christineka

That is what I thought, but from asking parents around town, it seems this practice of the scoutmaster keeping all the blue cards, even though they haven't been finished, is normal in at least my town in Utah. Since my son is 11, he usually doesn't do much with scoutmaster, but we are all in the church choir together, so I guess I'll just have my son ask scoutmaster after every choir practice for his blue cards back.

We have a problem. My son wants to work on merit badges. His 11 year old leader (LDS troop) lets him have his blue cards, so he can contact the counselor himself and work on badges outside of scout meetings, except when the counselor tells him "no" because he doesn't want to counsel only one boy (with buddy). (I counseled my son on that one to just complete the requirements first with documentation, then contact the counselor.) He sometimes has to deal with the scoutmaster, however. Scoutmaster will not allow boys to have blue cards. My son has several partial badges that he would like to finish up, but without the cards, we do not know who is the counselor, how to contact them, nor which requirements still need to be completed. Yesterday, I had to beg to get just one of them back, because there's a field trip today and the card needs to be signed. Both my son and I have asked for the swimming card several times. (Started that in June) No card has yet to be given to him. The boy even asked for a new card, so he could begin the badge over again, but that hasn't worked either. Due to a recent merit badge pow wow, he is almost finished with several badges and would really like to get them finished. (Especially right now, when he's not busy with school.) Is there anything a parent or boy can do to change the policy of holding blue cards out of reach of the boys? I understand that a lot of boys lose things (mine included), but a boy scout needs to learn responsibility anyway. Why can't a boy keep his own blue cards so that he may work on badges outside of scout meetings?

I am very willing to help, but I need communication from the leader in order to do so. (I do not have the ability to predict what boys will be working on, without it being communicated the regular way to me.) I have tried to get his teachers at church to work with me on making church classes accessible, but either they believe he can just miss out, or they don't believe his vision is a problem, because he does have some. When I was his teacher at church, I'd doctor those coloring pictures to work for him (add puff paint along the lines.) Now that I'm not his teacher, I can't predict when they'll have a coloring picture.

My little boy will soon be 8 and join cub scouts (LDS). I'm starting to worry about him. He is legally blind, which means that he has vision, but it's poor enough for the blind status. He can read really, really large print or braille and he writes in braille. Distance vision is pretty bad, too, though he runs around, like a regular crazy, wild kid. He gets really frustrated when attempting to play sports with balls as he can't see the ball until he's close to it. He likes to keep up the impression that he's like everyone else, so at church he pretends he doesn't like to color, so as not to let on that he just can't see the lines well enough to color between them. This will be the first time the kids at church will really see my son's disability and I don't want my son hurt by others thinking he's so much more different. At the same thing, I would want the leaders to make scouts accessible to my son. (Let me know before they do writing, so he can bring in a slate and stylus or brailler or play sports with a belled ball, etc.) Is this reasonable for the the leader to work with me on making scouts accessible? My son has no developmental issues, so I don't think the special needs pack would be as appropriate for him as the regular one. Do you have any insight on having a blind boy in cub scouts?

I'm a bugling merit badge counselor and believe all boys should take it up! In reality, though it's not very popular. My son, however earned the merit badge and was/is troop bugler. He's only 11, though and not the most outspoken of boys. Despite the fact that he learned to play all of the required bugle calls, I'm pretty sure that the only one he's ever played as troop bugler is reveille. (There were a lot of complaints.) I found that the Rexcraft bugle is missing the low c, that's needed for "Call to Quarters". I ended up buying a gunga din style bugle for cheap, but it's pitched in b-flat as opposed to the rexcraft's g, so it's harder to play. (I know my son can't play high g on a b-flat instrument.) A boy could simply use a trumpet (or cornet) and press down either 1 and 2 or 3 to play in g and still have that lower note.

I checked the handbook and didn't see anything about the sash. When does my son wear his sash? I'm sewing his first round of badges on it tonight. (I knew he didn't need to wear it when it was void of patches.)

