E's 2016-2017 AHG Badge Manifesto

In a month or so E will be starting her second year of American Heritage Girls - AHG. Last year she was a Pathfinder and dabbled in all the troop activities but couldn't earn any badges - much to her chagrin - so when her uniform and book came in earlier this summer she was super excited. She has studied the book several times over and announced that she wants to earn this badge and that badge and I think it has amounted to almost every badge that a Tenderheart can earn (they can't earn Archery or Climbing or a few other ones until they are Explorers - ages 9).

Here's a list of all the current American Heritage Girls badges:

Girls can earn every badge (with the exception of a few) at each of the 4 AHG levels and there are increasing demanding requirements as girls progress from 1st grade to high school. Her troop works on a 3-6  badges per year during the weekly meetings. Last year it was Kitchen Scientist, Emergency Preparedness and Pet Care. 

The requirements for each badge demand exposure to new things and experiences which help develop a wider knowledge/experience into a number of different activities that I wouldn't normally seek out. I mean I wouldn't have her track her observations of birds at three different feeders over the course of two weeks - we'd probably just talk about it; the bird badge it forces us to take a closer look at birds or weather or needle arts or the Bible or swimming or see the list above : ) 

Anyhow, I asked E to write down the badges that she was interested in *POSSIBLY  doing this year outside of her troop. I figured since she was interested in almost every badge we needed a little focus on what was actually possible. All I asked is that she pick as least one from each Frontier and no more than three per Frontier. 

When Lee came home and E proudly announced that these were the badges she was going to earn in AHG this year (there's a back to that page that also includes several sports pins : ). It has been dubbed her Badge Manifesto ever since. It is a very ambitious list for a first grader but if there is anyone who is motivated to check off a list, E is your girl.