American Heritage Girl (AHG) Badges In Your Homeschooling Curriculum? |
You have probably heard about Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
But you may not know about American Heritage Girls (AHG)!
And you may not know how to successfully combine AHG badges and homeschooling.
Well, I would like to tell you more about AHG, and how to use AHG merit badges in your homeschooling curriculum!
I will share my secrets with you in just a moment!
But first, I would like to tell you about American Heritage Girls itself.
AHG is a Christian scouting organization for girls ages 5 – 18 structured into age-appropriate units: Pathfinders (5 - 6), Tenderfoot (6 – 9), Explorers (9 – 12), Pioneers (12 – 14), and Patriots (14 – 18).
This organization emphasizes Christian values, service, leadership, teamwork, life skills, character development, and spiritual development in a social setting.
Wow! They do a lot!
What particularly impresses me about American Heritage Girls is the dedication of the adult leadership to Christian ministry through this organization and with these girls.
In fact, I was so impressed with this aspect of American Heritage Girls during our first year that I became a Pioneer leader myself for the second year!
I especially love the social opportunities which are abundant. We all know that homeschoolers need much more socialization! (Ha! Ha!) These group interactions are also vital for my daughter on the autism spectrum with PDD-NOS.
By the way, I would like to mention that our American Heritage Girl troop has many kids with various disabilities. However, the Christian atmosphere helps all of these kids fit in tremendously.
The AHG website contains much more information about this worthwhile organization.
Now, I would like to tell you more about the American Heritage Girl merit badges!
I remember the first time I looked at my daughter’s new AHG handbook and I discovered the badges. My initial thought was, “Wow! These badges are really unique unit studies for homeschoolers!” Boy, was I excited! I immediately incorporated American Heritage Girl badges into our homeschool curriculum.
My fourth grade daughter earned 41 badges during her first year as an Explorer! My older daughter saw how much fun her younger sister was having with AHG that she just joined as a Pioneer and earned 10 badges her first summer!
I will tell you our secret to earning American Heritage Girl badges while homeschooling in just a bit!
The number of badges earned is really not important. What is important is that my daughters are learning a variety of skills and subjects in a captivating manner that makes them want to earn and learn even more! American Heritage Girls has been a tremendous organization for my girls!
Each badge lists several age-appropriate requirements containing activities, field trips, questions, and ideas all in one place. You can either do just the minimal requirements, or you can add extra information and go more in depth. You can even choose which extra requirements that you would like to do. Of course, we nearly always add much more!
These badges are fantastic for every type of learner: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. My younger daughter is a kinesthetic learner and my older daughter is a mixed learner with kinesthetic predominance, while I am just about a 100% visual learner. These badges prompted me to do more kinesthetic activities with them that I would not have done otherwise!
The American Heritage Girl badges are arranged into six frontiers to make them even easier to find and use:
- Heritage – Ancestor Detector, Caring for My Environment, Citizenship and Government, Native American, Our Flag, Our Heritage, World Heritage
- Family Living – Cake Decorating, Cooking, Family Helper, Gardening, Home Care & Repair, Home Decorating, Memory Maker, Money Management, Pet Care, Sewing, Toys & Games
- Arts– Cinematography, Creative Crafts, Creative Writing, Dance, Music Appreciation, Music Performance, Needle Arts, Photography, Puppetry, Textile Arts, Theater
- Outdoor Skills – Archery, Camping, Canoeing, Cycling, Fire Safety and Fire Building, Fishing, Golf, Hiking, Horsemanship, Nature & Wildlife, Outdoor Cooking, Outdoor Skills, Snow Skiing & Snowboarding, Swimming
- Personal Well-Being – Bible Basics, Book Adventurer, Daughter of the King, Emergency Preparedness, Personal Hygiene, Physical Fitness, Social Skills & Etiquette, Travel
- Science and Technology– Aviation, Computer Fun, Geology, Internet Adventure, Kitchen Scientist, Space Exploration, Women Inventors, Young Meteorologist, Zoology
The badges can easily be integrated into any homeschool curriculum using most every subject. You can use these badges with your current curriculum or you can make the badges the curriculum themselves!
