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christineka

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Everything posted by christineka

  1. Neither of my brothers continued with scouts past college entrance. The one went on to bigger and better pursuits and the other went on to become a slacker.
  2. My older brother earned eagle at 14 years old and was an active scouter until he went to college at 17. (He was always mr. high achiever of the family.) My younger brother earned his eagle at 17 and stayed in scouts till he went to college at 18. (He spent 5 years earning his BA.) Our father is a big scouter. I think both boys stayed because they had a lot of fun, going on adventures, and learning lots of stuff.
  3. Our cubs pass out the bags in February- or maybe March? It's spring-like anyway. The boy scouts collect.
  4. I've been trying to talk with the boys individually (in the same room) during gathering. I ask about the achievements they supposedly completed. If they can tell me- "oh, yeah, I wrote so and so an email last week.", I'll count that. If they can't answer me- or their answer doesn't satisfy me, such as "which community leader did you visit with?" "uh... it was last year.... I don't remember", then I won't warm it completed. I have no reason to believe my webelos are dishonest- I just think the moms are marking stuff off without reading the whole achievement- or don't realize that what happe
  5. How is a denner chosen? How long do they serve? What does a denner do? How do you remind a denner of his role? Do you have to buy the rope thing for the uniform? (Our pack doesn't have those.) Does being a denner count toward anything in webelos? We attempted having denners in Bears- gave each boy a month (to fulfill the bear achievement) and it didn't go so well.
  6. That's what they were doing before the webelos leader gave up on showing up. She has a packet of worksheets for every badge and if you complete the worksheet, you "earn" the badge. Her worksheets are very lacking. (They came from her mother in law.) Nope, no worksheets in my den. I homeschool my kids and I loath worksheets. I also feel like kids spend a sufficient amount of time doing school (or school work) and don't need any more of that boring stuff.
  7. In my area the day camp is for only 2 days. I have the same problem with parents marking anything that was sorta like the achievement. I even have a parent marking stuff for her Webelos that he sorta did when he was a Bear. It doesn't count if he wasn't a webelos!
  8. I will not be a bs leader (LDS have men in boy scouts- no women.) I don't know how much longer I'll be a webelos leader, but I'd guess they'd hold the training again, so when I do have more boys, I could get trained then. Right now, my future is that I'll not have a boy move up until June- and they (two of them) will go to camp in May, which will count for Webelos anyway.
  9. No, the committee member is the control freak. There's no way I can go to her and tell her not to just go buy whatever awards the cub master says to get. I'd be railed on about how so and so is doing really awesome at her job and is going through a rough time, etc, etc. The cub master is a reasonable person. I think she's just misguided. Our webelos leader was doing nothing for 6 months and didn't do a whole lot before. I don't think she even read the manual- just went off worksheets and check lists.
  10. All four of my webelos have already been awarded outdoorsman. (I know 3 out of the 4 didn't complete all requirements, but the people giving out awards don't care about that.) I know knots- been the knot person in the pack because I took the time to watch youtube videos over and over, until I learned all the required knots. I know how to pitch a tent and build a fire and all that. (My dad is a scouter and he made sure I knew how to camp.) The boys already earned geologist, naturalist, and forester.
  11. OWL training is this Saturday. I need to know if I need to beg the committee member to use our pack money to pay for me to attend. (And if I should attend.) I gather that this is training for all the outdoor activity badges, but all of them were covered at webelos camp. Why should I need to know all about doing them, when I don't do those badges? Having attended webelos camp, I am aware that the boys are really rushed through it all and don't learn quite as much as they should, but the committee member and cub master will dole out the awards anyway. (I took more time to make sure my son h
  12. I am going to try a more educated proposal to several scout troops in attempt to find my den a den chief.
  13. The previous webelos leader didn't go over how the webelos program works. (She was very laid back about the program.) The parents assume it's very similar to wolves and bears, where they sign off their boy's achievements. The webelos book is so big that I don't think the other parents have bothered to read it. (I've gone through it about 10 times now and learn something new each time.)
  14. Pack meeting is this week. I think I'll make up a "Webelos Fact Sheet" to give to all the parents. (This parent isn't the only one confused- just the only one that has the power to tell the committee member what to buy.) Are there any already made fact sheets? I'd love to not have to reinvent the wheel.
