bearess

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the stickers. I'm a den leader for Lions, and I taught elementary school for ten years. Kids that age love stickers. My Lions are very proud of them and look forward to receiving them. The whole BSA system for recognition is really just giving kids a small token to recognize an accomplishment- belt loops, patches, pins, stickers. It's all the same! At our Blue and Gold I gave each of my Lions a pin with a Lion on it to wear on their shirts or jackets. They love it, and it's free recruitment- we've picked up one new member in less than a month as a resul

Add me to those who can't get too upset over a little potty humor. A little bit is funny. Too much isn't. Same with violence- if the joke isn't about someone being hurt, it can be a part of a skit. Obviously making someone's suffering the butt of your joke isn't funny.

I think integrating kids into Boy Scouts early is key. The break between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts is a natural time to evaluate if you want to stick with a program. By making that break less distinct, you're going to increase retention.

You briefly mentioned not wanting to go the Girl Scout route. Why is that?

Two main topics here-- first of all, I don't think Scouting was ever meant to prepare for a situation where 'the world of today' has vanished. My ex-FIL was the head of Red Cross disaster management for his region for 20 years or so. He ran LOTS of shelters in his day! And, sure- he may have used some Scoutcraft skills. But, much more than that, he used interpersonal skills and organizational skills. We were without power for 13 days after Hurricane Irene. Did I make a campfire most nights and use a camp stove for coffee? Sure. But, when I volunteered for the Cross, I spent my time goi

I think the difference between Scouts and sports is the nature of the activity. My son plays baseball/hockey- and, sure, he meets new kids on his teams. But when they are practicing/at games, they aren't really socializing. They're there to play a sport. Sure, The chat here and there- but that's not the purpose of the activity. Scouts- especially camping/hiking/biking/whatever else-ing- is naturally more social. There's more downtime. So friendships are more important. It's the same for adults- I play women's league hockey. When I signed up, I didn't ask friends to go with me- I reali

What everyone else said. Let his parents know they can work on the award at home if they want, but there's no pressure. He gets his loops and Bobcat, everyone is happy. I would tell him to just buy a tan shirt. There's no way I'd spend the $ on a blue shirt for such a short amount of time.

I think Stosh brings up good logistical YP points. I'm not familiar with fireside Girls, but how would the leader situation work? Would you have one leader for the boys and one for the girls? What happens if the FG leader wants to do something that has no equivalent in Scouts? Will each kid get awards from their own leader? Won't that make meetings drag on? As they get older, what happens if one group is allowed, per their organizations policy, to do something the other one isn't? I understand the appeal of having a program for your girls at the same time as the boys. But this feels

I completely agree with Cambridgeskip about the origins. Scouting was started as a single gender program because of when and where it started. Organizations for middle and upper class men were single sex. I'm certain that, once he left the nursery, BP was educated and worked in single sex environments. That was his world. I understand some feel that letting in females 'lessens' the program for boys in some ways. I'd be OK with that if I felt the commensurate benefits for girls outweighed that. I'm just not convinced it does. One thing I've thought about a lot lately is how boy

Yes, troop 4 had the same CO. CO makes no difference to us. It's the fire dept. I don't even know who the CO is for the other troops. My son can start walking there as soon as he joins! He walks there now for planning meetings/to the grocery for supply shopping when he's camping with them. As far as I'm concerned, that's a HUGE benefit!

I've lurked for a while, and commented on some threads, so I thought I should introduce myself! I have two sons, a 5 yo and a 9 yo. We live in a small town in New England. My 9 y/o is a AOL Cub, and my 5 y/o is a Lion. I'm the Lion den leader. I've lurked long enough to know the Lion program isn't popular here, but he's loved it! .

