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christineka

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Everything posted by christineka

  1. So, you don't need either worksheets or the merit badge books? I am not particularly fond of worksheets.
  2. There are only older scouts. My son would be 5 years younger than the next youngest scout. The first community troop I found had only 11 year olds and so I kept looking to find a troop with a range of ages of boys. This troop is the opposite with only older boys. Next week they're doing an activity that is only for 12 and up,so my son can't participate. I do think that an active program is important. I apologize if it sounded like I thought camping and working on merit badges was not appropriate. To the contrary. They just sorta left out the part about saying the pledge or wearing any
  3. He explained the merit badge process to me and my son: go on meritbadge.org, look through the list, pick something of interest (or looks easy), print the worksheet, do the worksheet, then return it. He stated that he and a lady, who is the mother of one of the boys are emts, so they are qualified to teach first aid. he also stated he was a trumpet player, which qualified him for bugling. I asked about counselors and he said they weren't needed for most badges. His troop is of older boys. Not sure I want my barely 11 year old son around only 16-17 year old boys. They seem to be more of an
  4. How does to whole merit badge counselor thing work? I had thought the boys decided on a merit badge, then had to get a blue card and buddy, then track down a counselor, meet with counselor, get the work done, then meet with counselor again to get the card signed, then turn the blue card in to someone. Scout master guy of community troop told me last night that no counselor is needed for most badges. He said there were only a few badges that required a counselor. Is that right? I had been encouraged to become a merit badge counselor, but it seems there's no need because I don't do any of t
  5. A fourth boy will join the troop this summer. The scout leader intends to have the older three teach the younger boy when he comes into the troop.
  6. Oh- boy looked at the book. I showed him where the rank requirements were. I think he is shocked that in boy scouts he won't be awarded for every little thing he does. I've often wondered why boys start out in cubs, having to do a relatively large amount of work just for one badge (we didn't do beads), and then the year before boy scouts, get awarded for every little thing he does. It just seems backwards. I would think the younger the boy, the more immediate rewards would be needed.
  7. Thanks all! We went to the local scout shop and picked up numbers, loops, the handbook, and a second arrow of light badge. (Boy lost his between ceremony and home.) I meticulously picked out the old numbers (second hand shirt) and added the new numbers (for the lds troop) and the arrow of light. At this point, I am not sewing it on the cub shirt for a few weeks to just have to pick out the stitches to move it to the boy scout shirt. I'll move the knot when he changes shirts. The thought of numbers held on by velcro, sounded like a recipe to lose numbers. Boy has a second, slightly large
  8. The 11 year old leader talked to me yesterday afternoon. (His wife is webelos leader for the other pack that we're working with.) He's really excited and has plans to get the boys to 1st class in 6 months (I think that's what he said- it was 3 ranks, starting at tenderfoot) He asked some bgwig about merit badges and they can earn them right away. He's having the one and only current 11 year old earn merit badges right now, so that he doesn't have to repeat the rank stuff in March when two more boys come in. (I had a similar issue with webelos, with the lds way of boys changing ranks on th
  9. I was planning a trip to the local scout shop to pick up the book and whatever else was needed. His is currently a webelos, but will become a boy scout by the end of the month. We are lds and the lds troop right now has one boy in it. They largely don't even bother with uniforms. We still have to go to visit the community troop. He may join that one in addition to our lds troop, simply because the troop needs boys. If he does join both troops, which numbers should he have on his shirt? The scout master has said that the boys aren't supposed to earn merit badges until after the first ye
  10. I've got my son a tan shirt. Do I get red numbers or green/gold ones? Does he need a necker? Or a hat? I've heard variations of when he can start earning merit badges. Will he need a sash right away or not for awhile? Is the council patch the same as the cub scout one? Where do the aol and knot badges go? He can wear his cub religious knot on the boy scout uniform, right?
  11. Already thought of that- there are no boys without moms or moms that can't come at that day/time.
  12. My pack merged with another pack. Other pack does a monthly pack activity, which tends to be a themed party. Webelos are in charge this month and then the activity got switched with the pack meeting, so we have two weeks. Other webelos leader is alpha. I do what she says because there is no point in trying to argue. She wants to have a mother-son valentine's party. She's going to search pintrest for cute crafts. I'm in charge of games. I don't do cutesy putsey. I was thinking we could do mother-son sports and earn a belt loop, but that's not the kind of game she wants. Please give me
  13. Can you provide a source for this? I can't find anything online that says the belt loops are going away. It would have quite a big impact on the program - it would require rewriting a lot of the Webelos requirements and a huge chunk of the NOVA program, both of which require the earning of specific belt loops. As for whether or not it'd be a good idea - I'm on the side with others that say they should be kept. It seems that most of the arguments against them have to do with specific Pack decisions about whether or not to focus on them or how they are presented, which don't really strike m
  14. I'm waffling between being silent and going along with the way things are, or rocking the boat.
  15. What's your take on holding scouts at the kitchen table? Totally acceptable? I homeschool my kids, so sitting at the kitchen table, discussing or doing book work seems too much like school for my tastes.
  16. christineka

