christineka

I went googling. What do you think of these?

http://www.allcrafts.net/crochetsewingcrafts.htm?url=www.birdsandblooms.com/Backyard-Projects/Birdhouses/Birdhouse-for-Beginners- (I thought a bird feeder might be useful for naturalist. Also, if we have the pieces cut out, the wolf could work with us.)

http://home.comcast.net/~tmlevandusky/PowWow-woodworking/plans/climbing-cub-scout.pdf

My kids like this traditional toy and it would be a good gift for younger siblings. All 4 active boys have a younger sibling.

http://www.lowes.com/creative-ideas/woodworking-and-crafts/picture-frames-the-easy-way/project The picture frame would be useful for framing the outdoor picture drawn or painted for artist.

I need to go to home depot now to price this out, so that if my handymen volunteers give the "okay", I will then be prepared to get approval for spending the money on the materials.

Oh, I think I'm starting to track. he started in a regular pack since you folks don't do tiger..... but he's now switching to your LDS pack. So he's not really intending on keeping both tracks going in parallel. Do I have that right?

That being the case, then this question is just about the overlap transition.

Sorry, not LDS so I can't help.... just trying to understand.

Cub master, who is helping me with webelos wants to finish up craftsman this month. I found a father last night at pack meeting, who has a coping saw, knows how to use it, and is willing to come to scouts and help. We need to make a plan of what to make, materials needed, and how to make it. Neither the cub master nor I do wood crafting stuff. Do you have any good resources for me?

I was not aware that there was an award for earning the whittling chip. What is it? My son and the other boys his age earned it at camp last year, but we didn't recognize them- just marked it off in their books.

I might have missed it but I don't see that speaking to a scientist is a requirement. For artist all they need to do is talk to their art teacher at school.

A scientist does not need to be a guy with coke bottle glasses and a lab coat. There are computer scientists for example and kids are into computers. I chose a tour of the water treatment plant. The men running those plants are definitely doing science. They may not have a phd, but have taken many certification classes in scientific subjects. The plant will have a small lab with testing equipment and he can show how he tests the water at various stages of the treatment process. The sewage treatment plant is another option. Definitly biological science going on there. It was absolutely no problem scheduling a tour, they even had some booklets for the boys to take home. Park Rangers usually come from an environmental science background or sometimes law enforcement. For artist the scrap booking place definitely has artists. There are a lot more graphic artists nowadays than there are guys with a paintbrush and a beret. Do you have a local photography studio ? He is an artist and would love to get some more people in the door to see his work. Maybe he will make a den portrait for you. I called the science chair at the High School and he was a total a$$, said he couldn't do it because the state cut his budget. More often than not the governmental departments are very willing to help, they usually answer to an elected official who wants your vote. You will usually not have a problem getting your congressman to meet with the boys for citizenship. A formal request on pack letterhead 3 months in advance was all I need to get him to speak at out B&G. Didn't even have to use the professional relationship my wife had with him.

I live in a smaller area outside of the city. It's a 45 minute drive to the city and I really don't want to go out there. We have no art museums, aquarium, zoo, etc. We do have a government complex, where they blow up ammunition and test weapons, a hospital, a medical lab, and an ocean life scuba diving place. (I hear you can go and look into the water for free, but haven't been there.)

As for artists- there are the art teachers in the schools. Not sure about anyone else. For my son, I asked my husband if he could find someone from his work- an hour away that could talk to my son. My husband works for a rubber stamp/scrapbooking/creative stuff company.

Have you found scientists/artists from certain fields or businesses more willing to talk with cub scouts than others? These are requirements for the webelos artist and scientist badges.

Also, it would be the easiest thing to just have him do bears with us. The other bear just had his birthday, so they can start together. The other wolf just started and needs to do everything the other boy has already completed. The next wolf will join in October, so not long before there will be two.

"JoeBob commented Today, 07:59 AM

 

Editing a comment

I'm trying to figure out what the boy will do to participate in two packs.

Does he do everything twice, once in each pack?

Does he use two books to keep straight what he's done where?"

 

I'm thinking he might pick and choose...... when pack A is doing something fun, he'll do that.... but won't bother himself when Pack A is doing something "not fun".... because pack B is doing something fun.

