Girl Scouting can be a rewarding, educational and fun experience for you and your Girl Scout. Girl Scouting emphasizes individual potential, development of values, relating to others, and good citizenship. One of the ways to cultivate these goals in the girls is to encourage them to earn badges and awards at home with your help.
Girls are welcome do any of the badge activities and complete any badge not otherwise covered by the troop. They are also encouraged to work on any badge activities they missed with the troop at home. Please check with your troop leaders first before beginning to work on a badge.
Girls can work on an variety of activities at home including:
- Journey – There are three different Journeys for each Girl Scout level.
- My Promise – My Faith Pins – This can be earned each year
- Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin – This can be earned each year
- Safety Award – This can be earned at each Girl Scout level
- Badges – Any current and retired
- Council’s Own Badges – Some council’s have their own badges and patches with requirements to earn. You don’t have to be part of that council to earn these.
We recommend working on no more than two badges or awards at a time.
Honor System
Badges earned at home are done on the honor system. Girl Scouts of any age should learn the concept of honor. You can help your Girl Scout learn about honor by insisting that she complete all of the activities that are required.
Retired & Council’s Own Badge Binder
As it can be hard to find retired badges and council’s own badges we have put together a binder to help. In the binder you will find the requirements for a badge, along with the actual badge. This way once a girl earns these badges we have one on hand to present to her.
Girls are free to work on badges not in the binder, but it may take us time to find the badge.
Parents and guardians are welcome to purchase retired badges, and ask troop leaders for badge requirements in order to be assured there is a badge.
If you have any extra badges we are interested in adding them to our collection.
Badge Activity Record
We have developed a “generic” badge record keeping page. Please make copies of the record keeping page
should your Girl Scout decide to work on more than one badge at home. It also includes a section to help you prepare to present your work to the troop.
Girls are welcome to record what they did in another manner; however, it must be clear what they did for each requirement. Sufficient detail is needed to allow leaders to confirm requirement were completed correctly.
Presenting Your Work to the Troop
After you have completed the five requirements to earn a badge, then your troop leaders will schedule a time for you to present your work to the troop.
There are a number of ways you can present your work to the troop. You can do, but are not limited to, any of the following:
- Demonstrate an activity
- Bring in something you made
- Read the journal you kept about the activities you did
- Present photos you took
- Create a poster
- Make a video
During their presentation girls need to state what they did for each badge requirement, and go into detail on what they did/learned.
Getting Started
The best way to begin is to look through the Girl Scouts Award and Badge Explorer, and do the following:
- Decide on some that interest her or that present something that is new to her.
- Decide on which badge she should start with, and then read through all of the different activities.
- Decide on which activities are going to be performed for the badge. Girls complete at least one activity in each of the 5 sections of the badge. Retired badges may require scouts to complete fewer or more activities.
- Brownies-For retired badges from 2001-2011 scouts need to complete 4 activities
- Juniors-For retired badges from 2001-2011 scouts need to complete 6 activities
- Please discuss your selection with the Troop Leaders before you start. They may be planning to do the same badge as a troop activity.
- As your Girl Scout completes an activity, note the date on the badge work sheet. Sign the worksheet, and give it to the troop leader when all five of the listed activities have been accomplished. The troop leaders will probably ask your Girl Scout to demonstrate an activity, bring something that she has made, keep a journal about the activities, or to bring in photos in order to share her experiences with the rest of the troop. This type of sharing helps to build self-confidence.
- One of the most important things to remember when working on Girl Scout Badge activities is that badges are designed to expose girls to new hobbies, skills, and fun activities. The emphasis is on trying new experiences, not gaining proficiency. Ideally, the activities for the badges would be done in a group. Many of them are, however, flexible enough for girls to work on them alone or with just one other person. Many activities require adult assistance.
- Your Girl Scout should not feel pressured to complete a badge if she is not really enjoying the activities. She may choose to do one or two activities in a badge and then move on to another one. Also, she should not feel that having more badges than someone else is a measure of who has done better. She is, however, encouraged to try a variety of activities.
Recommended Current Badges by Level
Perfect for working on your own during the troops’ summer break, or any time during the year!
| Daisy | Brownie | Junior | Cadette | Senior | Ambassador |
| Digital Leadership | Bugs | Cybersecuity (3 badge series) | |||
| Fun with Movement | Computer Expert | Digital Leadership | |||
| Digital Leadership | Digital Photography | ||||
| Making Games | Entertainment Technology | ||||
| Me Time | Independence | ||||
| My Family Story | Scribe | ||||
| My Great Day | Simple Meals | ||||
| Pets | Uniquely Us | ||||
| Snacks |