My New French-Language Children's Book Haul

I've mentioned this before, but one of the challenges of having the children learn a second language is creating a language-rich environment for them to learn in.

I mean, when you want your kids to learn English, you speak in English to them, play music in English, watch TV in English, point out all the English signage, read lots and lots and lots of books in English, give them lots of toys with English words and letters.

Now imagine trying to help them learn French while you live in the middle of Indiana and don't, yourself, know French.

I'll tell you more some other time about the ways I'm slowly figuring out to enrich the children's environment with French-language music and TV and signage and toys, but for now, let's talk French-language children's books.

I started our French-language children's book collection last summer, when we visited a French-language bookstore in Quebec City. It was a little more challenging than I'd thought it would be, because I didn't realize until I got there that a lot is actually published in Quebecoise, but I figured it out.

But the REAL goal would be to get into a French-language bookstore IN France, you know?

One morning, my awesomest friend texted me that she was, right that second, at 7:00 am Eastern time, standing, in fact, in a French-language bookstore in Paris. She'd just purchased a new suitcase, was heading back to the states the next day, and was happy, she informed me, to walk around this bookstore, describing everything to me and texting me pics, while I filled her suitcase with French-language books.

That's a true friend, right? I mean, would YOU be willing to haul a suitcase full of someone else's books on a trans-Atlantic flight?

She also brought back a bunch of maps and French-language tourist brochures and magazines and stuff, because ephemera is very important to a language-rich environment.

Check out my haul!

A couple of these books are aspirational, simply because I can't imagine having a good French-language children's book collection without them even if the children can't read them yet:



The rest, however, are picture books or early reader books that I think the kids have a shot at understanding. Here are some:



My friend even brought me a couple of magazines!

• Science et Vie Junior
• Spirou

The kids can't read any of them fluently yet, but, as with any young English-learner, they enjoy looking through them, absorbing the illustrations, picking out words, imagining the story based on prior knowledge and the information in front of them.

That's a crucial part of the literacy process, all that work that you do with language before you can read it. The first time the kids experienced it, I was so busy with parenting that I forgot to savor it, but this time, every time I catch Syd in bed with our big French-language Garfield collection, or she shows me a text that she sent in French to a friend to tease her (French composition! Unprompted!), or I see Will sitting on the couch deep into one of those little histories, picking up who knows how much because she certainly unlocked written English without my help?

This time I savor it.

Following the Garfield Trail

I guess this post just happens to be a Throwback Thursday, because it turns out that with all the travel and fun that we had last summer, I never got around to telling you about the day trip that we took up north to follow the Garfield Trail!

Jim Davis grew up a few hours north of us, in Marion, Indiana, and the county where he grew up now sports a bunch of giant, adorable, themed Garfield statues that are meant to show off their various tourist hot spots and civic structures. The kids have looooooved Garfield forever, so the Garfield Trail has always been on my radar, but last year they started offering a Girl Scout fun patch for Girl Scouts who hit the trail.

Y'all know how I feel about fun patches.

So late last summer we finagled a time when we didn't have anything pressing on our agenda, when at least one car was more-or-less functioning, when Matt consented to come with us, and we hit the Garfield Trail!

This one is James Dean-themed, because he was ALSO born in Marion, Indiana, and is outside the Fairmount Historical Museum:

We didn't actually go into any of these places, likely defeating the entire purpose of installing the statues, because we brought Luna, who loved every second of the driving and getting into and out of the car and running around and posing for photos.

We also did some geocaching, and Will, who is the best ever at finding kindness rocks, FOUND YET ANOTHER KINDNESS ROCK!

We make plenty of our own kindness rocks to hide, so when we find one that we love, we happily keep it. 

Here's a little more James Dean for you:

THIS is the best reason to go on any random day trip--do you know how long it's been since we've seen a genuine playground merry-go-round?!?

 And a legitimately METAL outdoor slide, the exact same kind that Matt and I both burned our thighs on as kids a country apart?

