Frontier Girls… What will we learn about next?

This is a newsletter to the events of what’s going on in the Creative Madness Mama Blossom School Frontier Girls Pioneer Troop…

We are so excited to be starting a new year with our participation in the Frontier Girls as a Pioneer Troop. Now, my six-year-old AppleBlossom has crossed over to participate as an Otter Level this year, while my four-year-old the Princess will continue to increase her skills and badges earned as a Penguin Level again this year. In our round-up for the Penguin Level and the last year AppleBlossom earned 167 badges and the Princess earned 32 badges. However, in still trying to figure out a way to award them (as we don’t have the budget to buy every badge earned, much less the space on a vest!) we bought some of their proudest moments in badge form – the ones they talk about the most.

Now each level has a color around the border to signify at which level the badge was earned.

Now for this year, Kerry has updated the badge system to slightly larger buttons and a color labeling system so that it will be easy at a glance to know when a particular badge in a girls’ collection was earned. They said they will still have some of the original badge types for a while and my original intent was to hand down badges as the Princess earned ones that AppleBlossom had earned on a previous level… but now I plan to get the Otter/yellow level badges for her and stick with the old smaller size non-colored badges for the mini-size Frontier Girl Pioneer. Then after that I’m undecided if I’ll use the mini-badges on my vest to show areas taught or if I’ll get the Leader/red level badges. Quandary. Maybe we should do a fundraiser to pay for the badges?

Last year AppleBlossom earned the WOW! Award (earning 100+ badges) as well as the Gem Award. I decided to only purchase the Gem Award for her vest, but I’m debating going back and getting her a Penguin WOW! Award pendant as well. Her earning of the Gem Award shows she has also earned the Discovery Award, Life Skills Achievement Award, Liberty Award, and Fruit of the Spirit Award.

Gem Awards are the highest award a girl can earn at each level. Each Gem Award acknowledges girls for going above and beyond just attending meetings and earning badges, and rewards them for their efforts in taking to heart the most important aspects of our program. To earn these awards you must do the following:

Earn one badge from each Area of Discovery at your level.

Earn at least one Servant’s Heart Award for each year of membership at your level.

Earn the Life Skills Achievement Award at your level

Earn the Liberty Award at your level

Earn the Fruit of the Spirit Award at your level

– Frontier Girls Awards Page

Now for the updates on the latest this year. Both girls have the Frontier Girls Motto memorized and we reference it daily. “If you see a need, take the lead!” We’re pretty close to having the Promise and the Creed memorized. I’d say we still have a bit more work to do there. We have lots of things on our to-do list in the required and recommended badges for each year including those which qualify for the Liberty Award (5), In August we spent quite a bit of time on Johnny Appleseed/Apples and we are starting a study now on Audubon. Check back for other reviews and posts on Johnny Appleseed material!

Badges earned in July & August:

Discover Agriculture

Apples (Penguin & Otter)

Discover Art

Biographies: Gustav Klimt (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Color (Penguin & Otter)
Art (Penguin & Otter)
Art History (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Music (Penguin & Otter)
Classical Music (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only

Ten varieties of apples! Johnny Appleseed here we come… #homeschool

A photo posted by Margaret Chind (@cherryblossommj) on Aug 23, 2015 at 12:29pm PDT

Discover Character

Biographies: John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed (Penguin & Otter)

Love (Penguin & Otter)
Joy (Penguin & Otter)
Peace (Penguin & Otter)

Discover Heath

Bicycling (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Running (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only

Discover Home

Genealogy (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Sewing (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Baking (Penguin & Otter)

Apple pie went great! My first pie made ever!! Blog post to come!! A photo posted by Margaret Chind (@cherryblossommj) on Aug 23, 2015 at 9:16pm PDT

Discover Knowledge

ABC (Penguin & Otter)
Reading (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Spelling (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Birthdays (Penguin & Otter)
Books – Specific: Billy & Blaze series (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Books – Specific: The Boxcar Children (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Books – Specific: Narnia (Penguin & Otter)

Classical Literature (Penguins & Otter)
Dinosaurs (Penguin & Otter)
Disney (Penguin & Otter)
Doctor Who – Learn All About It (Penguin & Otter)
Faeries (Penguin & Otter)
Fairy Tales (Penguin & Otter)
Zoos (Penguin & Otter) – plus an activity patch!
Princess (Penguin & Otter)

Ladybug invasion of the kitchen

A photo posted by Margaret Chind (@cherryblossommj) on Aug 21, 2015 at 9:13am PDT

Discover Outdoors

Animal Tracking (Penguin & Otter) – We wrote this badge!
Archery (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Trees (Penguin & Otter)

Discover Science & Technology

Astronomy (Penguin & Otter)
Aerospace (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Rockets (Penguin & Otter)
Inventions (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Planets (Penguin & Otter)
Mammoth/mastodon (Penguin & Otter)
Seasons – Specific: Summer (Penguin & Otter)
Ecology (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Botany (Penguin & Otter)
Biomes (Penguin & Otter)

Discover the World

Museum – Specific: Pink Palace Museum (Penguin & Otter)
Historic era – Specific: American Frontier (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Historic era – Specific: Ancient Egypt (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
History by Country: Egypt (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
Flags of the World (in progress…)
World Geography (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only
World Landmarks (Otter) – for AppleBlossom only