AHG Badge Work Organization

We have just finished our 4th year with American Heritage Girls.  My daughter and I love it. It seems like just yesterday Lily was a cute little Tenderheart; Now she is a Pioneer.

Over the last four years she has earned 84 merit badges, and countless fun patches.  Due to my husband’s job, we have been involved in four different troops (each in a different state). People often ask me how we keep up with all her work. We use a notebook. For each level she has a one inch, three-ring binder.

Included in the binder is a set of eight tab dividers: one for each frontier, one for service hour logs and one for sports pins.

As she completes a requirement, the information is filed. If it is something that can not be filed, such as cake decorating, we take a picture and print it on a piece of paper along with the merit badge name and requirement number.  The paper is then filed into the corresponding tab. The pages are organized by badge name (alphabetically and numerically).

This has created a great portfolio of all of her work. It has also been a great blessing when, at the end of her third year, she went to finish a badge she started as a first year Explorer.  She could show all the work completed for the badge and quickly review what she has learned.

I also have found that having to write-up each requirement has helped her to retain the information.  Instead of just reading about a topic, writing what she learned (even if it is just a short paragraph) helps with retention.

I hope this helps you as much as it has helped us.