Another worthwhile experience to hand down to the next generation:

Firefighter Garfield lives outside the Jonesboro City Hall:

Speedking Garfield is outside of Swayzee Elementary School:

We were apparently NOT supposed to climb up and pose with him--oops!

But to be fair, the warning sign isn't terribly visible:

My favorite things on this trail turned out not to be the actual Garfield statues, but the Garfield theming that abounded in these places, unrelated to the official Garfield Trail:

Here's College Bound Garfield, at the Sweetser Switch Trail and Depot:

This is Duffer Garfield, at the Arbor Trace Golf Club. It's the only one that Luna couldn't visit--humph!

Fit for Life Garfield in Matter Park was by far our favorite--

--because Matter Park is AMAZING! It's a HUGE park, especially for the area, with playgrounds and gardens and this enchanting children's garden that both kids fell in love with:

The children's garden contained actual edibles, with an invitation to pick something if it was ripe and you wanted to eat it. What an awesome concept for a public park!

Dr. Garfield lives outside the Marion General Hospital:

A couple of the statues were off-exhibit or inaccessible. We tried, anyway!

Okay, this might actually be my favorite: British Soldier Garfield, outside Payne's Restaurant:

I don't really understand why there is a restaurant serving authentic British cuisine out in the middle of the farmland, but I SUPER want to go eat there... you know, sometime when I don't have a doggy along as a dining partner.

Instead, we ate something more dog-friendly:

Ice cream!

We fed her real ice cream, too. Scream for Ice Cream Garfield, outside of Ivanhoe's Restaurant, was our final stop on purpose, so that we could order a bunch of milkshakes to go and then eat them as we started driving home.

The day on the trail wasn't completely what I'd expected--other than the Garfields outside of restaurants, there wasn't really any tourist infrastructure surrounding the statues, and most of the places where we went, other than those two restaurants and the park, were VERY sleepy little spots. We spent a lot of time driving down endless country roads with endless farms on either side; it was good for the kids to see both examples of the typical Indiana environment, since our town is the most un-Indiana place actually IN Indiana, and examples of the environment that Jim Davis grew up in, that color his comics. Whenever Jon talks about his childhood back home on the farm, he's speaking about HERE, right here where we were driving, with the basketball hoops on the barn doors and the chickens and the rusted tractors and the acres of crops with nothing else to see to the horizon.

So even though it wasn't what I'd expected, it was very worth it to see. You don't have to always write what you know, of course, but it's useful to see, even for children, that your background colors what you become, and seeing the background of a comic creator, even just in the background of what we're intended to be seeing, is a valuable and accessible experience for a kid.

Especially when there's ice cream at the end!

Earning the Girl Scout Senior Customer Loyalty Badge... While Selling 1,000 Boxes of Girl Scout Cookies!

It took me YEARS longer than it should have to realize that "Oh, the Girl Scout cookie business badges--you're supposed to have the girls earn them DURING COOKIE SEASON!"

D'oh!

That's why there are the same number of cookie business badges at each level as there are years in that level; girls can earn one badge a year during cookie season, and then earn the financial literacy badges in the off-season.

I caught onto this literally last year (sigh...), so this is the first year that we're doing it properly. During cookie season this year, Syd earned the Cadette Marketing badge (more on that later), and Will earned the Senior Customer Loyalty badge.

And here's how she did it!

Step 1: Show how cookie money helps girls. 

Technically, I think I could have counted this as already completed, since Will helped run the goal setting station at our service unit's cookie rally this year, but she also counted the hours that she worked there for her Service to Girl Scouting bar, and we don't double-dip. 

Instead, Will came up with an even better idea!

Matt helped Will make brochures about her Silver Award to display at cookie booths and to hand out to interested customers. Since she already had the essays that she wrote for her Silver Award application, and the photos that we took of her project, Will just needed to add some text specifically about how she used cookie profits as her funding source.