 

Just weird. Shouldn't be allowed IMO based on what little I know about the situation.

This sounds fishy to me.

Why would anybody... boy or parent.... want to be in two packs?

Why would the leaders want to play along?

This makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

The pack at my son's government school had their round-up last night. Our pack is chartered by our church & our church operates their own school.

I must admit it crossed my mind that last night to pop into the round-up to meet the leaders and see what they are doing...... primarily to see if I could learn any good ideas, but also I suppose in the back of my mind to consider moving my son if their pack looked much better..... I could go back to being just Dad. It would never even dawn on me to register him in both!

 

How does the council even deal with that? They can't even seem to figure out how to register me in my two positions of ADL & ACM

I have no idea how the boy is registered. He did, however only just earn his wolf last night and I know he had not completed the requirements in July- after he was promoted to bear in his community troop. (He just needed to do some stuff at home with his parents.) He started scouts as a Tiger Cub. The LDS church does not do Tigers (since the kids don't start until 8 years old.) The parents then decided to have him move up as a wolf with the community troop before he turned 8 s and then he just continues. We have had issues with the boy not wanting to repeat something he already did, even though I proved to him that he hadn't mastered the achievement. (Such as when we did flags- he didn't know what anything was on our state flag, nor did he know what the proper colors were, and he couldn't remember how to properly fold the US flag.)

As for the difficulty of boys coming in at different points of the year, that is why I don't want to use the already-made den meeting plans and prefer a 6 month rotation- where we do all achievements every 6 months along with an assortment of electives. For Bears we can simply alternate which set of achievements to work on each 6 months. It's trickier with Webelos because they have so much to do that I don't really want to go back and cover citizenship and fitness 6 months after the first time, but we will.

Pack meeting was tonight. We're not joining up with any pack (unless that changes). I'm webelos leader along with the cub master. Former webelos leader is now bears. Wolf leader stays the same. Bears leader wants nothing to do with wolf leader. Wolf leader has been doing nothing, tends to get sick, and refuses to plan. Perhaps this will get her to step up and do something- or the wolves may play a lot of candy crush this year. I don't know what new bear leader plans to do since she's supposedly been too sick to do scouts for the past 3 months. I asked a dad about helping with wooden projects and he would love to come help and has the saw thing that the boys need to use. Cub committee member (dictator) told us no meetings at all until she says so (not next week), yet cub master wants to start meetings next week. (Perhaps this is a difference of opinion because cub master has a webelos and cub committee member's son is in two troops, so she's not worried about her son getting stuff done- especially since he's a bear in the other troop, but only a wolf in ours. I don't know whether we should make an exception for him or not and hope none of the other boys notice.)

 

Cub committee member said she would only award the boys things that were done with the pack this summer, yet she awarded her son with one not done in the pack. She also awarded the boys belt loops that they didn't complete. Cub master asked her about it and she said to just give it to the boys anyway. later on the cub master decided to be her own self and collected the belt loops from the boys, told them we'd finish it up and would award it next time. (yay! Someone with integrity!)

 

Hey, I'm officially the webelos leader now. They told me I could go set up our den's visits with the boy scout troop whenever I wanted, so if it happens next week it's okay.

 

I really hate this. I don't think I like working with people.

Don't you have to do what you are told to do anyway. This boys parent is the "cub commissioner" and a "dictator" as you described in the other thread. Not sure what a cub Commisioner is, I assume it is a Unit Commisioner. UC has no authority in a non-LDS Unit. They can only advise. You don't sound very happy with this situation. I wouldn't be either.

I thought I'd start a new thread for this topic. We are an lds pack. Lds boys change rank on their birthdays. 8 is wolf, 9 bear, 10 webelos, and 11 is 11 year old scouts (boy scouts just for 11 year olds). We have a boy, who is in a non lds pack, so they advance at the end of the school year. His birthday is in November. He's already wearing his bear neckerchief and slide. Do we say he needs to stay in wolves until his birthday? Or make an exception, allowing him to advance to bears in our pack as well? What if another kid questions this? Just say he's an exception? We can make the exception if we want (I believe), but there's no way he can move on to 11 year old scouts until he's 11. But does it really matter because he's just going to earn stuff with his other pack? (This past year he's only earned a few belt loops and electives with us because he already did everything with the other pack.) It wouldn't be a big deal if bears and wolves were meeting combined as before, but bear leader doesn't like the wolf leader and refuses to work with her. (Should be interesting to see if the wolves accomplish anything this year.)