Let’s start with the most important subject – Bible! You will find two non-denominational badges focusing entirely on the Bible: Bible Basics and Daughter of the King. Also, most badges contain requirements from a Christian perspective and they focus on service in some manner.
In addition, most American Heritage Girl badges contain some type of language arts:
- Reading
- Writing
- Interviews
- Discussions
- Demonstrations
- Oral mini-presentations
- And much more!
And then there are some badges that are completely language arts, such as Creative Writing and Book Adventurer.
In addition, there are many science and social studies badges. My younger daughter’s favorite science badges are the ones about animals: Pet Care, Nature & Wildlife, Zoology and especially Horsemanship. Her favorite social studies badge was Native American.
By the way, some of the requirements for Native American include pagan Kachina dolls and pagan dream catchers. We just used these requirements as opportunities to explain the differences between their religion and Christianity.
Mathematics are a bit harder to discover, but are still very much present in many American Heritage Girl badges. You just have to think outside of the box! For example, you will find measurements in Cooking, Home Care & Repair, and Sewing. Cooking also contains fractions and Travel contains time zones and fares. You will use a lot of geometry in Needle Arts, Sewing, and Textile Arts. Money Management contains a significant amount of monetary calculations. And then you need to figure out Golf scores, too!
Computer skills are extremely important these days and AHG addresses these important skills in Computer Fun and Internet Adventure. Most other badges contain requirements that involve the use of internet searching skills to find the necessary information.
Of course, we do not want to forget the arts! There are numerous American Heritage Girl badges involving crafts, filming, fabric, dance, music, and acting.
And there are plenty of opportunities for physical education in American Heritage Girls, too! You can do Archery, Canoeing, Cycling, Golf, Hiking, Horsemanship, Snow Skiing & Snowboarding and Swimming!
You can even learn some foreign language with World Heritage!
We also used Social Skills & Etiquette for social skills training for my younger daughter with PDD-NOS!
My older daughter is using these badges with unschooling and for high school credit! For example, she is earning credit in Wilderness Survival Skills with the multitude of outdoor badges. Several badges will count toward credits in Biology, Astronomy, Geology, Chemistry and Physics. In addition, she is currently earning a credit in Creative Writing with the help of several badges including Creative Writing, Internet Explorer (using a webquest about children’s books), and Book Adventurer. Many badges will be used as part of her Consumer Math course, too. The possibilities are endless!
I am sure that I am missing a few categories! And I am sure that you may place these badges differently! There are just so many American Heritage Girl badges!
After you have done the badge requirements at one level, then you can start working on the badges at the next level! Even after you have finished all badges at all levels, then you can develop more leadership skills and teach others your knowledge and skills. The badge work really never ends!
Now, if you are like me, you are probably overwhelmed by how to organize these unit studies. There just seems like so much information!
Well, I figured out a system that really works well. And I will now tell you!
The whole key to earning American Heritage Girl badges as part of your homeschooling curriculum is organization.
Even if you are not an organized person, you can easily accomplish these badges with my easy method. Here is how I started and what I do…
First, scan through all of the American Heritage Girl badges looking for a badge that your daughter absolutely loves. You want to start with just one badge to get the hang of this method. If you start off with too many, it will seem overwhelming!
I initially chose Horsemanship for my younger daughter who loves horses and horseback riding. And I chose Dance for my older daughter who is in a pre-professional ballet program.
Next, make a copy of the badge requirements and put them into a three prong folder with a clear cover. The clear cover is essential.
Then, highlight the numbers for the required requirements for the appropriate level. Also, choose at least the minimum extra requirements for your level: one for Tenderfoot, two for Explorer, and three for Pioneer and Patriots. You can always choose more than the minimum!
