Tell me about American Heritage Girls

[lea_lpz]

So I was considering having dd do Daisies GS this year, but wasn't too impressed with the handbooks I saw at a local bookstore that sells GS stuff and thought I would wait until she was older. But, still, it seems like the program has changed a lot since I was a Junior scout.

 

I recently heard about American Heritage Girls group in my town at a church we don't attend. Unfortunatly, it meets when my dd has gymnastics class (but we could switch) but maybe next year?

 

I've visited the site and have a little info. and do so far like what I see but had some questions...

1) Does AHG do camping and outdoor things? We would want a club like this.

2) Are all the badges based on scripture memorization or do they earn them by doing other projects too?

3) if we already do AWANAS is it going to be too similar?

 

Basically it boils down to this- I want a scouting experience and having a Christoan influence and having ds get to be with other Christians would be a plus, but scouting, with badges emphasizing outdoor skills, health and safety, sewing, baking, etc. would be more what I am looking for.

Edited September 23, 2012 by lea_lpz

[VA6336]

1) Yes!

2) No, Yes

3) No

 

From what you describe, AHG would be a very good fit. Sorry I don't have time to respond further.

[Just Another Jen]

It's like Girl Scouts was when I was a kid. Only somewhat better because of the Christian influence and the fact that they have partnered with the Boy Scouts and can use their camps.

[Just Another Jen]

Sorry- I hit enter too soon. My daughter has earned the scrapbooking, outdoor living, our flag, insect something, geology, bicycling, archery, just in the last year. I think it's exactly what you are looking for.

[lea_lpz]

Sorry- I hit enter too soon. My daughter has earned the scrapbooking, outdoor living, our flag, insect something, geology, bicycling, archery, just in the last year. I think it's exactly what you are looking for.

 

Oh awesome, just what I wanted to hear ;) & being able to use boy scout camps sounds fabulous.

 

What is the start up cost typically and dues like? And how much work us done in meetings vs at home?

 

And what generally is done at the pathfinder level?

The tender heart level?

Edited September 23, 2012 by lea_lpz

[Stayseeliz]

We did AHG last spring and loved it. The only reason we aren't doing it this year is because I'm waiting for the current leader to retire after this year. :) There were some issues there. But it is a great program!

Edited September 23, 2012 by Stayseeliz

[Mrs Mungo]

We do AHG, and we love our troop. :)

 

Our troop typically does family camping twice per year, an Explorer/PiPa camping trip once per year and several other outdoor experiences several other times per year. We just did a conservation project at a local park. We do four or five service projects per year. We generally do badge work on meeting nights and while on camping trips.

[Laurie4b]

Oh awesome, just what I wanted to hear ;) & being able to use boy scout camps sounds fabulous.

 

What is the start up cost typically and dues like? And how much work us done in meetings vs at home?

 

And what generally is done at the pathfinder level?

The tender heart level?

 

Start up costs including registration, book, and uniform are between $100-$150.

[Mrs Mungo]

What is the start up cost typically and dues like? And how much work us done in meetings vs at home?

 

Registration: $26

Pathfinder kit (kindergarten girls, includes t-shirt, book and bead necklace): $26

Vest with patches (girls 1-6 grades): $26

Sash with patches (girls 7-12 grades): $14

Girl handbook (same book is used throughout grades 1-12): $18

Dues: varies with troop, but typically $5/month

 

The troop also pays a charter fee each year and a $20/registered girl "program support fee." These are usually paid through fundraising.

 

And what generally is done at the pathfinder level?

The tender heart level?

 

Pathfinder girls earn beads on their necklace for attendance and learning about AHG. They memorize Bible verses and do crafts that help them learn and understand the parts of the AHG oath.

 

The Tenderhearts earn badges, go camping (with their families), etc. There are a handful of badges that Tenderhearts are not allowed to earn due to safety concerns, but they can earn most badges.

[Bassoonaroo]

Where in one of the biggest troops in the nation -- it's in its fourth year now.

 

1) Does AHG do camping and outdoor things? We would want a club like this. Ours camps

 

2) Are all the badges based on scripture memorization or do they earn them by doing other projects too? Very few. There are some Bible oriented badges (Bible Basics, Daughter of the King, Seven C's of Creation) but most badges are things like fishing, women inventors, our flag, etc.

 

3) if we already do AWANAS is it going to be too similar? Nah.