Pack meeting was tonight. We're not joining up with any pack (unless that changes). I'm webelos leader along with the cub master. Former webelos leader is now bears. Wolf leader stays the same. Bears leader wants nothing to do with wolf leader. Wolf leader has been doing nothing, tends to get sick, and refuses to plan. Perhaps this will get her to step up and do something- or the wolves may play a lot of candy crush this year. I don't know what new bear leader plans to do since she's supposedly been too sick to do scouts for the past 3 months. I asked a dad about helping with wooden projects and he would love to come help and has the saw thing that the boys need to use. Cub committee member (dictator) told us no meetings at all until she says so (not next week), yet cub master wants to start meetings next week. (Perhaps this is a difference of opinion because cub master has a webelos and cub committee member's son is in two troops, so she's not worried about her son getting stuff done- especially since he's a bear in the other troop, but only a wolf in ours. I don't know whether we should make an exception for him or not and hope none of the other boys notice.)

Cub committee member said she would only award the boys things that were done with the pack this summer, yet she awarded her son with one not done in the pack. She also awarded the boys belt loops that they didn't complete. Cub master asked her about it and she said to just give it to the boys anyway. later on the cub master decided to be her own self and collected the belt loops from the boys, told them we'd finish it up and would award it next time. (yay! Someone with integrity!)

Hey, I'm officially the webelos leader now. They told me I could go set up our den's visits with the boy scout troop whenever I wanted, so if it happens next week it's okay.

I really hate this. I don't think I like working with people.

Apparently scouts is back on. Cub master lady came over to tell me that we're having pack meeting tomorrow night- basically because she's the bishop's wife and could over-rule him in this matter. She says we're doing den meetings again- starting next week and we're not joining up with the other pack because they were rude and don't like us. That's her version anyway. She says she's going to do webelos and I'll just have to do wolves and bears. I don't have any plans, but I'll start making some.

Apparently scouts is back on. Cub master lady came over to tell me that we're having pack meeting tomorrow night- basically because she's the bishop's wife and could over-rule him in this matter. She says we're doing den meetings again- starting next week and we're not joining up with the other pack because they were rude and don't like us. That's her version anyway. She says she's going to do webelos and I'll just have to do wolves and bears. I don't have any plans, but I'll start making some.

I'm currently looking into temporarily joining another troop. We were originally supposed to start up scouts again this week, but now they want to look around and see if there's another small pack we could join up with, but that may be difficult if the small pack is not nearby. (With Utah church scouts we all want to be within walking distance of the meetings.) The pack we were supposed to join up with has all men leaders and we have all women leaders and that doesn't work. Hopefully this will be ironed out fairly soon, but maybe not.

 

In the meantime, My kids and I have learned to play ultimate and will have to go play a game this afternoon. After that we may have to go down to the church to play volleyball. (The pack just needed to play a game when we were told to quit meetings.)

This has gotta be the dumbest thing I have read, well next to the thermometer thing...

 

 

So either they want the boys or they don't..........There shouldn't be any conditions..... Something just isn't right.

 

 

Just get the sneaking suspicion there is much more to the story than we are hearing.

I'm currently looking into temporarily joining another troop. We were originally supposed to start up scouts again this week, but now they want to look around and see if there's another small pack we could join up with, but that may be difficult if the small pack is not nearby. (With Utah church scouts we all want to be within walking distance of the meetings.) The pack we were supposed to join up with has all men leaders and we have all women leaders and that doesn't work. Hopefully this will be ironed out fairly soon, but maybe not.

In the meantime, My kids and I have learned to play ultimate and will have to go play a game this afternoon. After that we may have to go down to the church to play volleyball. (The pack just needed to play a game when we were told to quit meetings.)

