Girl Scout Song - Valentine Songs

The girls in our troop love to sing.  I thought I would add a few songs that we will be singing when we visit the Senior home for Valentine's Day.

Three Little Hearts 
(to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Three Valentines I have for you

have for you, have for you,

Three Valentines I have for you

Pink and red and blue

I’ll put them in the mail for you

mail for you, mail for you

I’ll put them in the mail for you,

pink and red and blue

Five Little Hearts
(Found this one here)

5 little hearts all in a row

the first one said, “I love you so”

the second one said,  “Will you be my Valentine?” 

the third one said, “I will if you’ll be mine”

the fourth one said, “I will always be your friend.”

the fifth one said, “We’ll be friends until the end.”

We’ll all be friends until the end.

Skidamarink

(find the tune here)

Skidamarinky dinky dink,    Skidamarinky doo

I love you

Skidamarinky dinky dink,      Skidamarinky doo

I love you

I love you in the morning, 

and in the afternoon

I love you in the evening

underneath the moon

Skidamarinky dinky, dink

Skidamarinky doo

I love you

The Great Kindness Challenge: Community Kindness Day

Make a Valentine for a local senior in the community.

Write a Thank You card to your postal carrier, fireman, police man, etc.

Bring in canned goods to a local food pantry.

Bring clothing, blankets to a homeless shelter.

Donate some items (food, toys, old towels or bedsheets) to a local animal shelter.


Have you been spreading kindness everywhere you go?

The week is almost over!  How many Random Acts of Kindness have you performed this week?  What good deeds have you done?

The Great Kindness Challenge: Thank You Day

Write a note to someone Thanking them for a gift they sent to you or kind words that they said to you.  Maybe something reminded you of them and you wanted to Thank them for being your friend.  Get our your pen and paper and start writing.  Don't worry if it's plain paper or if you have bad handwriting, people love to get handwritten notes!  

The Great Kindness Challenge: Super Star Random Acts of Kindness Day

See how many Random Acts of Kindness you can perform today!

Hold the door open for someone
Say Hello to people
Let someone ahead of you in line
Ask someone if they need help (and help them out)

You get the idea.  Now go!  And have a great day!

The Great Kindness Challenge: Random Acts of Kindness to Your Family

Be extra kind to those you love the most today, your family.  Bring your parent a cup of milk, write a short kindness note to your parent or sibling (or spouse), and offer to do an extra chore.  Compliment your family members and catch them doing something great!

Oh, and don't forget your weekly challenges.  How many kind deeds have you performed this week?

The Great Kindness Challenge: Bring in the Sunshine

Wear a bright colored shirt today and bring in the sunshine!  Be sure to smile at someone new today!  Oh, and remember to be kind to yourself today as well.

Have a great day!

The Kindness Challenge

It's The Great Kindness Challenge week.  Maybe you remember this from last year.  This is one school week that is dedicated to performing as many random acts of kindness as possible.  This is a campaign by KidsforpeaceGlobal.org .  Hundreds of school across the country are participating in the challenge, including Bella's school.

If you haven't made a New Year's Resolution, maybe this is it?  Random Acts of Kindness!   This would also be a great challenge for your girl scout troop!  I'm sure there is a fun patch that the girls can earn.

Here is a list of kind deeds that you can perform.

The Challenges:

Smile at 25 people
Slip a nice note in your friends' backpack (or kids lunch or spouse's briefcase/purse)
Compliment 5 people
Pick up 10 pieces of garbage on a walk 
Make a new friend
Tell a joke and make someone laugh
Be kind to yourself and eat a healthy snack
learn something new about your friend, co-worker, spouse
Draw a picture and give it to someone
recycle your trash
hug your friend
Cut out 10 hearts and give them to friends
Entertain someone with a  happy dance
Make a kind poster for cafeteria helpers
Say "Good Morning" to 5 people
Make a wish for a child in another country
Say "Thank You" to a crossing guard
Invite a new friend to hang out with you
Send a Thank you to your Superintendent
Offer to help your custodian
Sit with a new group of people at lunch
Read a book to a younger child
Give an Apple or a Note to your Teacher
Step up for Someone in need
Make and Display a "Kindness Matters" sign
Carry your friends books
Make a bookmark for a friend
Hold the door open for someone
Thank a bus driver or car pool driver
Write a "Thank You" on a Band Aid for the Nurse
Whisper "Thank You" to the Librarian
Help Someone up if they fall down
Learn to say "Hello" in a different language
Bring a flower to the office staff
Say "Thank You" to a volunteer
Make a friendship gift for someone new to you
Create your own kind deed


Add some kind deeds of your own.  I challenge you to perform as many kind deeds as you can this week.  Check off your kind acts as you go.

What a great way to start the week!

How many kind deeds will you do this week?

New Olympic Event

When did drinking water become an Olympic event?

Alex:  Mom, do you want to watch me drink water? 

Bella:  He made me watch him drink 24 ounces of water. 

Me:  I guess. Maybe you shouldn't drink so much water this close to bedtime?

Alex:  Don't worry. It will go through me in thirty minutes. 

That last part was a little too much information for me. 

He drank a total of 50 ounces of water.  I guess I should have some t-shirts made and get my tickets to Brazil for the 2016 Olympics. 

Go USA!

Cookie CEO - Junior Girl Scout

This is for the Cookie CEO badge for Junior Girl Scouts.

Steps:
1.  Set a group goal
2.  Explore how a small business works.
3.  Create a cookie sale job list
4.  Learn to make a good impression 
5.  Track your sales goals

Our meeting is one hour with no snack.

