mistysmere

ScoutNut has some great ideas.

I just wanted to add that more than half of our returning cubs this year are ADD/ADHD. The boys in our Pack who are working the hardest are those who are our "special needs" boys. Being ADD/ADHD does not make you a special needs child. It just means that the adults around you need to work harder at being creative to help you along.

Last year, DS's Tiger Den had 5 boys. At the beginning, two were medicated. All 5 were fully capable of working on the Bobcat requirements. They all received their immediate recognition thingy at the first Pack meeting. They got their Bobcat at the second one. By the end of the year, we were at 3 medicated and one unmedicated ADD/ADHD boys in the Den. All received their Tiger in March.

As a Pack, we work hard to keep the boys engaged. One thing that we have learned is that it is better to over plan for everything. If you know you will have 10 spare minutes at the end of a Pack meeting, make sure you have 3 15 minute activities planned. It would be great to pack 2 up for next month, but there will be months when you need all three. The other thing we do is meet as a Pack at the beginning of every meeting. This takes 10 minutes out of our weekly meetings, but the process has helped the Tigers and new boys learn their Bobcat stuff and flag ceremony stuff quickly. The fact is that we had Weblos that couldn't remember their Bobcat stuff, so this practice has helped everyone. Plus there is a lot of bonding among the different Dens. But we only have 27 boys in the Pack. We do try to eliminate as many of the "silly stuff" from our Pack meetings as possible, because random songs and skits really push the patience of our ADD/ADHD boys. If is doesn't fill a requirement, we save it for campout camp fire entertainment.

In general, more and more parents are expecting all the work to be done without their help. DS's school now gives out volunteer hours for helping your child with their homework. You will find that you are going to need to do a lot of the work with these boys during their time with you anyway. The best thing you can do for the ADHD boys is show them that they can be successful. If you go into every meeting with the attitude that these boys can not make Eagle without my help, you will be helping them more than you will every realize.

mistysmere

I understand where you are coming from, but let me give you another perspective.

Our Pack, this morning, has 23 boys (we could be registering 4 new ones tonight). At least 10 of those boys is ADD/ADHD and on meds. Because we are a small pack, the parents know each other fairly well. One thing we talked about last spring was the fact that most of the medicated boys, have a personality type where they need little extras to keep them interested and focused. We also noticed over the summer that it's the same boys attending things over and over, not because of vacations and parents, but because the boys were just not seeing the point of going to a park for swimming and fishing and a picnic.

So, yes, we try to make sure the boys who attend things get rewarded. We are starting to fill in those brag vests. But our boys know tend to know what the patches are for, because we make a big deal out of the effort these boys are putting at Pack meetings. And we encourage our boys to wear their brag vests as often as possible. We also try to do a lot of "Remember When" stuff. Boy, I see you went to the Medieval Time Day Camp, do you remember when the Zoo came out? What kind of animals did they bring? All those patches can have some relevance.

I will say that if we can get away with all the boys earning a belt loop instead, we prefer to do that. We try to encourage them in advancement more than anything else. So no, they didn't get a bowling patch for attending the annual bowling party, but they did get the belt loop. The great part about what we are doing is that the boys are excited to attend the extra outings and to bring possible scouts along with them. Not for the patches but for the experiences. I did mention the 4 possible new scouts for tonight. All boys that have seen and heard about what the boys have been doing and have been excited to be a part of it all.

Though I did see the brag vest of a Tiger once who had it almost full by January. That is a bit much. DS is a Wolf who attended about 80% of the outings last year and everything since becoming a Wolf and his vest has a nice little row around the bottom. Nothing more.

mistysmere

Relax. This isn't as hard as it seems when you first look at all the training and books.

It doesn't matter who shows up with your Tiger, as long as each Tiger has someone. Our Pack has 4 Tigers this year. One comes every week with Dad. One is the son of the Cubmaster and Bear Leader, so the CC or Tiger Leader or myself attend as his adult during normal den meetings until CM deals with all his work. One Tiger brings Mom, Dad, 4 year old brother and 11 month sister to most meetings. Then there is the Tiger who might show up with Dad, Stepmom or 14 year old sister. Dad works long hours, Mom is Wolf coleader and some times can't make it to the Tiger meeting, and because the adults are spread thin with the CM's son, we need one more big person. The 12 year old Boy Scout brother has been known to step in for 15 minutes while waiting for Dad to get to the meeting.

Our Pack is small with 26 kids. We all meet at the same place every week, unless there are special activities planned for a Den. We probably have family members that show up for 20 of our boys every week. Moms, Dads, Stepparents, Noncustodial parents, Grandparents, older siblings, Aunts and Uncles. Before my time, there are rumors of a boy who came with his next door neighbor's Grandfather. Single mom couldn't do it and Grandfather missed Cub Scouts, so they decided to do it together.