I really liked this particular activity for a lot of reasons: 1) It's not the same old poster, which teenagers have made a billion of by this age. 2) Because it's not the same old poster, it's a new challenge. I am a MAJOR proponent of practicing all kinds of writing, and writing a brochure is a legitimately useful skill to have. 3) Brochures don't take up a ton of space on our already-crowded cookie booth table, but they're still visible and accessible. And 4) they're a conversation starter for Will when she has an interested potential customer. It's a ready prop and something for her to talk about.

And speaking of conversation starters...

Step #2: Connect with former cookie sellers.

The activity that Will chose for this step is such a clever one: she was to make a list of things that potential customers tend to say (and by the time a girl is a Senior, she likely has a loooong list of these), and then brainstorm replies that are respectful, interested, and engage the potential customer.

Because, as I tell the girls all the time at cookie booths, for a lot of customers the chance to talk to real, live Girl Scouts is half the fun of buying Girl Scout cookies. Sometimes it's old folks who don't get opportunities to interact with kids. Sometimes it's little kids who don't get opportunities to interact with big kids. Sometimes it's lonely folks who don't get opportunities to interact with anyone. And sometimes it's former Girl Scouts who are feeling nostalgic and supportive. So part of the job of selling Girl Scout cookies is representing Girl Scouts in a cheerful, polite, respectful manner.

Unless it's the other two kinds of people who want to talk to real, live Girl Scouts. Because sometimes it's someone with a conspiracy theory in their head who wants to rant at children about Planned Parenthood or "America's Obesity Epidemic," and sometimes it's someone who shouldn't be around children, so it's good that we're all at least standing by the check-out lines in public and with at least two adults right there watching everything. For the former folks, I've told the kids to just look at them and smile and let them rant, because you don't have to say a word if someone's not even asking you a question, and for the latter folks, I told them that if one more person tries to pat them on the head or the shoulder, that they should jerk back and scream like they'd been scalded. 

Seriously, don't touch the Girl Scouts. High fives and fist bumps are acceptable, although frankly, after all the lectures that I've also given the children about how dirty your hands and money are, they'd really rather you didn't touch them at all.

ANYWAY, let's get back to the nice people who just want to buy some cookies while getting to talk to a real, live Girl Scout, mkay? For this activity, Will thought up things that potential customers tend to say to her, particularly things that particularly flummox her as to a reply.

Things like: I used to be a Girl Scout when I was your age!

Or: My sister was a Girl Scout.

Or: Wow, cookies sure were a lot cheaper 20 years ago.

Or: It's too bad you don't have blah-blah-blah cookie anymore.

When people say things that aren't directly related to the transaction, that's them trying to open a conversation, and the way to respond politely (as well as to inspire customer loyalty!), is to continue the conversation by asking an interested, relevant question. But that can be so hard in the moment, so Will thought up several ways to respond to each of her common customer prompts. She realized that she could ask people who used to be Girl Scouts what their uniforms looked like, or how many cookies they sold each year, or what their favorite badge was. When people comment about the cookies themselves, whether they're complaining that they cost more these days or that they don't have the best flavor anymore, she could ask them how much cookies used to cost, or what their favorite type of cookie used to be, or if they prefer fruit flavors over chocolate, or... anything, really. Just something that sounds interested and is relevant. That's the lesson.

3. Build your customer list.

So here's where the badge went off the rails a bit. The badge book wants girls to collect email addresses, so that in Step 5, you can start a year-round newsletter. 

I mean, really?

Consumer privacy is important. I don't let my girls give out their names and email addresses to businesses, and I sure don't want them collecting other people's names and email addresses, either. I really didn't have any ideas for how to help Will attain this step, so I threw it at her and she decided to do the activity suggested on her Digital Cookie site, which was to gain five new customer emails and send them a Digital Cookie link. She asked her grandmother, who came through with the names, and that was that done. I guess the lesson turned out to be networking, because she'd never thought to ask her grandmother for potential customer contacts before, and a couple of those contacts DID end up buying cookies, so there you go.

