Traditional Enrollment

Twist me and turn me - those are some powerful words to me, and I have to admit that I tear up every year during enrollment.


This year with the girls we chose a traditional enrollment.  The toadstool sitting on a carpet of grass, surrounding a small pool of water with a mirror inside it.  We doubled our brownies from last year to this year (proof we are doing something right, right?) so all the new girls came up with their sixers and seconds, and were enrolled by them one at a time.

After twisting and turning they got to shake hands with the District Commissioner, then our Area Commissioner, then Brown Owl.

They got certificates, their title tape, enrollment pin, year pin and circle patch.


Around the toadstool we put two of the crafts they've done with their key to Brownies (and then they got to take them home).

The first was a toadstool made from recycled egg cartons.

The second were pinecones stuffed with cotton balls and two googly eyes.

Handing badges out

Something that comes up from time to time is how you hand badges out to the girls.  I have always preferred stapling them to a 3x5 notecard, each with the kids' name, and instructions written on (with arrows in some cases) as to where the badges go.

We make camp blankets every year with the girls, the options are camp blanket, front of sash (for keepers) and back of sash (for challenge crests).  Taking inspiration from this wonderful Brownies website, I created a template for a Sparks sash and staple/pin all of the start of year insignia to that.

For the rest of the year, after enrollment, I put all the badges we earn in a month together on a 3x5 card and hand them out the last meeting of each month.

Like So -

This is what I'm handing out at the end of January.

So that's how I do it.  Please leave a comment with how you hand out badges!

Flashback - Enrollment night

So we did enrollment at the end of October again.

We had the ceremony about the same way we went last year.

But, since we also had a new Guider, we thought we'd enroll her as well!

Before we started, I passed my small point-and-shoot camera to one of the parents we had from last year, and asked her to take a few pictures of me enrolling our new Guider.  She said yes!  Thanks!

So then we proceed with our ceremony.  One by one the new Sparks walked over the rainbow, gave the Spark sign while shaking my hand and reciting their promise, turned for a picture for mom and dad and sat on their designated cloud.  Then we called up our returning Sparks to renew their promise and get their badges from our first few meetings (their cookie badge, mostly), and they returned to their clouds.

When we were done, I called Emerald up.  She looked a bit shocked, but crossed the rainbow anyways!

I gave her a vintage leader's scarf I found on etsy, then we shook hands with the Guide sign and she recited the Girl Guide promise (after me - I hadn't given her the heads-up to memorize it).  I then pinned her with her Spark Guider appointment pin and got her to give a smile for our parent photographer.

I think sometimes we remember the girls far before our leaders.  It's so important to recognize the contribution of our parent volunteers in Girl Guides.  Without them, we'd have no program!

Thank you Emerald!  And here's to many Guiding years ahead of you!

Spark Guider Appointment Pin

Vintage scarf

Enrollment

In Sparks, as with in all levels of Guides, the enrollment ceremony is a big deal to the girls.

For our enrollment ceremony, we built a long rainbow out of Bristol board, and taped it together.  We trimmed the sides with hot pink, and built clouds to go on either end.

We made cute clouds with blue paint, sparkles, and each girl's name on our side of the rainbow.  New Sparks sat at the other end.  We called them over the rainbow to play with the Sparks one by one, and recited a little poem as they walked along the rainbow.

As she walks to Rainbow's end

We hope that she will find a friend

Promise to share with all her heart

She is ready to be a Spark.

The girls then recited their promise, got pinned with their 1-year pin and Sparks enrollment pin, got handed an enrollment certificate as well as a small piece of paper with their earned badges on it, got a photo taken, then sat down on their cloud in Rainbow's End with the other Sparks.

It took a bit of time, but the kids were impressed with themselves, and the parents really liked it.

The badges they got were the "Being a Spark" Keeper, the "Cookie Raising" 1 (or 2) keeper, and, if they attended the District Camp,  the Alberta Camp Challenge with Summer and Fall as well as three of the five WAGGGS Regions Challenge Badges and the Send them to Sangam Challenge Crest.