  15. I am a webelos leader. I have learned that I am supposed to be the one signing off on achievements. The boys can do stuff at home, but I need to go over it with them and sign them off. The cub master has a webelos son. I've never even seen his book. She sent the cub committee member the list of awards he's earned, but I haven't talked to him about them at all! He moves on to Boy scouts in January. Is this something I should even try changing now? Is there a diplomatic way of letting the cub master know that this is not okay and that I really need to talk to her son about achievements an
  16. How do you get these boys, who want to do a great job on their craftsman projects? We did tangrams with the wood. I showed the boys how to draw the lines and the whole mathematics of making the shapes. Only my son used mathematics and a ruler to make the lines. The other boys just drew the lines (that weren't very straight and were not precise at all) and then cut themselves some sloppy shapes. These boys (minus my son, who is a perfectionist) have the mentality that they would like to do the most with the least amount of effort.
  17. Those people are a bit weird! Anyway, in webelos breakout, they said we can do one thing and make it count for 2. Really? Isn't that cheating? Some examples: make a catapult out of wood- counts for craftsman and engineering. Make a floor plan and an escape plan- counts for readyman and engineering, make a puppet- counts for showman and craftsman. Man, I wanted my boys to work! So, really and truly this is okay?
  18. I think it's sad that I am LDS, in an LDS chartered group, and our cub committee member expressed disdain for how the church runs scouts. What the LDS church has done is to take scouts and adapt it for a program that was already set in place. The LDS church looked at the ideals of scouting and found them to fit with the church's ideals for boys, so adapted the program. It is not the same as traditional scouting, but I don't see how that part really matters- it just makes things more difficult with kids coming and going at different times of the year. The adult staffing is problematic. People
  19. I also brought a lighter to melt the ends of the cords. I bet making flame in the church building is not allowed either. The boys thought that part was cool, too.
  20. We're still working on craftsman. Tonight the boys started off sewing buttons. A few had trouble. One even complained about it being "women's work". (We took care of that.) Then we moved on to sewing a simple drawstring bag with a machine. (We split so 2 boys made duct tape wallets, two sewing and then swapped.) I was really surprised. The boys loved the sewing machine! One boy's mom was there doing the wallets and the boy had to excitedly show his mom what he had sewn in between steps. I had the kid with issues just press the pedal and help with pinning and he absolutely loved it.
  21. Not everyone is on facebook. Or they are, but never post pictures of their children. It is a sensitive subject. I would ask the parents for permission before posting photos on facebook.
  22. In Cub Scouts you have to tell the oath, law, motto, etc and what they mean in order to earn bobcat and bobcat must be earned prior to any other rank. From what I've read of the doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses, I do not believe scouting to be compatible, unless the family doesn't mind breaking a few religious rules.
  23. I have a nice spreadsheet to track advancement. It pretty much has only two boys' achievements tracked. One boy really hasn't completed much. The other was a webelos for 8 months before I became leader and his family does stuff at home as well. I don't know what he's completed- only a general idea. (Because he has earned webelos and went to camp, which I attended.) I've got to see the book, which has not yet been produced for me. I'm going to try to start implementing talking to the boy before passing stuff off, since that's the way we should be doing it. Not sure how I interview m
  24. I attended a scout leadership meeting last night. Some things I heard were just reiterated, not anything new. (Like this topic.) I have the webelos. They've been in scouts for 2 - 2.5 years. It's something they do because they have to, though I know my son enjoys it as does one other boy. I know one boy comes because his parents make him and the last, I'm not real sure about, though my guess is that he comes because he has to, yet he is compliant and enjoys himself. The two boys, who come because they want to, wear their uniform, their shirt is buttoned, have their neckerchief, brin
  25. We have this problem in cub scouts. I have been counseling my own son to be honest, so he does not accept awards he has not earned. I need to work with the other boys in my den on this as well. Hopefully, when they move up to boy scouts, they will have the integrity to refuse badges they have not earned. I suspect the awarding of unearned merit badges is happening in the church troop. (Very, very likely)
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