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Groups for girls other than Girl Scouts?


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FWIW, I started up a girls book club for my dd when she was 11 (what it is about that age?) and it's been WONDERFUL. Still going strong with a nice group of friends. Once a month, casual, fun, food, books, girls.

 

Just another idea if you don't find a formal group in your area that fits.

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American Heritage Girls, that was it! There isn't any groups in our area. :glare: I don't think I would be able to pull it off, it seems like there is a lot involved in starting one and the price is outrageous!

 

The church normally pays the charter fee. Most churches consider it an outreach ministry.

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We tried the girl scout route and although I was so excited since I was in girl scouts...times have changed for sure...we ended up switching out of 2 groups because of faulty leaders and parents not helping at all with the troop or the girls fundraisers...so the groups broke up.

 

My girls were sad.

 

Then we found Girls in Action and Mission Friends through our local church and they love it. But it's coming to an end this next week and I'm on the hunt for something for them both but NOT girl scouts..I forked out too much money for the groups to fail again and I just can't afford to do that. So I'm considering having them join some piano lessons or something until they are of age to do the group you ladies mentioned as my girls are still too young.

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There's another group called Missionettes.

 

Missionettes is now called National Girls Ministries. They are in Assembly of God churches (I grew up AG in Missionettes :) ). IMO, Missionettes really isn't a scouting program. They do not (in my experience) focus on camping, outdoor skills, etc.

Edited by Mrs Mungo
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Does anyone know if there are any other secular groups similar to Girl Scouts?

 

Spiral Scouts. It definitely has a pagan-bent to it, but there are Circles out there that are strictly secular (we're part of one). There are many things about it I find nice. It's co-ed and multi-age (3-18) so no matter how many kids you have, it's one meeting. It's year-round unlike GS and BS. Year-round scouting makes a lot of sense in places like New England where summer is really the prime time to do a lot of the outdoors stuff. They also don't stress fund-raising. Circles operate in different ways depending on the individual leaders. Our leaders believe that Scouts should be about....wait for it......scouting! We do a lot of outdoorsy stuff, weather & season permitting & such. My friends who run this Circle checked out another before starting this one and it was pretty unorganized and heavy on the arts & crafts. It really depends who you get for a leader, but if you don't like the leadership you can always start your own Circle. There is plenty of opportunity for parental involvement all the way up to the national level. I'm on the badge committee, for example, and I've been actively writing/modifying badges. I want certain badges for my kids so I'm on the committee to make it happen. My friends wanted a certain level of scouting experience for their son so they started the Circle we're in. It's one of those organizations that you truly get out of it what you put into it.

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Does anyone know if there are any other secular groups similar to Girl Scouts?

There doesn't seem to be a lot in the way of single-sex, secular alternatives. Earth Scouts, Spiral Scouts, Campfire, and Venture Scouts (part of the Boy Scouts organization, but co-ed) are all co-ed.

 

http://www.girlsforachange.org/ is the only one I've personally stumbled across, and that seems most aimed at teens, and more about social action than camping. Not that there's anything wrong with social action, but it doesn't exactly fill the same niche as scouting.

 

It's too bad. I think that the all-girl environment can be really beneficial. I can't tell, at this point, if GS is something we want to be involved in. A lot of the criticism seems rather conservative in nature and not particularly relevant to us, but I'm not sure about their whole Journeys/Studio 2B business, either.

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American Heritage Girls, that was it! There isn't any groups in our area. :glare: I don't think I would be able to pull it off, it seems like there is a lot involved in starting one and the price is outrageous!

 

I started a Troop last year in 4 months. It can be done. I'd be happy to help you if you'd like.

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