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/09/29/2015-16-cub-scout-requirements/ I'm still looking through the program. (Halfway through bear right now.) I like the way the program looks for my boy, but it looks like more work than the current program! Maybe it's just different. I'm glad to see more emphasis on the out doors. My little boy will join wolf this February and then do the new program for bears, I guess. My husband was excited by the "Cyber Chip".

That's what I thought, too.

Thanks. I don't care whether extra training is required or not. I'd like it, so I know how I'm supposed to do this. The rules say one thing, but the scoutmaster asks for another and I don't know! The trainer guy the other night explained to me that the rules change for each chartering organization, so if the chartering organization wants to do merit badges one way (different from the rules), you go along, but might point out what the rules actually say.

I have been told in this forum that there is merit badge counselor training that is required. Tonight I went down to the district training and told them I wanted to take the merit badge counselor training. The guy over training himself told me there was no such thing as merit badge counselor training- since merit badge counselors should be experts on their subjects. (Gotta laugh at that, since I know the scout leader made himself merit badge counselor of several eagle required badges, simply because that was easier than finding a counselor.) I told him I wanted to be trained in the counseling aspect, not the badge subject matter and that I'd heard there was merit badge counseling. He then told me that if there was such a thing, it would be offered next training. Is there any such thing as merit badge counselor training? Is there some link, showing there is such a thing?

The assistant commissioner/scout leader told me that the rest of the merit badge counselors are not registered, which is why they weren't on the list, but boys have been going to them. (I know it took him about a month to figure out who was counselor for chess and game design.) The ass. commissioner's wife is doing pet care, so not sure if she's now registered or he just picked her because she knows a lot about caring for pets. Or maybe it really is a simple case of not having a list of registered merit badge counselors and they are registered and there's a whole lot, but for whatever reason this information is secret? The scoutmaster has been in for over a year and he didn't know of any merit badge counselors until I told him I was one. I don't think the troop has had any eagle scouts in that time, but I can't imagine that the only badges they've earned were at camp. my son and I visited a community troop, where the sm said no merit badge counselor was needed for most badges. He told me he even signed off a boy for bugling (who I tutored and happened to know could barely bugle one call) because once upon a time, in his youth, he'd played trumpet. I think I will make some inquiries. I've still got to figure out if they'll do the merit badge counselor training at the next leadership training night.

I'm just a mom. I go with what my son's scout leader tells me. His scout leader is the assistant district commissioner, so he has access to all sorts of information. He was the one that related to me that there were only two registered merit badge counselors in the district, which is now why I'm so popular with Family Life. I wish i'd known it was eagle required, when I put it on my list! I had originally only wanted to sign up for bugling because I know no one else does it in the area, but my dad (old guy scouter) encouraged me to sign up for more. Scoutmaster told me and dad that he didn't know of any merit badge counselors in the area other than me, which makes me wonder how the scouts are earning all their badges! (I know they are earning badges.) In case this is confusing- we're lds. My son is 11, so he does scouts with an 11 year old leader and other 11 year old boys (11 year old patrol). Scoutmaster is primarily over the 12-18 year old boys. In googling, it seems the council discourages boys from using the same merit badge counselor for more than 5 badges.

The state of merit badge counselors in my area is pretty pitiful. Most of them are not registered and so it's hard to figure out who is a counselor for what. I have been told by scoutmasters that you don't even need a counselor for most badges- just fill out the workbook and the scoutmaster can sign you off. I know that's not how it's supposed to be, but it happens a lot.

True. As a former den leader and Webelos leader, I only had experience with the parents, who wanted the boy to earn as much as possible, by doing as little as possible. The one family now has their 11 year old doing double-duty at scouts (going to the 11 year old meeting as well as the 12+ meeting) so that he can earn more badges and move more swiftly through the ranks. The webelos leader before me had that attitude as well and never read the book- only used summary sheets and work sheets, which were lacking and slacking in the requirements, so the boys just older than mine have had that experience as well. The kid, who came to me yesterday for counseling really didn't seem to want to participate in the discussion at all. I wonder if he's ever worked on a merit badge outside of the troop meeting. (He only came because he forgot to go last week.) I subscribe to having the boys do what they are supposed to- no more, no less. I'm a rule follower, but still learning about all this scout stuff.

