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Mary G
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| Posted: Sept 25 2008 at 12:48pm | IP Logged
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There is a Frontier Girls' Troop starting in our area. I'd never heard of the group before ... anyone here know anything about them or belong to a group?
It was started by a homeschooling mom and has 3 options ... normal troop (with girls from K-12th grade to allow families to participate in one troop), individual or "pioneer", and patriot (for moms/daughters in a military family who move too often to get established in a local group).
Any comments?
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MaryG
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JodieLyn
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No clue Mary, but I just send an email asking for more information for us here. This seems to have a lot less infrastructure than the other troops for girls and might just much more possible for us to do. My time is so limited to have to be the one in charge. But I'd really like something for my girls that is not Girl Scouts. We are letting the boys do Boy Scouts.
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Mary G
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| Posted: Sept 25 2008 at 6:22pm | IP Logged
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Jodie -- EXACTLY! I've got Thomas in Young Marines (he just started "boot camp" last night) and JP waiting in the wings till he can start (Thomas of course has started a little boot camp of his own to teach his brother the ropes  ) ... but Maggie has nothing just for her ...
Little Flowers seems too over the top, Girl Scouts is too pc, Pilgrims is an option but would work for the whole group, .... Catie (my 17yod) said I should just start a group of my own with a bit of Catholic flavor, a bit of Girl Scouts, and a bit of rational, busy-moms type stuff ......
OY! 
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folklaur
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It looks to me - though I can't be positive - like Frontiers uses the pins from Keepers of the Faith.
These were the same pins that my Catholic Homeschool Group used for our group (Sacred Heart Girls Club. Oh, and there was a SH Boys too...) They are very nice quality.
You could always get the pins (and books?) from Keepers and do your own, if you are not wanting a troop experience? Or just pick the pins and design your own activities.
That is basically what the groups did when we did it. The children had a blast.
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JodieLyn
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I like the American Heritage Girls from what I've read.. but you have to find a sponser like a church or school or something.. and I'm sorry when you're in a small area with people with greatly limited budgets.. well I just get a headache thinking about all the work of setting up a troop..
I'm hoping this one might turn out to be low key enough that I could start my girls up and let it be known that it's happening and if other girls show up great.. but if not.. oh well.. and I especially like that they say the troop can be all ages together.. that makes it easy for me with 3 girls old enough to be in it.. as well as makes it easier to get a group since you're not limited by ages.
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LeeAnn
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| Posted: Sept 25 2008 at 8:24pm | IP Logged
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Mary G wrote:
| Little Flowers seems too over the top ... a bit of Catholic flavor, a bit of Girl Scouts, and a bit of rational, busy-moms type stuff ...... |
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Mary, just so you know, not all Little Flowers groups are "over the top" although I think I know what you mean. Our LF group meets once a month for two hours. It is very relaxed, the girls don't wear uniforms, we do a brief prayer, lesson and craft followed by snack and lots of play time. The rest (any badge work families want to assign) is up to the moms to do at home.
Is Frontier Girls the same thing as American Heritage Girls?
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folklaur
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LeeAnn wrote:
Is Frontier Girls the same thing as American Heritage Girls?
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No.
AHG is great, but it doesn't have any option for Individual Girl Members. I write them every so often and mention that they should.  There are no troops for AHG here in NV, but I am not at a place where I can start one.
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MaryM
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Kerry Cordy, the Founder and President of Frontier Girls, saw this thread recently and wanted to respond to some of the questions that had come up. She very generously wrote up a detailed response/explanation which I am posting below.
Kerry Cordy, Frontier Girls wrote:
First, let me stress that Frontier Girls was put together by homeschooling moms like yourselves and is still a fairly small organization though we are growing rapidly and now have troops in 10 states. Frontier Girls is 100% volunteer run by moms out of their living rooms. We have tried to make the program as flexible and cost effective as we can for those who wish to join, but we still need to cover costs such as insurance, legal fees, government filing fees, accounting, etc.
There was a question about our troop structures. A troop is any group of two or more Frontier Girls who are not related who meet with a designated leader for Frontier Girl activities. Our smallest troop to date is 3 girls in FL and our largest is 32 in CA. Troops do not have to be chartered by an outside organization making starting a troop quite easy.
We designed the Pioneer Program for those girls who wished to be part of our organization and yet either did not have a troop to join, or simply prefered to work as an individual. In the Pioneer Program, the girl's parent is technically her leader. Our Patriot Program is a program specifically for daughters of active military personnel to honor them for the sacrifices that they and their families make as well as help them keep in touch as they move from place to place.
Someone also mentioned that we use pins from Keepers of the Faith. This is correct, but we also use pins from a large variety of other suppliers. I like the pins from Keepers the best because they look the most like traditional merit badges. Unfortunately they are a little on the expesive side which can be difficult for our more financially challenged troops. They also do not provide pins for many of the badges we offer such as Drama or Magnetism. While we are working on creating custom pins, this is very expensive and simply not in our budget at the moment. Only a few of the higher awards are custom made. In order to offer the wide variety of badges we do, we simply buy pins from stock vendors and provide links to several in our handbook.
Another comment mentioned simply getting the Keepers of the Faith handbooks and doing the program at home. If your members do not wish to join Frontier Girls (wear the uniform, be part of the organization, receive awards & certificates, etc.) as homeschoolers I still recommend they make use of our website to supplement their educational pursuits. As long as they do not use our name and claim to be members when they are not, they are more than welcome to use our badge requirements to jump start unit studies or to implement personal reward programs such as Keepers of the Faith. The advantage of our badge requirements over Keepers is that they are age appropriate and allow a family with several girls to work on the same badge at the same time. If they use nothing else, I encourage them to go to our Awards page, click on Life Skills Achievement Award and go through these requirements with all their children (girls AND boys.) This award is a list of 30 age appropriate life skills that children should be proficient in. If they earn this award at every level (k-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 grades) they will be well prepared for life on their own once they graduate.
If anyone has any questions regarding Frontier Girls, they are more than welcome to visit our webstie at www.frontiergirls.com, email me directly at kacordy2@yahoo.com or even call me at 530-347-1700. We also have several Yahoogroups for troop leaders or families in the Pioneer and Patriot Programs to swap ideas and information so that even if you have a troop in the middle of nowhere, you still have plenty of support.
Sincerely,
Kerry Cordy
President
Frontier Girls
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Mary G
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| Posted: Oct 06 2008 at 4:25am | IP Logged
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Wow, thanks for posting Kerry Cordy's comments ... that was nice of her to make it more clear.
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MaryG
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Topic: Frontier Girls' Group?