Glad to hear others feel as I do! I feel like troop one is the best, obvious choice. I guess they don't all have to cross over together- I suspect that 3-4 of the boys (including my son) would prefer/choose troop 1. The other thing is that we live in an area with a lot of small towns- the troops that are a 15-20 minute drive away pull from different school districts. So there's no way he would ever see those kids outside of Scouts. C goes to a private school, so that issue doesn't impact him. Troop 1 has also long operated on a model of doing one big trip/summer-- Grand Canyon, Bounda

So, my older son is an AOL, and his group is starting to visit troops 'unofficially'- camping with them, etc. I suspect he'll end up with four choices, all of which are not great for different reasons. Ultimately, he'll choose, but there are a few variables I'd like to have others thoughts on so he and I can discuss them. His AOL den is about seven boys. All, or nearly all, of them plan to cross over to Boy Scouts. He is particularly close to one boy, and friendly with all of them. One boy, C, is the son of the current den leader, M. M is a very, very involved parent. His son is sti

I lead the Lion den, and my son is a Lion. He's a gregarious, enthusiastic kid as it is, and being inscouts with his mom as a leader exacerbates it. I've given him 'talk tokens'- he gets eight beads at the beginning of a meeting. When he wants to talk, he gives me a bead. It works well and makes him think about when to talk and when not to. I also find that calmly dealing with issues helps. He was crying during Blue and Gold B/c he didn't get a pen from friends of scouting. I asked him to sit down and he did. It was embarrassing for me, but there was nothing to be done about it.

I agree that there needs to be thought and planning around what to do if a youth transitions back to their assigned gender. As far as YPT, I think two deep leadership would cover you in any situation. The period/breast talk is overblown. Most young men who have or are transitioning are working with a doctor on puberty suppression. As for the kids... I can't speak for everybody's kids. However, I think we are over estimating how much they care. My sons' PE teacher was born female, and has fully transitioned to living as a man. They know about the transition because he grew up in this c

YeAh, I remember the story about the kids in MD, and I've read other stories about parents being arrested/charged for leaving kids alone or unsupervised. I just can't help but wonder if there is more to the story than we are reading. I seem to remember that, the first time the kids in MD were picked up, they had crossed a four lane highway alone. It wasn't like they were just wandering around their neighborhood. Regardless, I'm sure, on average, kids today do have fewer freedoms. It's just hard to square that with my own experience, which is that my kids (and many of their friends) have a

Sure, the homework is the kids' responsibility. But I don't think some parental checkins are unreasonable. When my son gets home, I ask if he has homework. He says yes or no, I say "Be sure it gets done by dinner". I don't think that's unreasonable. I also,look over his homework and work with him if he's having trouble in an area. Again, I think that's reasonable, responsible parenting. I'm not doing the work for him. I'm providing him the support he needs to do his best work. As for the entitlement/best friend thing- Yeah. It gets old. My expectation of my kids is that they ta

Well worded statement, and so much better than dragging it out for 15 years. I'm sure this has been happening to some degree for the past 10-15 years, just 'under the radar'. I'm 100% sure I've never provided a copy of my sons birth certificates to BSA. I suspect that children who identify as boys have been registering locally as boys and nobody has known or said anything. This is the right thing to do and the right time to do it.

I'm always torn in the idea that kids have lost so many liberties and freedoms. My sons are 5 and 9. They walk to school alone, go to the playground alone. I work from home, and they know they aren't to come home till 3:45 (school ends at 2:45). For that hour, they're responsible for themselves- they play/sled on the playground, walk to the bank for a lollipop, go to the library, whatever. That's the case for many of my older sons' friends. My older son can go to the store alone (obviously just for a few things) and run other little errands. He can ride his bike anywhere in town. I've

I, personally, can't see the Trump administration having much interest or impact on the Scouts. Interestingly, Bernie Sanders speaks of his time in scouting with a great deal of respect and affection- I e heard him say on several occasions the value of the love for the outdoors and the moral code that Scouting instilled in him. We saw him once at a local pizza place after a Cub meeting- my older son was in his uniform still. Of course we were excited to see été Bernie, and waved, but didn't interrupt his group. Afterwards, he came over and chatted to my son about Scouts for a few m

Enh, I have a Webelos I- I can't get too worked up over this. My son has done nearly all the work on his cars himself- and it is still a lot of work for me! I walk with hi. to our Pack woodworking night, help himselect the right tools show him how to use the tools, talk to him about the design he wants, go with him to get the paint, make suggestions on how to paint/what designs will work, take him to a friend's workshop to put on the wheels, give suggestions on how to get the wheels tight, buy graphite, etc. No scout is making his own car with no adult guidance. Now, I see kids who are cle