I would like to point out, that despite the fact that I am here, asking questions, I am not one of those moms that baby's my boy or pushes him to do things he does not want to do (other than the usual stuff that moms remind their kids to do.) I do not follow my kid around to campouts or plan his menus for him or do his merit badges. I won't even call his counselors for him. (Unlike some other parents, who have brought the boy to me and done all the talking for arranging to meet me for counseling.) I am a believer in my son earning merit on his own.

I am not the leader, who is approving my son to work on all these merit badges, but several of them take a long time of doing something pretty standard. Right now the boy is practicing cornet, so that he can play the bugle calls. He's taking car of the cats for pet care. (This is a 4 month long requirement.) His leader has now approved Family Life, so he's got to do and track his 5 chores for three months. He's also got to find a scout to play one more game of chess with him, and he's working on game design for a school elective. II don't think it is off the wall crazy for a boy to do chores, practice music, and playing games. He started swimming at camp and didn't finish. He wasn't given his card or told about a counselor in town, so he's not actively working on it. He has the card for personal fitness, but hasn't called the counselor yet.

This is lds scouting. The boys won't be changing units, unless they move. The sm used to be cub master. I know he has never felt the need to go through training or even read his "job" description. He means well, though. My son is 11 and in lds scouting, that's a whole other patrol. His leader gives him the blue cards. He went to scout camp with the sm and older boys and he does not have his blue cards at all. One of his badges wasn't even finished. I don't know how he's supposed to finish up if he doesn't have his card, saying what he has left to do.

It was also really hard doing this as a group. It shouldn't have been done as a group in the first place. I'm just too easily shoved around because I've got no backbone. This kid in particular needs personal (with a buddy) time with a counselor, not to attempt doing badges in a group.

Thanks. The assistant commissioner is my son's leader, so I shot an email over to him to ask about this.

Thought I'd just change this first post. I have looked into the matter and now have new respect for scouts with special needs. There is no altering badges at all. There can be badge substitutions for earning rank, but nothing else. Wow! I will call the sn scout's mother to see what we can do to help her son earn family life, if that is really something he wants to do. (The scoutmaster does not ask the boys what they want to work on- he picks badges for them.)

Hey, if this is the way it's supposed to be, that's fine. I just thought I'd ask to see if it was really a rule. I'm not the kind of person that's going to change merit badges in order to have my son do lots of them with me. I don't plan on ever changing them. I don't care who the merit badge counselor is, either. He likes the adventure of meeting someone else to work on merit badges. (He's working on 5 other badges that I don't do- only one of mine right now.)

Thought I'd report back, since it was tonight. I am a wimp, so after going over the badge, I handed out the blue cards (next time, I won't accept them, since the boys are supposed to get them from sm, not from mb counselor), the chore charts (I told them they could make their own), and papers for brainstorming project ideas and making a family outline. Doing that took a considerable amount of time, then we discussed number 1 and number 7. I made sure that everyone participated. The boys wanted me to keep their cards, but I put my foot down and told them to keep them, so they gave them to a leader, who will give them to sm to keep. I thought the boys were supposed to keep those cards. My son keeps his. Anyway, I doubt they will all finish the projects and chores at the same time, so they'll just have to get a hold of me in the buddy system next time.

Oh- and as I said before- he doesn't want to do all 7 that I do either. He completed 2 (music and reading- both because he figured they'd be easy- they still took him several months to complete), he's still working on 1 (bugling, because playing bugle calls is hard. He started playing cornet 10 months ago.). He wants to do genealogy and family life (I told him all that it entails, telling him it's a lot of work, but he said if it's required for eagle, he'd like to get it over with). The other two on my list are safety and traffic safety. He's not interested in those.