Just... no email list of strangers, though. Yikes.

4. Create a customer appreciation program.

This step was dead easy, because I always have the girls write thank-you notes to their Digital Cookie customers and any other customers that they know personally. It's a nice chance to remind the girls that many people who buy Girl Scout cookies do so not for the cookies, but for the girls, and it's nice business writing practice. 

5. Keep your customer connection going all year long.

Since I've already established that I was not going to permit my child to make a year-round customer newsletter, she needed another activity that would remind her customers about Girl Scout cookies--and the good feelings that they get from cookies!--outside of cookie season.

Will settled on the idea of sending a Girl Scout cookie-themed Christmas card, again to the customers whom she knows personally and to her Digital Cookie customers. She mapped out a couple of ideas by hand, and then Matt helped her make the final project.

Did you know that the best way to get a good image of a Samoa is just to photograph it yourself?

We haven't had these Christmas cards printed yet, but here's the finished design on my computer:

Aren't they super cute? Will decided on postcards because they're cheaper, so the back side of each card will just have a brief handwritten note and a reminder to save the date for cookie season.

I think the timing will work well for these cards, since our Girl Scout cookie season does come just a couple of weeks after Christmas. There were also a lot of interesting design challenges that Will had to figure out in the making of these cards, and since Matt helped her, she learned a lot about the graphic design and production process.

I had a lot of doubts about parts of this badge, and not a lot of great ideas about how to work around the parts that I didn't like, so I'm thrilled at how well everything actually worked out. Will faced some appropriate challenges and learned new skills, practiced writing to different audiences, developed her social awareness, and grew as a businesswoman. 

And she got our Christmas cards all figured out for us for this year, so that's a bonus.

Homeschool Biology: Shrink Plastic Cell Models, and 14 Other Cell Models

February was so busy with Girl Scout cookie business that I could hardly find time to work on new lesson plans, grr. In some ways that worked out well--Will got a lot more time to work on AP European History and algebra, and Syd got a lot more time to sneak off and make art--but I got frustrated at continually delaying many of our in-depth lessons in science and robotics. 

For science, at least, I finally decided that since we weren't moving forward, we'd instead review by completing some of the lessons that I'd planned for the kids in earlier chapters but that we'd skipped or skimped on for whatever reason. 

And that's how we found ourselves one afternoon hanging out on my bed with kettle corn and tea, me working on Girl Scout cookie accounting and the kids watching Crash Course videos on cell biology and coloring shrink plastic cell models.

I think handmade models have a hugely important place in the learning process. Just as I liked, when the kids were little, to give them lots of moveable alphabets in as many different style and materials as possible, I like having my older kids make models of what they're learning whenever possible, and, if possible, in a multiplicity of styles and materials. Just the repetition of building and identifying the key components in each model aids learning, of course, but creating a variety of models improves and refines the way that the brain categorizes the information, as well. 

And of course if it's fun, that's when the best learning takes place!

Kids can draw their own cell models on shrink plastic sheets, or trace any good coloring page drawing, but we use these shrink plastic cell model templates. The kids trace the outline in Sharpie on the shrink plastic sheet, and then color in and label all of the organelles.

And then we shrink them in the oven. It's excellent fun.

Make the shrink plastic cell models for sure, but here are plenty of other cell model projects to keep you occupied every time you spiral back to cell biology--or just anytime you're feeling crafty!

