Warning: Some eggs may have been cuddled in the making of this post

The theme for one of our recent unit meetings was understanding responsibility. The girls brainstormed ways to be responsible in Guides, create kit lists and set goals for our unit. The top goals that everyone agreed on:

• Go on a hike
• Keep earning lots of badges and crests
• Earn a badge with “sparkly thread” like they saw in Canadian Guider
• Make dog treats as a service project
• Go to Nunavut

All obtainable goals we could work on as a unit. Ok, so the Nunavut trip may have to be tweaked a little and take some imagination but it was something we could still discover together.

Then came the end of our meeting. The part I was most nervous about and the part the girls were most excited for. The eggs.

As part of my weekly email, I told their parents: A project is coming home for the girls to work on. Have them embrace it and make sure they have fun.

No further instructions on what was coming home. Just a little warning: what was coming home was a raw egg. Nothing I think anyone was expecting.

At the unit meeting, each girl was given an egg and a sheet of care instructions. They had to do their best for a week to care for their egg and bring the egg back the next week.

The girls would have some daily tasks to keep their egg healthy:

• Give it a bath each morning by gently cleaning it with damp paper towel
• Make it a cozy bed to sleep in each night and when the girls are at school. As everyone knows, eggs are too young for school.
• Take your egg outside each day for at least 10 minutes for some fresh air.
• Read it a bedtime story each night so your egg can fall asleep.
• And the egg has to go everywhere with you, with the exception of school.

But like all people, the eggs had some wants, too:

• It wanted a new outfit to wear to the next Guides meeting.
• It also wanted a toy.

As an added surprise, the girls discovered their eggs knew how to email. Because half-way through the week, the girls’ eggs emailed them some new requests:

• The eggs were cold from going outside each day. So they requested some winter wear. No one wants their egg to become sick, after all.
• The eggs wanted to build snow-eggs!  With a lot of snow falling in Halifax, we had a few snow days so the eggs wanted to play outside.

When our next unit meeting rolled around, all of the girls’ eggs made their way back to Guides. Some with more Band-Aids and hot glue-filled scars than others. But to all of the Guiders’ surprise, additional eggs came to our meeting, too. Amazingly, the eggs had multiplied. Why you may ask? Because the girls made their eggs a friend. Just like in Guiding, friends are important to eggs, too.

This project was such a positive experience for all of the girls. It gave each of them such a unique way to shine. It was also parent-approved!

At the end of the evening, with the girls sitting in a circle with all their eggs, one first year Guide chimed in:
“We did good with our eggs. Now can we buy some hamsters and test our responsibility skills further? Plus earn our Pet Lover badge at the same time?”

Uhm….

Guest post by Kayla Bernard. Kayla is a Guide and Pathfinder Guider in Halifax and a Link member. She is currently studying Psychology at Mount Saint Vincent University. See her previous posts:  What does it mean to be an Arts Adviser? and Life of a twenty-something Guider.