With school starting next week (or maybe you’ve already started), that also means back to Girl Scouts! This year, I’m moving up from the Daisy level to being a leader of the Brownie level. I’m looking forward to a fun year. I also know this year we will complete a Girl Scout Journey. I’m so glad the Girl Scout organization sponsored this post and I get tell you about a great free resource to add to your Girl Scout Journeys this year! It will help you teach healthy habits to your girls. Perfect! It seems like such a natural thing to add teaching healthy habits to Girl Scout programming.
My daughter, Pumpkin, earned her Daisy Summit Award and has plans to earn the Brownie Summit Award as well. Therefore, I need to make sure we complete a journey this year. I’m feeling a little intimidated at working with the Brownies this year. I know it isn’t as involved as some of the older girl levels, but it is definitely more than the Daisy level and for some reason it has me feeling just a bit intimidated or nervous.
While I’m feeling a little intimidated, I know I can do it and make it fun for myself and my girls. No matter what I know I will totally enjoy the girls and enjoy working with them. As I know I’ve shown you in the past, that usually means fun, creative, active and healthy ideas.
You may remember that I love getting my kids and other kids up and active. I have planned a few events for our large, multi-level troop. (Girl Scout Event – Host a Pottery Night) I always have an active component for the kids. I think it is really important to get kids moving and keep them active. They have plenty of energy to burn!
I also believe in teaching our kids about eating healthy and what healthy foods are as well as where they come from. We have done that at our Girl Scout meetings with healthy snacks along the occasional treat. Just the way our eating should be. (Daisy Girl Scouts – Flower Garden Journey Celebration)
I was recently made aware of a free resource that helps us easily integrate teaching our girls about energy balance through healthy habits. The Girl Scouts USA has partnered together with the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. They developed three healthy habits booklets to use with a Journey.
They developed this program for the Daisy, Brownie, and Junior levels. The Journeys the Healthy Habits program go with are pictured above. It is all part of the Together Counts program, which is a program teaching energy balance. Which is simply balancing the calories with consume with the calories we use. Sounds pretty simple, right? Not always easy to do…and boy don’t I know that after our 5 week road trip.
When I heard about the program, I was a little concerned that it would be too calorie focused because I really try not to teach my girls too much about calories and diets, etc. I try to teach them healthy habits, like eating well and being active. I don’t want girls who are calorie obsessed. The great thing is that this program fits right into my philosophy!
They have come up with simple ideas to add to the journey that add discussions about healthy habits and healthy lifestyles. I read through the Brownie Healthy Habits journey guide. It had ideas such as, when having a tea party with the girls (which is already part of the Brownie Journey), talk about herbal teas and how some teas can have health benefits. Another idea was to add to their SAVE Project pledges a healthy habit or energy balance pledge as well. They are just simple little things to add to the journey to raise the consciousness of our girls toward a healthy lifestyle. No head bashing. No hour-long meeting about healthy habits. Small little activities or discussions to raise awareness. Love it!
If you are a leader of a Daisy, Brownie or Junior level troop, I would highly recommend adding this free resource to these Journeys. We need to raise the next generation with healthy habits in mind and a mindset of taking good care of themselves. I know for myself, and I’ve seen it in my girls as well, when I’m taking good care of myself by eating well, exercising, and getting enough sleep and water, I feel better and I have more confidence. Those are things I want to pass on to my girls as well as the girls in my troop. It always feels good to feel confident and that is part of what Girl Scouts is about!
You can find tons more information here:
- Healthy Habits Journey Booklets Download
- Girl Scouts of the Nation’s Capital on Facebook and Twitter
- Together Counts Website or Blog
- Together Counts on Twitter and on Pinterest
So now that you know about this great free resource, I hope you will give it a try this year. I know I plan to. Who knows, you may see an idea or two from a meeting involving the Healthy Habits program right here on this blog. 😉
What plans do you have for your troop this year? How about plans to raise awareness of healthy habits and a healthy lifestyle?
More Great Posts for You:
Thanks for posting this! I haven’t seen this. I plan to share this with my SU. This is a great supplemental item for the journey. I think it will also help my troop parents understand that healthy snacks at meetings are really the way to go!
You are so welcome! So glad that you will share it with your Service Unit. I think you will enjoy using it with the Journeys. Yes, we make healthy snacks mandatory…though there is always someone who things cookies are healthy. Hmmm…maybe we need to teach the parents, too. 😉
Hello! I love your site. I am a new Brownie troop leader this year and I came across your website on Pinterest. I am also a Holistic Health Coach, I was trying to find ways to incorporate healthy habits into my troop meetings before finding this post so this article is like music to my ears. I have clicked the link that you provided, and searched all over the website but I am not able to find the Healthy Habits guide. Is this something that you have saved and could possibly send to me, or maybe guide me, it’s possible I am looking in the wrong pace.
Well that sounds frustrating. It looks like it has been moved or something. I just did a quick Google search and found it at this address: https://wwwl.girlscouts.org/program/journeys/booklets/ . They are in the right sidebar by level. Just click on the link to download the Brownie book.
Thanks for letting me know. I will need to change the links in the post.
The link in your article is not working nor is the one you commented to use instead in your comment reply to the other lady. I looked and there is no right side bar to click on levels at…?? Thanks!
I did a quick Google search and came up with this link. It looks like it has them for download there, at least it was working for me. https://www.togethercounts.com/at-home/scouts Hope that helps!
I am trying to find the Healthy Habits Booklet PDF, so that I can use it for my Brownies. I have used the links, but it leads me to a deadend and I’m not able to find it on the girlscout.org website. I’ve pinterested and googled and I’m still not having any luck. Did you by any chance save the PDF and have it to share?
Thanks!
Desperate GS Brownie Leader
Another person had the same issue. I found it on the Together Counts website. I need to edit this post, but haven’t made the time, so here is the link: https://togethercounts.com/scouts/ . Hope that helps and works for you!