1. edible cell model. The girls have made these in both cake and cookie versions. Both are super easy if you have a square and a round cake pan; kids can choose the frosting and candy (or fruit) decorations to model the organelles. Rice Krispy Treat cell models and sushi cell models are no-bake options.
2. 3D pen cell model. The kids received a 3D pen for Christmas, and we're still learning all the awesome things to make with it. This is one more!
3. Altoid tin cell model. This is a good upcycling project if you can get your hands on the Altoids tins. You could put each type of cell model in each compartment, or use one compartment for the model and the other to hold definition cards of the organelles.
4. animal cell cookie cutter. I do not own this cookie cutter--I just want to!
5. cell coloring book. The coloring book is legit and I have it, although I gave them a burner email address (of course!) to get it.
6. cell model T-shirt. I LOVE this idea! If kids put a lot of craftsmanship and care into it, they'll be able to wear it until they grow out of it, showing it off and reinforcing the identifications possibly hundreds of times.
7. felt cell model. This model would be super cute for an older kid to create, or for an adult to create for a very young learner. I totally should have made my babies cell model stuffies!
8. giant inflatable plant cell. Um, this plant cell model is AMAZING. Not only does the tutorial include instructions on sizing each 3D organelle model correctly, but it teaches you how to make an inflatable walk-in plant cell model from plastic drop cloths, duct tape, and a fan.
9. LEGO cell model. I like the simplicity of this cell model, as well as how easily LEGOs lend themselves to making a plant cell, in particular.
10. organelle models. As the kids grow older, we're more drawn to the types of models that aren't just step-by-step tutorials, but require problem-solving and engineering to construct.This is one such project, and although the post focuses on organelle models, I think it would be really cool to turn this into a large-scale project by modelling ALL the organelles and turning your entire family room into one giant cell. I mean, you're a homeschooler--your family room is SUPPOSED to look like some weird, over-elaborate educational project.
11. plant cell model on a Styrofoam meat tray. I wouldn't use a Styrofoam meat tray because I think it's gross, but it IS just the right shape for a plant cell...
12. play dough cell model. If you don't need more stuff to display forever, then a play dough cell model might be the way to go.
13. polymer clay cell model. OMG, this would be right up Syd's alley!
14. toolbox cell model. I like that this cell model includes lots of random bits and pieces from around the house and garage, including a couple of different kinds of screws and a brillo pad.

February Favorites: From The Bone Wars To LOTS of Matches

Here's what we've been loving this month!

BOOKS

Hold my breath and knock on wood, but I have gotten both kids to join me in keeping their reading logs up to date!

Syd happily listens to anything that Chris Colfer narrates over and over again, and read LOADS of the Wings of Fire series this month, but somehow, I have no idea how, she also found her way to...

Michael Crichton?

I don't know. The first that I knew of it, she was raving to Matt about a book she was listening to about these two guys who were fighting over fossils and it was getting super crazy. My ears perked up at this and I interrupted with, "Wait. Are you reading about the Bone Wars?!?"

"Uh, yeah."

I couldn't wait to know who had written a history book that had so immersed my kid. "Who wrote it?" I asked her eagerly.

She checked her ipod. "Ummm.... Michael Crichton."

Friends, 'tis true!



I've got a paper copy on hold from the library for me.

Syd also read and adored this likely much more kid-appropriate book this month:



I think she learned the word "bittersweet" from this book, and from me as I was describing to her how I felt while reading one of the book's final scenes.

Here's what else Syd read this month:



Will, to my delight, got completely immersed this book last month:



I re-read it as soon as she was done with it, and we've since spent tons of happy hours gossiping about the Bennets and Mr. Darcy and how ridiculous they all are. They spend all their time gossiping and scheming, and it. Is. AWESOME. And every time Elizabeth and Darcy bicker, Will was all, "OMG, could they possibly flirt any harder?!?"

Naw, Girl. They could not.

Here's an interesting article about the Regency Period, because I know you were dying to understand the politics underpinning Austen's novel.

Will re-read this book this month--



--and it's one of my favorites, too! It's surprising and funny and the plot is quite sophisticated. If you ever read it, please Comment and let me know: Real, or all in the protagonist's head?

This one was another of Will's favorites:



I haven't read it yet, but she put it on my library shelf for me to read, so I will.