    Readyman

    Several of the achievements require the boy to show how to respond. That does not involve sitting in a chair! I would first teach (and probably getting some medical people out), then set up some scenarios (you can get some fake blood if you like) and have the boys show how to treat various injuries. There is some good stuff to look at in the den meeting planning guide.
  17. Apparently, we are just combining our efforts, not actually combining packs. We are still our own units. My new partner and I had to plan January meetings. She wanted to go to the newspaper and do communicator. She even asked me what other achievements I'd like to do. I looked them over and told her what I thought the boys would enjoy. She responded that she wanted to do other achievements and she already has planned what to do. Oh, well. I guess I'm just an accessory now. I'll just show up so she's got her 2-deep leadership and do whatever she asks me to do. I'm not going to fig
  18. My son plays piano and writes music competitively. We are not a sporty family. Having my son earn sport belt loops is good for him. He doesn't participate in any organized sports activities. He also doesn't go to school, so he doesn't have pe. The sport belt loops gave my son an introduction to the sports. (He was rather confused on how to play some very popular sports.) The academic belt loops, while very basic, still require effort and give the boy an introduction to the topic. My son was gun ho on belt loops for awhile, but there are several that he only completed 2 of the 3 require
  19. Our pack tends to have the boys earn hardly any belt loops until they become webelos. (Belt loops are required or an option for many activity badges.) Most of our boys and families don't even know about belt loops until the webelos year. Webelos seems to be the year of earning lots of bling! It feels a little unfair for the little boys to have to do so much and only earn a patch with some little arrow patches, that are often not sewn onto the uniform. (My son lost a few before I could get them attached.) Our younger boys only earned belt loops when we did a pack activity to earn them. (
  20. I guess things aren't as bad as they seemed The other pack only has two webelos- or had two. One had his birthday already and didn't complete aol. (Not sure if he'll be awarded webelos, since I assume he already earned it, but wasn't awarded it because he hadn't earned aol yet.) The other boy's birthday is in February and he's almost done. Then we'll have one boy move up in February. Hopefully, we can try to work together. I like to make plans and schedules for the boys to earn their rank/aol when they move into webelos, rather than get to 2 months before the birthday to then think abo
  21. I hope they figure some way of transitioning things for LDS packs. My youngest son enters cub scouts Feb 2015. I don't want him to have to change what he's doing 3 months into his scouting career.
  22. We did sit down and discuss. So far, it's mostly we do what they do. I would like for us all to sit down and read the manual/handbook and then do what it actually says. I think some disagreements would be solved by us just doing what we're supposed to, instead of each of us having our own way of doing things.
  23. We had our initial meeting tonight for our pack merger. (This is lds scouts.) The other pack does 1 pack meeting, 1 pack activity, and 2-3 den meetings per month, depending on how the weeks fall in the month. It sounds good, until they say their pack activity is usually some kind of party. I am so not into parties. It also sounds like their budget is bigger than ours and we're now supposed to be splitting the cost, except that we give 5.5 boys (one moves to boy scouts in 2 months) and they have 15. It would seem more reasonable for them to pay 2/3 and we pay 1/3. The money comes from the
  24. Thanks! I think we're going to decorate cookies and take to boys, who have fallen away from scouts.
  25. My plans need to be altered. We were going to do showman this month, but no one came last meeting and since we're going to merge with another pack next month, I see no point in starting a new badge this month. This week will be our last meeting. We're going to make pipe cleaner (borax) crystals. The boys have already earned scientist, but didn't do crystals. I want to make them because they are neat and can be delicately hung on a Christmas tree as ornaments. Other than that, I don't know what to do. I want to do something fun and festive. I have one boy, who needs to finish craftsman
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