(Okay' date=' so I pay him a bean per achievement and beans can be traded in for video game time. I pay beans for cooking, cleaning, and other things too. This kid and his video game obsession get my house cleaned and the yard weeded!) [/quote']

 

We do a similar thing with our kids, it does work, but we need to get more consistent with it.

Wondering, In your program how many game minutes does one bean buy, and how much say weeding does he have to do to earn one bean? 1:1 or something else?

 

I have one list of things that can be done and how many beans are earned. There is another list of rewards and how much they cost. I leave the beans up to the child to award himself. I have not found any cause to believe that anyone is abusing the system. I am not hounded about beans.

I would ask the den leader, since that who is responsible for signing off. If the den leader is not available then, discuss with the cubmaster.

 

In my opinion, the boy shouldn't be penalized because adults get their act together, but my opinion doesn't count for beans (pun intended).

 

Maybe transfer to another pack temporarily?

(Okay' date=' so I pay him a bean per achievement and beans can be traded in for video game time. I pay beans for cooking, cleaning, and other things too. This kid and his video game obsession get my house cleaned and the yard weeded!) [/quote']

 

We do a similar thing with our kids, it does work, but we need to get more consistent with it.

Wondering, In your program how many game minutes does one bean buy, and how much say weeding does he have to do to earn one bean? 1:1 or something else?

 

8 beans buys 30 minutes of video game time. There are many rewards, that cost differing amounts. Other kids prefer to spend their beans right away- 2 for a piece of candy or 5 for a bowl of ice cream. As for awarding beans for weeds, it depends. When the weeds are tiny, they don't amount to much weight, but are easier to pull. The big ones are real heavy, but are more difficult to pull. Last time he pulled weeds I awarded 1 bean per pound. He ears a bean by cleaning a room in the house, 10 for reading the Old Testament, 8 for the New Testament, 1 for helping cook, 1 for each additional 30 minutes of piano practicing (90 is the base requirement) and 1 bean for doing everything on the daily list, which includes basic health habits, chores, school work, etc. I kinda make things up as I go along. (It's sad that one child isn't earning any beans, simply because she refuses to wear deodorant and I've even bought her various brands and smells.)

I wrote a few weeks ago about our cub pack merging with another. That's on hold, while decision makers debate on how to do this the best way. We've been told we are not allowed to hold scout meetings at all until this gets sorted out. My son is a Webelos, moving on to boy scouts in February (this is LDS scouts, where boys change cub rank on the birthday). My son's been working hard on his cub achievements and learning the boy scout stuff (for Arrow of Light). (Okay, so I pay him a bean per achievement and beans can be traded in for video game time. I pay beans for cooking, cleaning, and other things too. This kid and his video game obsession get my house cleaned and the yard weeded!) He wants to know if there can be some accommodation made for doing the requirement in a den, while there is no den- such as playing the body language game with the family instead of the den. I told him he just can't do anything that's supposed to be done in the den, but I'd check here because you guys know your stuff.

My group has earned belt loops together, mainly because the webelos have to earn it and we're doing den meeting together. The wolves and bears did earn a bunch of belt loops at camp, though I was there and they didn't actually complete all requirements, but commissioner decided to award the belt loops anyway. (Did the same with webelos' camp and activity pins.) I do LDS scouts, where boys are automatically signed up for scouts on the 8th birthday. This isn't a family decision to put the boys in scouts. Many of the boys come to scouts because that's what they're supposed to do and then they do no more scouts at home. We have to focus on just getting the rank achieved at scouts (though there's always a few requirements that must be done at home). We also have kids coming in all through the year, so we have to redo stuff. I have been trying to keep track of all the boys' progress. My son earned 3 arrow points for each rank of wolf and bear. It was mostly stuff he just happened to do- or he was bored and I suggested he look in his scout book for something to do. I saw a webelos scout at both camps (not sure how he got to go to wolf/bear camp, when he's clearly a webelos), who had about 9 or 10 arowheads for each rank, a belt full of bling, his webelos colors were full, and he had a jacket full of patches. His mom had another jacket full of patches. My guess is that mom is one of those, who is very good at motivating her boy. (Had a chat with her at webelos' camp and she homeschools her kids as well. She's also interesting and needs no motivation to talk about herself and kids.)