Here's what else Will read this month:

I didn't get as much reading done last month as I usually do, but there were still a few stand-outs.

I chose this book entirely because I realized that I don't know anything about Ada Lovelace. Before I was halfway through, I found myself OBSESSED with her, and with Lord Byron in a low-key way--if anyone can recommend a stellar biography for him, please do!

Ada Lovelace was freaking AMAZING, you guys! When her buddy, Charles Babbage, basically invented the computer in the Victorian age (not that he knew that was what he invented, which is the entire point of why Ada was so amazing), Ada, this super mathematical genius who never got to do cool math stuff, volunteered to translate an article about it. But then, in one of the appendices to the article, she was all, "Hey, y'all, if you ever wanted to tell this machine that doesn't even exist yet how to do this specific thing, this is how you'd do it," and then went on to write an entire computer program. The world's first computer program. For a completely theoretical computer that hadn't even been actually built yet.

After I finished the book, I also watched this great documentary on her--

--and here's the difference engine in all its glory:



One of my favorite things is how adorable it is with all its cogs and wheels. And every time somebody invented something, somebody would say, "Hey, you know what we should do? We should power it with a STEAM ENGINE!"

It's absolutely enchanting. I'm utterly charmed.

My other major favorite this month is this super spooky yet YA-appropriate graphic novel:



Will read this one, too, and we're anxiously waiting for the next volume.

VIDEOS

Syd is the best at finding us super weird YouTube videos. She's currently obsessed with this one:

I don't even know.

We watched Venom for family movie night this week, and Syd was so interested in the abstract art that they show during the end credits that she tried searching for it, and instead sent us all down a looooong rabbit trail of watching artists create sophisticated, elaborate fan art pieces over time lapse:



At a Girl Scout cookie booth a couple of weeks ago, this guy came by with a weird Segway-looking skateboard, and Will and her friend were so fascinated with it that they peppered him with questions as he was packing away his groceries, putting on his helmet, and getting it set up. He was perfectly amiable and kindly answered all of their questions until he finally stepped onto this thing and absolutely flew out the door and down the sidewalk past the grocery store's picture window. He was going SO FAST!!!! We decided that he is easily the coolest guy in town and we are definitely his friends.

Will was so impressed that as soon as we got home she looked it up. It's a Onewheel, and it really IS that cool!



I don't know why we watched this. There's a lot of that kind of nonsense in our Recommended feed:



Goals for this month:

I'm going to sneak in some more learning about the Bone Wars, now that it's snagged Syd's interest.

Will needs a little more non-fiction in her diet. Any suggestions?

Now that cookie season is winding down, maybe *I* can get some more good books read, starting with the ones that Will has already recommended to me.

And... umm... I bought a giant multi-pack of matches... I don't want to say anything more about that.

P.S. Want to know more of our recommend stuff as we decide we love it? Follow along on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Girl Scout Cookie Booth Math: Equal It Out and Assign It Fairly

We've gone through several iterations of the cookie booth tracking form. This is the most recent!

Okay, you guys. This is why you studied algebra. You studied algebra when you were 13 because one day you'd be a Girl Scout troop leader, and your Girl Scouts would go mad for cookie sales, and you'd have to schedule nine kids into 40+ hours of booths every week, and then you'd have to figure out how to divide the booth sales fairly between everyone who worked, for all the various hours they worked, and you'd also have to make sure that your booth sales matched your booth inventory every time, and that your physical inventory matched what your database says you have.

And don't forget that you'd have to figure out how many of each type of cookie to even bring to every booth in the first place!

Functional literacy in math. That's what algebra gives you.

The most important thing is that whatever method you use, you MUST WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. An accurate paper trail is key. Count your inventory. If it's off, note it. Count your money. If it's off, note it. Know exactly how many boxes of each variety of cookie you're taking to each booth. Know exactly how much starting cash you're taking. Know exactly what kids and what adults worked there, and exactly how long they worked. Know what you took in via credit cards. Know what you took in via cash.