Schedule any outside activities and field trips. Make a note of any questions to be answered or objectives to be learned while at the activity or field trip. You do not want to forget anything! Also, pick up any brochures or handouts.
Look up answers to questions in various places such as the internet, books, or encyclopedias. I usually cut and paste information from the internet into a usable format. I then put this information into the three prong folder with clear cover.
You will also need to purchase any supplies for crafts or projects that you may not already have on hand.
Next, schedule these requirements in your homeschooling schedule. At the Tenderfoot and Explorer levels, you can usually schedule 1 or 2 requirements per day and complete most badges within a week. The Pioneer and Patriot badges usually take at least 1 to 2 for most of the at home requirements.
Now the American Heritage Girl badge is ready for your daughter!
I usually work with my younger daughter on her badges. She writes the answers to the questions on a separate sheet of paper either in paragraphs, or notes, or outlines, or tables, or charts, or whatever seems appropriate. Occasionally, we will use graphic organizers, and cut out pictures, too. We put each requirement on its own sheet of paper. We also make crafts and projects, and go on field trips as needed. All paperwork goes into the three prong folder with clear cover.
My older daughter works mostly independently on her requirements now. I had to help her until she learned to break the badge down into the smaller requirements, and to write her answers to each requirement on a separate sheet of paper. Now, she is doing her own internet research, too.
I mark off each requirement as it is completed to keep us on track.
Finally your American Heritage Girl badge is complete!
Now, you may be wondering why I insist on a three prong folder with clear cover . Well, you will now want to do more badges! In addition, sometimes life gets in the way of the badge work or some requirements may take awhile to fulfill, and you must lay your work down for awhile. When you have a pile of folders and you want to find the appropriate badge work quickly, you need the clear cover so you can see the badge title and select the correct folder!
I use navy folders for my younger daughter and red folders for my older daughter so I can find the folders easily.
I would like to give you some handy pointers to make this method even easier...
We will often have several badges in the works simultaneously especially with those badges that require field trips. Every time we do an activity or field trip for any other reason, I would look through the American Heritage Girl handbook to see if there were a badge requirement that we could do at the same time. This is multitasking at its finest!
You will need to do more research with a Tenderfoot and Explorer than you will with a Pioneer and Explorer. In my Pioneer unit, my goal is to show these girls how to research well and how to complete badges so that they can fulfill the badge work independently when they are Patriots. Essentially, these older girls will learn how to teach themselves and how to get a job done well. These skills will be useful later in their adult life.
I will use the same folder for a badge for my younger daughter when she moves from Explorer to Pioneer. For example, she has completed Horsemanship at the Explorer level. We will keep adding to the folder as she completes the Pioneer level requirements, too. So, there will just be one Horsemanship folder even though she already earned an Explorer badge and she will eventually earn a Pioneer badge for Horsemanship. Eventually she can teach others about Horsemanship from her Horsemanship folder.
Also, I put additional information into the appropriate folder as I come across something pertinent. I add extra items to the folder to make the badge even more complete – we do not just stop at the minimum!
These American Heritage Girl badge folders will become keepsakes forever! The girls can even show their own daughters some day.
(OK - I am sentimental!)
Now, some of the American Heritage Girl badges may be difficult to fulfill completely on your own. Perhaps your daughter can take a class if you do not know much about the topic. Also, your daughter can go to American Heritage Girl camp in the summer to learn some of the outdoor skills badges. My daughters loved AHG camp! Your troop will be essential for learning many of the outdoor skills badges during camping trips and outings. However, you should be able to coordinate most of the badges yourself.
So, there you have it! An easy method for combining American Heritage Girl merit badges with your homeschooling curriculum!
Your daughter will get much more from homeschooling and from American Heritage Girls by participating in merit badge work.
So, get out your American Heritage Girl handbook and start planning your adventure today!
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