You did it! You and your girls made it to the next level in Girl Scouts! Whether it’s that first step from Daisy to Brownie or the final from Ambassador to adult, bridging to the next level as a Girl Scout is a momentous accomplishment.

So what should you expect from yourself, your girls, and Girl Scouts? What’s different?

Here’s a few things to think about as you start your newest adventure with Girl Scouts:

A New Normal!

As girls grow and mature their likes, needs, and abilities change too. While every girl matures at her own pace, there are general characteristics and commonalities for each age level. As your troop bridges to a new level it can be very useful to review the developmental abilities and needs common for girls at your new age level.

You can find a good resource for this on page 31-33 of Volunteer Essentials.

More Possibilities!

One of the exciting things about a new age level are the new things you can do! Each age level has a different set of badges, Journeys, trip permissions (longer trips with more distant destinations), and new community partner and council-sponsored activities to sign up for based on their increased abilities.

So try Letterboxing with your Brownies, explore archery with your Juniors, take your Cadettes backpacking, and start planning that extended trip to a far away destination with your older girls! Grab your Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting, the 2016-2017 Program Event Guide, and start planning. There’s so many awesome things to do now that your girls are older!

Learning to Let Go!

Each new age level is an opportunity for girls to take on greater leadership roles in their troop and life in general.

Stepping back in your role as leader and letting the girls do more of the planning for activities, meetings, and general troop responsibilities can be difficult, but it’s necessary for our girls to grow. So let them go, let them fail (seriously, failing can be a good thing), and let your girls take the lead!

What do you think of our advice? We hope you find it useful as you start your year and explore all of the possibilities available to your Girl Scouts at their new age level!