The key to doing all that easily and efficiently is using a booth form. Some councils make their own, and you can find them if you Google, but if you know exactly what information you want on your form, and especially if your partner is a graphic designer (yay!), then you can make your own. 

At the top of my form I fill in the booth location, time, and date. My Girl Scout troop works so many booths that we might be back and forth between the same location twice in one day, or three times in a weekend.

Below that is space to write in all the kids and adults who worked, and the hours that they worked. We sometimes have booths that are six to eight hours long in a single spot, and have to be able to record kids coming and going all day for various hours, or even taking a break and coming back later. You also need to know all the adults who were present, if for no other reason than you know who to loop into the mass text if the numbers come out wrong.

Next come a series of boxes that are specific to what our troop needs. The first box is to record the amount of money in the Operation: Cookie Drop/Cookies for a Cause donation can. The second box holds tally marks that must be made every time someone runs a cookie donation on credit card, because our credit card processing company doesn't let you look at transaction details easily--if someone thinks that they might have forgotten a cookie donation credit card transaction, or if the final amount is off, I have to manually click through every single transaction to see its details, and it. Is. TEDIOUS.

The third box records the amount in our own troop donation can, although this is not incorporated into any other calculations. Early in the season, the kids were trying to collect enough donations to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies for every kid in our local Backpack Buddies program, and so we'd often use the box to record that, instead. If we do local donations again next year, I will likely include yet another box just for that.

The next couple of boxes are so that adults whose phones were used to run the credit card processing app can record their transaction totals. Adults come and go, too, so you need more than one box for this.

The final two boxes record the amount of starting cash and ending cash. Our cookies are all $5, so we start with $200.

2023 Update: Our cookies are now all $6 a box, so we go back and forth between starting with $200 or $300 while we try to decide which is better. Whatever number we use, we record it!

I devote a lot of space simply to the cookie inventory. Using a lot of space to keep the numbers separate helps avoid confusion, and the color coding and illustrations are visual reminders to help keep everything correctly sorted by type. The bigger spacing lets the kids, who often can't write tiny, also do inventory, and it leaves some room for calculations.

Notice that unlike a lot of booth tally sheets, mine doesn't include a place to record parents who take cookies from the booth supply to add to their kid's personal orders. I HIGHLY discourage doing this at cookie booths, because it's not the time and place and it's distracting, but in case of emergency I'll do it and just subtract what they take from the starting inventory of that booth. Another reason for all that space between the inventory number boxes!

Below the inventory section is where you walk through the two main booth calculations: the calculation of inventory, and the calculation of money. The first line is inventory, so you copy down what you sold of each type of cookie, then what you sold of Operation: Cookie Drop/Cookies for a Cause (include what you sold from both the donation can and by credit card). Add those together, multiply by the cost per box of cookies, and you'll see how much profit you earned.

The second calculation is just of the money. Copy down your ending cash, then your starting cash, and subtract them. Add to that your total credit card sales and the amount in the Operation: Cookie Drop/Cookies for a Cause can (do NOT include the amount on credit card here, because that's already included in your credit card sales). Does your final answer equal your final answer from your cookie inventory?

If yes, YAY!!!!!

If no...

1. Recount your cookies. And I mean REALLY recount them! Are you trying to count them in your car? Unload them all and spread out so you can see what you've actually got. Repack everything so that you have only one partially full case of each type and the rest are all full cases--multiple partial cases of the same type of cookie are inefficient to carry and a nightmare to count.
2. Recount your cash. Get someone else to count it this time, or ideally two someones.
3. Double-check your credit card transactions. Log out and then back into your processing app to make sure its transaction record is completely current. Make sure no other adults ran credit cards on their phone and just forgot to record it. If you use Digital Cookie, double-check that no adults accidentally ran cards through their kid's site instead of the troop's site. Look through each transaction and make sure you didn't charge someone twice. If a credit card transaction seems weirdly large, see if anyone remembers a customer buying a ton of cookies at once--if nobody remembers it, someone probably punched something in wrong during the transaction.
4. Recalculate all of your math. Do the inventory subtractions again, with a calculator if necessary. If you're counting by cases, again, use a calculator to make sure you've got the total number of boxes correct. 
5. If you can, compare your current total troop inventory to the total troop inventory that you should have. I can rarely do this, because I've got multiple booths going at one time, but if you've just done one booth, then a whole troop inventory might find that you mysteriously are missing a box or have an extra box that will match what you're over or under.