 

It's been a good fit for us. Our youngest dd needed something social and fun.

[HSMom2One]

AHG is a really great organization and I highly recommend it. Each chapter does have a personality of its own though, and so there may be requirements that differ in each of them. Be sure to check out the fine print before committing your dd, as you may or may not be able to participate fully as the rules dictate for them.

 

For us it didn't work out because of the very high and rigid expectation for parent involvement. As a working mom who also homeschooled and was very active in other community volunteering, it was not realistic for me to take part in as much as our particular chapter demanded. We ended up having issues, and so sadly it was not a good fit for our family.

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[Mrs Mungo]

For us it didn't work out because of the very high and rigid expectation for parent involvement. As a working mom who also homeschooled and was very active in other community volunteering, it was not realistic for me to take part in as much as our particular chapter demanded. We ended up having issues, and so sadly it was not a good fit for our family.

 

As a national organization, AHG heavily encourages family involvement. Every family is supposed to have at least one volunteer job of some sort, for example. Our troop is also very large, and we don't enforce this because once you get past 25 or 30 volunteers, then you are just sort of passing out busy work, IMO.

 

Pathfinders and Tenderhearts cannot go camping without their families in any troop. That means that families go or the girls cannot go. There are other things we do as a *troop* that younger girls must do with their families. For example, if the troop goes to a rock climbing place, then the kindergarten and first grade girls either cannot go or have to do it with their families. This is due to restrictions from national.

 

Boy Scouts have the similar restrictions for their younger groups. If you have a Tiger Cub Scout (first grade boys), then you have to stay at the meeting. Pathfinder (kindergarten) parents are encouraged to stay in meetings too, mirroring the boy expectation for the first year. An experienced scout parent will tell you this is because they want their parents to learn to be involved from the beginning. Scouting organizations are something that families are involved in, they are not drop-off activities, in general. So, that is something to keep in mind.

Edited September 23, 2012 by Mrs Mungo

[Soror]

We are just starting a group here. We will have 2 camping trips and probably about 4-6 service projects over the year- still ironing out the whole schedule. We also have some more girly stuff planned, Christianity is just intertwined with everything and work on basic life skills will be a large part as well. I'm very excited because there is just so much opportunity for so many great things in AHG.

 

We do expect parent involvement here as well and it is not to be a drop-off activity.

[Soror]

As a national organization, AHG heavily encourages family involvement. Every family is supposed to have at least one volunteer job of some sort, for example. Our troop is also very large, and we don't enforce this because once you get past 25 or 30 volunteers, then you are just sort of passing out busy work, IMO.

 

Pathfinders and Tenderhearts cannot go camping without their families in any troop. That means that families go or the girls cannot go. There are other things we do as a *troop* that younger girls must do with their families. For example, if the troop goes to a rock climbing place, then the kindergarten and first grade girls either cannot go or have to do it with their families. This is due to restrictions from national.

 

Boy Scouts have the similar restrictions for their younger groups. If you have a Tiger Cub Scout (kindergarten boys), then you have to stay at the meeting. Pathfinder parents are encouraged to stay in meetings too, mirroring the boy expectation. An experienced scout parent will tell you this is because they want their parents to learn to be involved from the beginning. Scouting organizations are something that families are involved in, they are not drop-off activities, in general. So, that is something to keep in mind.

 

I should have just waited as you explained it much better.

 

One of the big reasons we wanted to be involved was due to the family aspect. I think it makes for a better troop and experience for the kids. Plus, there is a lot to do and having a few leaders to do it all can get rather tiresome.

 

*small note though, Tiger Cubs are 1st

[Mrs Mungo]

I should have just waited as you explained it much better.

 

One of the big reasons we wanted to be involved was due to the family aspect. I think it makes for a better troop and experience for the kids. Plus, there is a lot to do and having a few leaders to do it all can get rather tiresome.

 

*small note though, Tiger Cubs are 1st

 

Sorry, I have more experience with the girls than boys, I will edit. :)

[SkateLeft]

Both of my girls are Patriots (9th-12th grade level) in AHG, and it's awesome. I wish I'd been able to get them involved years ago!

