I feel like I have been put in a difficult position and not sure what to do about it.

Let me preface by saying one of the big reasons we are homeschooling is that our values put home and family before outside interests. One of the side effects of public school that I didn't like is my 5 year old became very focused outside our family and started picking up negative behaviors. While I think an outside focus is appropriate for teenagers who are on the cusp of becoming adults, I do not think it is healthy for small children. I didn't explain that very welll, but hopefully you understand what I mean.

So, when we signed up my middle daughter for the Daisy Scouts it was so she could spend some time with the neighbor girl that she likes and my neighbor was running it and I trust her (to a degree). It was supposed to be an every other week commitment. This month was really their first full month. First they added an extra "rehearsal" meeting for the "investiture ceremony" which they then scheduled for an evening rather than during their regular meeting and they had us invite family. (sorry, if you love the girl scouts but I felt they made way too big a deal about this for the age). So two extra meetings in the first month alone. Now they are talking about changing it to meeting every week. This is more of a commitment (and influence in dd's life) than I wanted. My neighbor is just a bit to zealous about the whole thing and now that her dd is in K she is bored and looking for something to do. I don't want my dd's life to become about the girl scouts and her girl scout friends. Not to mention I feel that the leaders think of my dd as a project due to her natural slow to warm up tendencies (shy). I feel wrong about the whole thing. For my neighbor it means more time spent with her daughter surrounded by her friends but for me it's more time away under the influence of another adult woman in a non-academic setting.

argh.

If its something you are not comfortable with then it would still serve your original purposes to only show up the original amount of time you planned. When the discussion comes up or is mentioned or whatever, say that that schedule may work for others but it is more of a time commitment than you are interested in and would your daughter will continue to be available at the original scheduled times.

I don't see any reason to have to explain yourself and all the periferal (sp?) reasons as to why you don't want her involved more than that. Just let them know that it is outside of your time allotment for her to participate more than originally stated.

Sarah

I would follow your gut feelings. If it doesn't feel right, find something else that mixes well with your family goals. Could you start your own Daisy group and that way you can spend time with your dd and her friends? Or maybe come up with something else that you and your dd could do for fun that involves the family. Maybe monthly trips to an indoor pool, or family bowling a few times a month?

Thanks, I appreciate the good advice. I realized after re-reading. whoa - way too much info there. I am often guilty of working out things while writing here at AM.

I sent her off an email saying we were comfortable with the original commitment level and did not wish to see it change. I am sure I'll be the only one saying this! We'll see what happens. I am looking into Missionettes for all the girls and we have been wanting to get into doing 4-H as a family so maybe I need to step up to that.

I've been involved with GS as an adult volunteer in varying degrees for the last 9 yrs. We just started a homeschool 4-H group this year. Already I'm enjoying 4-H so much more. I'll probably do both though. Yeah, I volunteered as cookie mom for one of the troops and the leader loves me now. LOL

I read that you were looking at missionettes for your girls, if this is an interest I would suggest that you check into Awana. My dd has been there for 2 yrs and it is great!! I don't think you gave too much info, it helps to know where you are really coming from. I see that with my family even just going out one night a week can get stressful when we are use to being so relaxed about our schedule.

I am right there with you wanting my childrens influences and concerns to be centered around home and family and not something from the outside, but I do think that kids 5 or 6 and older need some social interest outside the home, whether a playgroup or scouting troop.
I think that regular school can cause focus to switch because it is an everyday thing and parents automatically tell their children to behave themselves, pay attention, do what the teacher says, etc.
I think the Girl Scouts is something completely different. 1-2 hours a week isn't going to change her focus from her family, and if you are not comfortable with once a week commitment, you can stay with the every other week schedule. As a Daisy she isn't going to miss out on all that much. However, I am quite sure that you will not be the only parent who is against every week. I think you should have a talk with the leader about considering your daughter a project and tell her straight out that your daughter is to be left alone to warm up at her own pace. Also, you can stay for the meetings and work with your daughter on her projects.
Of course if you are just uncomfortable with the Girl Scouts program in general, then it would be better to find a different group for your daughters.
I will admit that I am biased since I am in my third year of being my daughters GS leader. I think it is a great program for girls. Daisys are pretty limited in what they are able to do due to their age, but if you look through the handbooks of the older groups it is amazing what the girls can choose to do.