After School Responsibility
A special program developed for Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts who are "on their own" most days after school, evenings or weekends until a parent gets home from work.
On Your Own patches for Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts are available for purchase at the Council Shop.
To earn a patch: Juniors must complete starred requirements plus three more. Brownies may just complete the starred requirements marked "B."
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| 1. |
* |
Complete the American Red Cross "First Aid for Children Today" (FACT) self study course if you are a Brownie, or the First Aid Badge as described in the badgebook if you are a Junior. |
| 2. |
* B |
Draw a floor plan of your house or apartment (all floors) showing
escape routes in case of fire. Practice the routes to the outside
through doorways with younger brothers and sisters and with
friends who play with you. |
| 3. | * B |
Find out how to put out these small kitchen fires: the toaster
has flames coming out from where the cord is attached to the
toaster; hamburger grease is spilled on one of the stove burners
and it runs down into the pan underneath and then catches fire;
the pot holder isn't carefully put to one side of the stove
and the corner of it touches the burner and starts on fire.
(Be careful - this last one's tricky) Explain why there are
different methods necessary for putting out fires. |
| 4. | * B |
Discuss with your patrol or group what to do if a stranger comes
to the door or calls on the phone while you are home alone,
and what to do if you are approached by a stranger outdoors.
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| 5. | * B |
Make a list of important phone numbers and post it by the phone
in your home. If you have more than one phone, make a list to
be posted near each phone. Include the police emergency and
non-emergency numbers, the poison control center, fire department,
parents' work numbers, close neighbors, doctors, and any other
numbers you think are important. Practice making emergency phone
calls to get help for someone injured, to report a fire, etc.
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| 6. | * B |
Plan simple dinner menus for your family for one week if you
are a Brownie and for two weeks if you are a Junior. Decide
with your parent or guardian on which days you will cook for
everyone and find out if it's all right to use the appliances
you will need to cook the food on your menus. If you are not
allowed to use the stove, maybe you could use a different appliance,
like an electric frying pan. If not, revise your menus so that
they will contain meals you can prepare. Get involved in shopping
for the food items you'll need. Prepare and cook your meals
as planned, cleaning up as you go. Don't forget to set the table!
Share your menus with your troop and report on how well each
preparation went. |
| 7. |
Learn to prepare four healthy snacks that need no cooking. (No
sugar, no preservatives.) Take your recipes to your troop meeting
and with your troopmates put together a "NO COOK BOOK". Give
a copy of your troop's book to the library at the Girl Scout
office. |
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| 8. | * B |
Plan some appropriate activities for yourself and for the younger
brothers and sisters for which you may be responsible and set
them up ahead of time. Examples: Put together a craft kit with
blunt scissors, paper, glue, crayons, cloth scraps, cardboard,
yarn and other "around-the-house" craft items; make a library
corner where a different book is featured each day; collect
lots of little boxes of different sizes from which to create
a city; put together a 3x5 file card box of game names - so
you can reach in, draw out a card and play that game. |
| 9. |
At the end of each week, make a day-by-day list of your activities
for the upcoming week, including time each day for homework.
Then make a "Kaper Chart" showing what household chores you
will need to do each day. If you have brothers and sisters,
work them into the chart to cover the other chores so that everyone
carries a fair share. For instance, if you have a piano lesson
Tuesday and Thursday at 6:45 P.M., you won't be able to wash
dinner dishes those days, so see if your brother can. If your
brother has early basketball practice on a couple of days and
you are not occupied, you could do the early dog walks for him.
Post the Kaper Chart where everyone at home can see it. |
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| 10. |
Adults often make "house rules" for after school time. If you
have house rules, share them with your troop. Do you think your
house rules are too strict? Too lenient? If you don't agree
with the house rules, write a list you think is better - be
sensible. Talk this list over with your troop and be prepared
to explain why you have each rule on your list and why you dropped
any of the old rules if you did. Next, talk your list over with
your parents or guardians and see if they like it. |
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| 11. |
Choose a badge that you can do by yourself and work on it during a
time you are on your own at home. Examples: Dabbler in Health
and Fitness, Art-In-The-Round, Books, Music Lover, Pet Care,
Exploring Healthy Eating. |
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| 12. | * B |
Know what to do if you are locked out of your house. |
| 13. |
Monitor your television watching habits during after school
hours for one week. Add up how much time you watched each day.
The next week, watch only half that much T.V. and fill the rest
of the time with other things like reading, writing stories
and letters, making crafts, woodwork or needlework items, weeding,
cloud-watching, playing games, drawing. Finally, see how much
you can do during a week when you watch no T.V. |