I would encourage at least knowing the first name of the adults the child lives with. That will just make your life easier when you get to know Mom and all of a sudden Dad shows up at your first activity. Otherwise, don't worry about it. Cub Scouts is a Family Activity and today's families are just not the same as they were in the 50s.

mistysmere

Sitting here with DS's Tiger book (don't ask why it was sitting next to my computer). On page 161, the Trail to Advancement starts. The very first page is "Tiger Cub Immediate Recognition". When the kids can do these three things, they get the paw thingy. Page 162 is the Bobcat Trail. To me, that says it all.

One interesting thing is that the paw thingy is suppose to be given at a Pack meeting. Honestly, most of the Tigers I've run into are so excited about Scouts that they push to get Bobcat by their first Pack meeting. Which would mean that the Scout would be receiving the paw thingy and their Bobcat at the same meeting. Our Pack decided to change this up and gave out our paw thingies the first meeting a boy can do his three things.

Last year, DS's Tiger Den did "Lost Quarter". This is another skit that has few lines and allows for any size group. It also allows for the shy boy to also be a part of the skit.

mistysmere

I bought my uniform earlier this week, just in time for our Rally. I've been slowly getting my small number of patches on. When I mentioned at the scout shop that I had a hard time making the numbers straight on DS's uniform, they suggested sewing the numbers together first. This worked wonders. When I was facing the World Crest with the ring, I decided to try the same thing. It looks great. I haven't got it on the uniform yet (still trying to figure out how high above the pocket the thing goes), but I plan on removing DS's World Crest and doing the same thing with the donut when he gets his (Our Pack is talking about giving them to the boys at Blue and Gold).

mistysmere

I asked in my Scout Store yesterday and they told me that they heard the requirements would be out some time in November. These Scouters have always been fairly accurate with their information.

mistsymere

My DS is 7, going to be 8 in December. He is in second grade. He is a Wolf. There really is a difference in the abilities of the Wolf and Bear aged boys. As much as I love the boys in my pack, I have to admit that it will be nice to have them all separated by age for meetings again.

The most important thing to remember is that Bear is when they can earn their whittlin chip. I don't know about you, but I can't imagine DS with a knife any time soon. Honestly, as excited as our Bears are about this, there has been some talk of putting this requirement off for a little, just so the boys can get back into the weekly Scout thing and remember calm, inside behaviors before introducing knives to the mix.

I would suggest slowing your son down. There are great things that he gets to do as a Wolf. If his desire to be a Bear has to do with his friends, I would suggest attending more of the Pack activities, where which Den you are in isn't as big a deal.

mistysmere

Our Tiger den was a highly motivated bunch. We used the Fast Tracks for the first month, just to get our feet underneath us, and then we moved on and did our own thing. I expect that the same thing is going to happen this year. With a group of ADD/ADHD boys, what I saw of the Wolf outline isn't going to work. It's just not that active enough. When you add in how active our council is during the fall and all the middle of the book requirements that can be met at these events, you get to January and suddenly discover that you can do maybe one activity from the Fast Tracks or the old Program helps because you've covered everything else.

I think this program will be great for first year leaders, just like the Fast Tracks and the Program Helps, but more experienced Scouters will probably only use these for ideas and references. Our Pack doesn't have the ability to do an outdoor flag ceremony at our first meeting. We will easily be able to do it during our first month, we just don't have a flag pole we can play with at our meeting location. Which throws us off the plan from the first meeting.

Everything that BSA puts out helps the leaders organize and plan. Sure it's nice not actually planning things and just using a recipe card for a meeting, but I think the best way to use any of this stuff is as reference material.

mistysmere

I am the mom of a medicated Wolf Cub and a new committee member of a small Pack that is heavily medicated. By this, I mean that more boys in our Pack take medication than boys that don't. Reading your concerns really bothers me. Being on medication does not mean that the child will be a discipline problem, and that seems to be a connection that you are making.

You really need to deal with two separate issues. At camp, you had two boys that needed constant supervision. As a committee, you need to look at all the things these two boys attend. Are they ALWAYS in need to constant supervision? Are the choices that they are making always just this side of "you are going to get yourself banned for life"? If so, then you probably need to make a choice that these boys probably need to have an adult assigned to them at all events. Meaning that if you would normally send two adults to camp, these boys can only attend if the parents find an adult to attend with them. Stating the situation this way would allow for a single parent family finding a way to still keep their child in Scouts.

In our Pack, three different therapists have recommended Scouts to 4 different families. ADD/ADHD children can only be helped so far with medication. Then, the child needs structure and discipline to take them the rest of the way. Scouts was recommended to us as another place that had structure and discipline while also giving my child the bling/carrots in the form of patches, badges, belt loops and pins he needs for his self confidence. Once you realize that therapists and other parents are recommending Scouts to this specific population, you need to accept that handing out medication may become a norm, but you need to remember that the medication and the issue that is being medicated do not CAUSE a child to do stupid things. Human beings make stupid choices. ALL human beings.

Please take the time to separate the two issues, medication and misbehavior. You may find that your Troop will be in a stronger place once you do. I would also recommend separating the two discipline problems as much as possible. Even if they are great friends, I bet that everyone will breathe a sigh of relief if they happen to be put in different tents.

mistysmere