kittle

At our district roundtable, they had a really good idea. They took balloons , put a slip of paper in them with the list of awards that they boys earned for the month, blew them up and attached them to a stick. The boy's name was wrote on the balloon and they were all placed in a vase. The boys was called forward and give his ballonn to pop. Then he read it and was given the awards.

Our dens all meet at our CO's building. We also meet on the same night, but we only have 11 boys in our Pack. Meeting in the leader's home is not always an option. I live in the country and most of our boys walk to the meeting because parents don't want to be bothered. Is there any other church in town that would let you use their basement or something. Maybe another organization that wouldn't mind pitching in. There are a couple of churches in our town that would let us use their building if we needed to.

orennoah, In our district, the Outdoor skills training was the same for Webelos, SM, ASM. I just came home from ours. resqman, To me, training is like school. The teachers (instructors) don't need to give us all the answers. Instead they are there to give us the base and explain how to build from there. If they were going to give us all the information of each subject, we would have to go to a different training session each week. Most people would not be able or willing to do that.

I haven't read the rest of the responses, but would like to add to the discussion. Maybe they get tired of dealing with disrespectful boys. I had a Webelos meeting tonight that could seriously make me consider quitting if I didn't like the program so much. It did make up my mind that I will get this Webelos year over and then I will be stepping down from Cubs and working with my son's Troop. I will join back with the Cubs when my younger son is old enough for Scouts.

huntr, While reading your other post earlier, I called one of my brothers and asked him if I could use his Excel program disk. He is supposed to get it to me by Wednesday. If he doesn't, I will take you up on your offer. Thanks

Huntr, It sounds to me like you did everything you could do to include her. Maybe she just felt overwhelmed and didn't want to admit it. I want to second someone else that said get a parent to check the boy's books. The parent can do that while you run the meeting. Then you can take the updat home and put in into the program.

I am exhausted and have no ideal how I made it home driving by myself. The training taught me more about Boy Scouts than I knew. There was a lot of information that was presented that I know will be beneficial to my son (and hopefully other boys) and myself. I learned how to use a compass. This is the first time I it has ever made sense to me. There is no way I could find my way yet, but wuth practice I think I could. The trainers were friendly and knowledgable. The other Scout leaders that were there were very nice also. One unexpected result from the weekend was what I learn

ScoutNut, I've already had the SM/ASM Leader Specific. A friend of mine, who happens to be a district trainer, told me that it was neccesary to take that training in order to go to the Outdoor portion of the training. I am fealing a little better. It quit raining here and my cold has eased up. I'm not looking to being a SM or ASM in the troop, just looking to help with whatever they need help with. Maybe see what Merit Badges they need a counselor for that I have an interest in. With younger children, it would be difficult for me to commit the time for the other positions.

Introduction to outdoor skills this weekend and of courst the weather is supposed to turn bad. I already have a serious cold, I can only imagine how bad I will feal next week.I borrowed a tent and sleeping pad from my brother. All my tents are too big to put up by myself and I don't need that much room. I am having second thought about this because I have been thinking about stepping down from Webelos leader. That way, I could concentrate on older son and Boy Scouts at least until younger son is in Cub Scouts. I really enjoy this Scouting stuff, but at the moment have a group of Webelos that j

Thank you everyone for the additional information. I will ask our SM tonight what the Troop's policy is on parents acting as merit badge counselors for their own son. It isn't something that had came up yet. I can probably get a local 4-H leader or vet to do it with my son. Thanks again.

Eagle in KY, I could probably get someone willing to register and work with my son, but I don't know that they would want on the list for everyone to be calling them. What if no other boy wants to work on this merit badge? Ed, The list I am looking at is our district list, it is the current list that I just picked up at the Scout Schop Saturday.

I know that you check the list first and I have done that. The only problem is this. My son want to do Dog Car and the nearest counselor is about a 45 minute drive from where we live. So, what does a person do?