Here's what these booth forms look like in real life:

You can see we write all over them and alter them however we need to. Next year's updated form might include a Notes area, because there are often extra details we want to record...

...such as how on earth we can end up with $817, when all of our cookie boxes are FIVE DOLLARS EACH. I SUPER love it when everything equals out, and I have to admit that when we're over or under, even by a little bit, it drives me nuts.

ESPECIALLY when we're over by a number that doesn't even equal a box of cookies!

Thankfully, we mostly equal out:

But sometimes we don't, sigh:

But mostly we do:

So how do you assign all of these sold cookie boxes fairly to kids who worked varying hours at each booth?

You turn it into a rate-time-distance problem!

Distance = rate x time. Distance will represent how many cookie boxes a kid sold. Rate is how many boxes the booth sold per hour, and time is how many hours the kid worked.

To find the rate for a booth, add up the total number of hours every kid worked altogether. Let's say Kid A worked 2 hours, Kid B worked 3 hours, and Kid C worked 5 hours at a booth. Maybe they worked all together for part of the time, or maybe they all came in shifts--doesn't matter. Just add up the totals and you have 10.

Divide the total number of cookies sold at that booth by the total number of hours worked. Let's say that this booth sold 100 boxes of cookies. 100/10 = 10, so 10 boxes of cookies per hour worked is the rate for this booth.

Rate x time means that to find each kid's distance, or total boxes of cookies that kid, personally, gets credit for, all you have to do is multiply the number of hours they worked by the rate.

Kid A earned 2x10, or 20 boxes of cookies.
Kid B earned 3x10, or 30 boxes of cookies.
Kid C earned 5x10, or 50 boxes of cookies.

This also works with partial hours. If Kid A had worked 2.75 hours, then they'd have earned 2.75 x 10, or 27.5 boxes of cookies. You can't allocate partial boxes, so someone will have to gain a whole box or lose a whole box somewhere.

If you're mathy, like me, then you can eat up all your free time doing all this pleasant cookie booth math. But even if you're not mathy, you should be functionally literate in math, which means that you should be able to easily handle the calculations required. And, of course, it's very important to give ownership of this process over to the kids, whenever you're able. An elementary school student can do all of the inventory calculations with your oversight. A middle school student can run all of this math with your guidance. A high school student who's had enough Algebra 1 to know how to solve a rate-time-distance problem can do it all without you standing over their shoulder.

And what's more, they SHOULD be doing this. THIS is why we study math. We study it so that we have the tools to solve whatever problems come our way in life. We study it because it's important to be functionally literate in all areas. We study it because we want to be able to calculate, distribute, count, and audit.

We study it because one day we might find ourselves in the Girl Scouts, and Girl Scouts sell cookies!

P.S. Want to read more about Girl Scout cookie booth math and marketing? Here's my complete series (so far!):

• Girl Scout Cookie Booth Analytics, or, Math Helps Girl Scouts Sell More Cookies!
• My Very Own Girl Scout Cookie Booth Calculator: How Many Cookies to Order for Booth Sales
• Girl Scout Cookie Booth Math: Equal It Out and Assign It Fairly
• Girl Scout Cookie Marketing: Kid-Led and Kid-Made Signage and Campaigns

P.P.S. Want to know more about all the weird math I have my kids do, as well as our other wanderings and wonderings? Check out my Facebook page!