We discussed our cookie sales numbers from last year.  Our goal last year was 750 boxes.  Last year we sold 1339 boxes.  (that was our first year doing booth sales)  We decided this year that we would raise our overall goal to 1002 boxes.  We have two booth sales that we plan on doing and we hope to achieve our goal.

I explained to the girls about how a small business works.  Describing the different areas that make up the business:  accounting, marketing, sales, advertising, etc.).  The girls are the CEO's of their cookie sale business (we talked about what CEO means).  We are treating our cookie sales as a business.  Our first order of business was setting a goal for sales.  We moved on to making posters for our booth sales (we worked in groups of 3 and four to make posters), then we practiced our sales technique for booth sales.  We even practiced some songs that we could sing at our booth.

Girl Scout cookies,
Girl Scout cookies
yum, yum, yum
yum, yum, yum

Eat 'em by the dozen
Eat 'em by the dozen,
They're all gone
They're all gone

(sung to the tune of Frere Jacques)

When turning in our cookie order forms, we made a goal chart that the girls could color in (how many boxes they sold).  We added to this chart after our booth sales to keep track of what we sold during our cookie sale season.

Snowman Winter Craft

Found this easy Snowman craft on Pinterest and had to share.  This is a great kids craft.  In fact, we made these in our girl scout troop for a Christmas gift for their parents.

Materials needed:
clay flower pot
white paint
paint brush
Sharpie markers or paint markers
tissue paper
gloves (we found ours at the dollar store)
ribbon or felt for scarf
washi tape


Paint your clay pot white and let dry.

Turn your pot upside down and using sharpie markers, draw a snowman face on your pot.

Add wash tape to the bottom rim of pot (you can use felt instead and just tie it like a scarf).

Take one of the gloves and tie fingers together with small piece of ribbon.  Crush some tissue paper and put in hand part of glove and put glove on top of pot like a hat.

If doing this as a Girl Scout Troop, make sure the girls write their names on their snowmen.  We had the girls write their name and the date.  They then wrapped the snowmen in tissue paper to give to their parents as a gift.  (please have extras, one of our girls broke her snowman pot...luckily we had an extra on hand so she could make one to give).

How to Make Dryer Balls

This is something that I've wanted to try for awhile now.

I'm big on hanging clothes when they come out of the washer.  Well, I do it for two reasons.  One:  It saves energy.  If I can hang them outside, then, it's even better.  Clothes that have dried outside on the line have that fresh clean scent.  And, Two:  I have to hang a lot of clothes so they don't shrink.  I live with the tall people, remember?  It's hard to find clothes for them that are long enough.  So, to keep the length and avoid the fights I just hang a lot of their clothes.

When I do use the dryer, I have been using dryer balls that I purchased and have noticed a significant decrease in dryer use time.  I thought by making my own I could add some essential oils to the dryer balls and have clothes coming out with a nice, clean, fresh scent.

Found the directions on how to make the dryer balls here and decided to try it out.  They are very easy directions to follow.  I used Patons Classic Wool Worsted yarn that I purchased from Michael's.  Gotta love those 40% and 50% off coupons they give you!  I think I paid $2.00 for the yarn and made two dryer balls.  I am currently using them with the other two dryer balls and enjoying lower drying times and scented clothing.

My suggestion would be to make them out of a bright color so that they are easy to find when pulling your clothes out of the dryer.  :)

Savvy Shopper - Junior Girl Scout

This is for the Savvy Shopper badge for Junior Girl Scouts.

Steps:
1.  Explore your needs and wants.
2.  Look into why you want what you want
3.  Find out what makes people happy (or not!) with what they buy.
4.  Learn how to decide what to buy.
5.  Make a plan to buy something you need or want

We have covered several of these steps in previous badges (for Daisy's and Brownies).  So a lot of this was a repeat of previous patches that we have earned.

We asked that the girls write down (prior to our weekly meeting) things that they want.  At our meeting we discussed the items and asked if we really need the items.  Many of the items were things that they saw on television or maybe a friend has or someone on the bus.  Although they felt they really, really wanted the items, they realize that they don't need them.

We  (the leaders) cut out items from magazines and newspapers.  These items included: clothing, phones, jewelry, appliances, blankets, bed, furniture, computer, food, candy, etc.  We had the girls decide which items were wants and which items were needs.

We discussed times that we really wanted something (maybe a toy) and realized when we finally got the item that it wasn't all that we expected (buyers remorse).  We talked about how saving your money and really thinking about the purchase usually ends positively.  < And sometimes it ends in not making a purchase because you realize that you don't really need them item.

We brought in ad papers so the girls can price things out from different stores (comparison shopping), making note of any special features of items or added extras the store might throw in with the purchase.

We discussed the money that we would be earning from our cookie sales and decided to write down some options of what we should do with the money. *

*Our girls are working towards their Bronze Award and are planning to help others in need (be it people or animals).  They have listed many charitable ideas along with a couple of fun things to do as a group.

How to use the Dishwasher - Seminar

I will be hosting a seminar later today on "How to use the Dishwasher."

Highlights include:

How to open the dishwasher
How to rinse off your dish/cup
How to put dish/cup into the dishwasher
How to unload the dishwasher

and, most importantly,

How to tell if the dishwasher is working*

* This step does not include opening the dishwasher while it is running or yelling, "Mom, is the dishwasher on?"

This is a growth seminar that is to be taken alone.  Please do not try to attend with your Mother.

The times of this seminar have been set so they do not interfere with Nick's Seminar on "How to Take an Hour Long Shower without Soap."

Hope to see you there.