We don't charge Dend dues or Pack dues. The local Ruritans let us take over their newspaper recycling (which we get about $300-$400 a year), a local business donates $100/year, we sell popcorn, and we sold Krispie Kreme donuts. Last year, all the parents had to pay for was their son's registration. We have a candle that is used at den meetings and then the Pack pays for the party. When an extra event comes up, the parents pay whatever their child's portion is. So far, none of the parents have complained about the process.

Anarchist, I will try to elaborate some. We will be doing his winter camping in Southern Illinois. We live across the border from Evansville, Indiana (if you know where that is). You never know about the weather. the SM was showing some of the younger boys pictures of her tent with 3 inches of snow on it. The tent he is currently using is a Coleman. The rain fly goes just below the mesh windows. I called Colemand and the rep there told me that my son could use another tarp over the existing rainfly. I need to sit the tent up and give this a try. I am just unsure as to how well m

Thanks for all the websites. I went and printed up some that were games for strength. I was hoping that all the boys would participate and behave. They had to turn the games into 'fighting' exercises and I had one that refused to even participate (but that is a subject for another thread). I am sure that I will use these sights often.

between a 3 season and 4 season tent. My son is really in need of a different tent to use when it is cold. His current tent has mesh down both sides and therefore lets a lot of wind come through when it is cold. I have looked at so many tents online that I am totally confused. So, I really need this descibed as "Tents 101 for Dummies". A few specific names wouldn't hurt either. I am also hoping that what I buy him now he won't grow out of.

I would like to have some game ideas for my den meetings, I am a Webelos I & II leader. My problem is that I usually only have 2 or 3 boys show for meetings. This limits that games that you can play. Any suggestions for games or group activity would be appreciated.

I don't really have an answer to your question. But I wanted to add that I feal sorry for the parents that don't get involved, they have no idea what they are missing. My involvement is a little more limited that I would like. But with a 5 year old that has to tag along everywhere I go, it limits what you can do with Boy Scouts. Like the others have said, make it look like so much fun that they don't want to miss out on it. Alos, listen carefully to learn what some of these parents are good at so that you can ask them to help with those areas. Maybe you can get them hooked that way.

I live about 60 miles from there and didn't even realize it was storming that bad until I woke up this morning. I knew that the wind was blowing really bad.

TheScout, you wrote: "why can't the scout just wear a coat over the shirt to and from the meeting since its cold outside. Take the coat of at the meeting, since its warm inside. That way he would not have to worry about wearing anything under his uniform" Maybe this would work most places, but not where our Cub Scouts meet. Our Cubs usually wear their jackets dureing the shole meeting unless we are painting. We meet at the local Masonic Lodge. It is a VERY old building and we do not wish to run their gas bill up too much.

I am making my son a denim quilt. Each square has one patch on it. The squares are made out of his grandmother's jeans. ScoutNut, I took all my son's patches off of his red vest. I made a large arrowhead out of black felt and hung it on an arrow that his grandmother had given him before she died. I also put all his rank badges on it. He likes it a lot better than the vest. He can hang it hang it on his wall. Kittle

FScouter, I wish I could send my son to your house to mow your grass. My son wanted uniform pants, so he asked for additional chores around the house to pay for them. Now, he wants a hat. I told him he would have to come up for the money. He will come up with the money sooner or later. He has already decided that he wants to mow yards next summer.

Thanks everyone for the advice given to Kristi. I am going to be headed to outdoor training in 3 weeks and will use the words of wisdon offered to her.

Speaking from a homeschooler's point of view, I enjoy my son being around the other boys (most of the time). I don't have any advice on how to keep the Pack from seperating. I jsut wanted to say that the homeschool boys are more apt to earn more advancements. If the parents know what all the extra awards and requirements are, they also know what the boys have done 'at school. With public school boys, the parents/den leader don't always know what they have done and therefore don't know what extras to award. It will also be the nature of the homeschooler to make everything as much of a family ac

I won't use it. Not because I have seen what it does to shirts, but because I have seen what similiar products do to shirts. I am glad that you brought up the subject. There is a boy that I loaned out one of my son's shirts to. I am going to have to remind his mom that I don't want her to use this on his shirts. I will even volunteer to sew his patches on.