 

Our troop is quite large, very well run and organized, and has squads all the way from Pathfinders (K) to Patriots. There are 13 girls in the Pioneer/Patriot squad this year (8 Pioneers, 5 Patriots). While each parent is required to sign up for a volunteer position, we aren't required to hang out through the troop meetings. Pioneers and Patriots (7-12th grade) are allowed to sign themselves in and out at the meetings. (Considering that some of the older girls can drive themselves, that makes sense.) The younger girls must be signed in and out by a parent. The church where we have our troop meetings has a great place set aside for parents to hang out, so it's a fun social experience for us too. :)

 

I hated Girl Scouts as a kid, because I wanted to do all the fun stuff that my brother was doing with Boy Scouts. Instead, I was stuck wrapping yarn around coffee cans to make pencil holders and stuff. Ugh.

 

With AHG, my girls go camping, play sports, earn badges in things like engineering, birding, camping, etc. Boy Scouts earn "merit badges," and AHG earn "insignia." While there are some specifically Christian requirements for the insignia, there is a lot more to earning each badge. It's not "Bible Scouts" and is completely different from something like Awana. AHG also offers sports pins, which makes my 14 year old athlete very happy. She's determined to earn them all. There are service stars earned for hours of service (parents track hours in our troop) and level awards.

 

I have a Second Class Boy Scout also, and it's actually quite similar. In fact, AHG has a formal relationship with Boy Scouts of America. As a result, AHG can use BSA facilities (like Base Camp) and training.

Edited September 23, 2012 by sailmom

[Mrs Mungo]

Boy Scouts earn "merit badges," and AHG earn "insignia."

 

I wonder if this is a wording that your local troop uses? AHG national calls them "achievement badges."

 

http://www.ahgonline.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=20467

 

Maybe your local troops uses the different phrases to help avoid confusion?

[SkateLeft]

I wonder if this is a wording that your local troop uses? AHG national calls them "achievement badges."

 

http://www.ahgonline.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=20467

 

Maybe your local troops uses the different phrases to help avoid confusion?

 

You're right. Awards as a whole are referred to as insignia by AHG, but our troop uses the term more specifically for the achievement badges.

 

Yes, we do it to avoid confusion. Many of us have one foot in AHG and one foot in BSA, so we're easily confused. :D

[Mrs Mungo]

You're right. Awards as a whole are referred to as insignia by AHG, but our troop uses the term more specifically for the achievement badges.

 

Yes, we do it to avoid confusion. Many of us have one foot in AHG and one foot in BSA, so we're easily confused. :D

 

Our troop is similar. We have boys that meet the same night. Most of the leaders have kids in each. So, I know the feeling! :D

[Mommy22alyns]

OP, I think AHG sounds just like what you're looking for. Both girls are members, Rebecca since the first grade. She's an Explorer now. They definitely do outdoor badges, and there's so many badges to earn! They've done all sorts of things to earn them. They also have a day camp at the end of summer, so the girls get to do all sorts of outdoor things. Both girls really love it. As a bonus, ours is an all-homeschool troop!

[lea_lpz]

Yeah! We're going to check out a meeting this afternoon!

My dd has not been to keen on the dance portion of her Tuesday afternoon class (it's a dance/gymnastics combo class) and so we switched her to gymnastics only class Thursday afternoons instead. So now we have a free slot for Tuesday afternoons!

 

Also wanted to clarify, I'm not opposed to dd earning patches based on scripture, Christian character, etc., I just did not want to be a bible study class because my kids already do that with AWANA, so I was more in to finding a true scouting experience comparable to boy scouts that was Christ centered. (my dh defined it this way when I was trying to explain AHG ;)).

 

I actually heard about AHG through another hs mom and said that the church that hosts AHG has a thriving hs community, so I will probably have the added bonus of othe hs girls in the troop :). This would be nice because we're new to homeschooling and so don't know that many other hs families.

[mom2scouts]

I've heard many good things about AHG. We considered it but the nearest troop is a little too far away and we already have an extremely busy schedule. We are trying Frontier Girls as a pioneer (individual) and may try to start a troop later.

[lea_lpz]

Well we went to the meeting and they need a troop leader for the pathfinder girls but have a couple girls interested. So I am thinking of actually now being a leader:001_huh:

 

I liked the format of the meeting. It was also nice most of leaders and many of the girls are homeschooled. In fact the main organizer was talking about hardship as a concept and was using the example of "what if you end up having a teacher you really don't like...., etc, what would you do....well except if your teacher is your mom.". Then like half the kids laugh so I thought ok this'll be awesome:)