole time. We are also stuck because they are using it to work on their Bronze Award. With this being the platform for Silver and Gold going forward, I don't see how they will want to do them and this is so disappointing. I know GSUSA put a lot of money into this but it really is terrible program. One of the parents in my troop works in designing educational programs and had worked alongside the company that put the Journeys together. This parent was so disappointed that we are doing the Journeys because they did not like this company either. I don't know what we are going to do ext year. Any advise?

Lora2470 #617737 08/15/10 03:17 PM
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Well, it has been awhile since you posted, but I, too, am from the new NYPENN Pathways Council. My SU merged into 2 others as well. As of now, we have no regional office, since it is moving. I am in the Binghamton, NY area. The problem we are having here is that we have no leaders willing to step up. I have 2 daughters, and I am the leader for the older one, going into 5th grade. My other daughter's leader had to step down and now she has no troop. She will not "fit" into my troop as she is 2 years younger. I did the Agent of Change Journey last year and hated it. The best part was when I asked the girls, "How do you feel about your powers" --a question from the book. They all looked at me like I was insane and we quickly moved on. We eventually "finished" the Journey, but not really, because the woman I had to deal with at the Ross Park Zoo was so unhelpful. We wanted to make nature signs for the zoo (her idea), but in the end I settled for doing some raking because I simply don't have confidence that this woman will be able to take the nature sign project to its completion. I realize this has really nothing to do with the Journey itself, but it was just the icing on the unappetizing "Journey Cake."

deannac94 #619677 08/22/10 01:45 AM
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I am new to leading although I have been coleading my daugther's troop for about four years. We never had a set curriculum. The leader selected patches and we earned them. We gardened, crafted, sold cookies, donated to Zambia, sang to the ill, etc. We got our bronze award, and hope to get our silver this year. So regarding the journeys, we are cadettes. I went on line as a new leader and found out about these books. I decided that our troop would go with the AMAZing Journey of Friendship. We are taking about cliques, bullies, rumors, and peer pressue. I know these are huge problems for our tween girls. I believe it will make a difference for them to be discussing it as they are living it. I also saw on the GS 2B page the program you download called Sister-to-Sister. It is closely related to the Friendship Journey so I'm going to try to dovetail them together. I also added crafts, cooking, Thinking Day and cookies of course. The good news is we have wonderful parents who will support this program...AND take the girls camping. The AMAZING journey is hard to grasp so far. I think I am beginning to understand the process, but I wonder how things link together in the girls book vs. the leader guide. How do the girls pages match up to the sample lessons? I didn't understand if there was a particular relationship between them so I could assign or lead reading sessions to follow the sample program in the leaders guide. (I sorry, that's hard to follow) They provided a "assets" list at the end of the Leaders Guide, but I don't understand why they are called assets, not topics. Are assets awards or patches? It is a somewhat handy pit of information, but the way it is categorized has nothing to do with the topic of the study. It is by "science" "craft" etc., and not "bullies" "peer-pressure" etc., so you can't tie them together. I'm confused. Any advice on this Journey? Anyone do it yet? These comments about the other journeys concern me. The girls do earn patches in this journey, and can also have charms, which my 12-13 year olds love. It seems to me at the end of the journey if you follow the steps you are very close to silver. The girls who are interested form a sub-group that develop some of the journey ideas into community service. The program Sister to Sister initially confused me. But I literally went through the whole program tonight. Made up an outline to compliment their leader's guide and handouts. Now I think I can lead the girls in a discussion and the program, but it was really not clearly presented in terms of the contents of each of the modules in this program. Thus the outline...

Last edited by EvysMomBarbara; 08/22/10 01:52 AM.
EvysMomBarbara #619688 08/22/10 02:05 AM
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Hi EvysMomBarbara & welcome to the BellaOnline Forum. I am glad to see you have started to post.

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postcardgirl #640678 11/06/10 12:43 AM
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I tried a couple of the Journey books with my troop of girls ranging from 15-18 yrs & they found the books boring. Too much touchy feely, too much chatting, too confusing to read, too much to read, lost their attention to the point that they stopped coming to mtg's so after trying 3 different Journey books we went back to the IP & they slowly started to come to mtg's again. For my younger troop I did a Journey book because that's what they need to do before they can start their Silver Award project but they didn't like it either. A few were thinking of quitting because they said it was too much like schoolwork. It took the whole school yr to complete, meeting twice a month for 1.5 hrs, sometimes 3. We took a break to work on 2 IP's. I'm not saying get rid of them. They have their purposes, but I feel the patch books need to stay & be a big part of what scouts do.

PSBranch #640680 11/06/10 12:57 AM
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My advice to you is to just do a Journey book & do the best you can to make it fun & interesting. If that means having to change things slightly or not do every single thing in the book, then so be it. Be creative & think outside the box. Take a break here & there. Do an Interest Patch that's very hands on & have fun with it. There are IP's that might tie into the Journey book you choose to do. Don't forget those trips. As Girl Scout leaders we need to be flexible. It is not about keeping the girls in scouting & giving them all the great benifits Girl Scouting & you can offer them. After you've completed the Journey book, continue on with the Interest Patches.

GOSCOUTING #642310 11/14/10 09:58 AM
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When I first became a leader I was sucked into the "wonderful" journey. Here is a reflection after three journeys. The brownies really enjoy reading from their book. The story of the three girls and the elf was very cute and very close to the brownie tradition. I was also able to combine many of the activities with the try it requirements, and had them earning both at the same time and was able to have fun stuff to go with the book work. The water journey was less exciting. By the end my daughter was flooded with info. Maybe a bit to much in one category. I am more of a dabbler myself. We are now on out third journey. The junior Moving journey. And yes it is beginning to fell more like school. THE PRO OF THIS LEADER BOOK IS EVERY MOMENT IS PLANNED, THEY EVEN SUGGEST THE SNACK. I THINK THIS WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL FOR A NEWBIE LEADER WHO IS FEELING VERY OVERWHELMED. The con is the girls are not moving in the way you would imagine they are discussing things that relate to carbon credits with out exactly saying that. The eight week lessons teaches no more than changing lightbulbs and weather sealing a home, or saving energy. Which is a good thing but not for eight weeks. I think teaching the girls about moving with their bodies would have been a lot more fun. I doubt we will be doing a journey for our second year of scouts and will be saving the repetitive material for caddettes.

farmerjoewife #644713 11/23/10 10:44 PM
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Are all the current programs (Petals, Try-ITs, Badges, IP) being replaced with the Journey program?

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