Girl Scouts Completing Missing Requirements

A troop leader wanted to know: What is the best way to handle girls missing a part of the requirements? My girls are Brownies and they have never done any work at home. I feel it is the parents who need to guide them in this. When they don’t its the girls that miss out.

Our Facebook leaders offered their suggestions:

Nancy offers more guidance at this age: At that age we sent the requirements home in the next troop email and asked the parents to notify us when they complete them. If it requires something special (supplies or something) we might make time to redo it during part of a future meeting. Now that our girls are older we only fill them in if they ask about what they miss.

Sara leaves it up to the girls: We have a couple in our brownie troop who never make things up at home. I feel bad for them but we give each family exactly what they missed and if they make it up, great, if they don’t, then they don’t.
It’s Girl Scouts. Not school. It gets tiring hunting down “assignments” so we no longer do it. The girls will decide if it’s important to them to earn a badge or not. It helps to have parental support but not all do unfortunately and you can’t save everyone.

Nancy reminds us: Fair doesn’t mean equal. If they miss it, and they won’t make it up at home, then they don’t earn the badge. I make them take pics of them doing it at home for proof they did it. Education, not decoration.

Deanna offers Brownies a make up session: When my daughter was a Brownie we would have make up nights. Usually at a lock-in. As the girls got older they didn’t want to makeup work. Most weren’t phased by the others that worked hard and got more badges.

Ayme followed the lead of families: I always made an effort to get girls caught up or send home detailed make-up assignments my first 1-1/2 years as a leader. Very few girls or families cared. So now, if they ask, I might make a suggestion or send an email. But it’s the parents’ job to help with make-up work, not yours. Then as girls get older, they can ask for themselves.

Kari’s comment: If you miss something at a meeting it is up to them to make it up at home. My girls are now Cadettes and there is stuff that they have to do that can’t be done in the time of the meeting. So as these girls get older they will have to start doing things at home anyway to earn it. Once they have completed it they then talk with us at the next meeting about what they did and learned.