christineka

I met the oldest boy just before pack meeting tonight. I handed him the rope and asked for a square knot. He was rather flustered. His mom came over and showed him. Gotta love it. He earned his aol, though and so did my son, and the younger boy. I looked into the traditional troop in town. Their oldest boys are 11. I will ask around to see if there are any other tradition troops in town.

Apparently oldest boy's family had the stomach bug, so I'm glad he didn't come. Last time he did in this situation, my family came down with it (starting with myself and my son) 2 days later. Other boy's family just forgot about scouts. I guess I'll just meet with them tomorrow to get them passed off. The latest news for scouts is that we're going to merge all under 12 scouts with a neighboring congregation, that also has a very small program, so small in fact that they only have one 11 year old scout, so my son with be with only one different boy. I was given the contact info for the non-denominational group, but the guy apparently doesn't respond to emails, so I need to remember to call sometime. I hear the troop has a lot of lds boys, who were dissatisfied with their ward's version of scouts. Now sure if I can afford to pay for regular scouts, though. I hear it's really expensive.

Yes, I realize aol is not required, but parents believe it is.

Ah, the material, well, I suppose that was fudged months ago, when they were awarded readyman, outdoorsman, engineer, and, for the oldest boy, citizenship (A number of things were left out back then.)

Last month we did all the boring boy scout knowledge stuff at den meeting, but one boy was missing. I intended to redo today, except no one came (other than my kid). Another boy needs to pass off a mental skills activity badge in order to earn aol. He was even given an exception since he's only been a webelos for 5 months. (This is LDS scouts, where he will be a webelos for a year, so we figured it didn't matter a whole lot.) Oldest boy's mother is scout master. Can she just go over the boy scout stuff with him and pass it off? He has to earn arrow of light this month, since his birthday is early January. Neither one of the moms respect that the den leader is supposed to pass things off, but I had just gotten the youngest boy's mom to accept it. She emailed just today, saying her son would come prepared to pass off scholar, but he didn't come. Should I make another den meeting for these boys? Make a personal visit to their homes? Just let moms pass off? Pass it off just before the ceremony? Arrow of light ceremony is next Tuesday night.

Thanks! I guess they just have to have a sm conference after they join the troop to earn scout? Now we have till Jan 3rd to sort out which troop the boys will join. We do have 3 webelos now, but they will not move up to 11 year old scouts at the same time. The go Jan 3rd, Feb 27th, and July 18th. I had already arranged with another leader to take my youngest boy in, when he became a lone webelos, but we should merge by then and not have to worry about him being lonely.

We do- we go by age, not school year, so wolf is age 8, bear 9, webelos 10, and boy scouts from 11-18, but 11 year olds are in a separate patrol from the rest of the boy scouts.

AOL ceremony is set of the second Tuesday of December. The 3 boys only need a scoutmaster's conference. Trouble is, we don't know who will be their scoutmaster. This is LDS scouting, where normally each congregation has their own unit, moving the boys from cub scouts to 11 year old boy scouts, and "regular" boy scouts. Our congregation does not have 11 year old scouts, so the boys will go elsewhere. We have visited the two congregations that meet in our building, but now there is a merger in place between our congregation and one that meets at the next closest building. The merger is happening, however, because they don't have many boys either. Apparently, they don't even have 11 year old scouts- same as our congregation. They do have an 11 year old boy, who will soon be 12 and a 10 year old, who will soon be 11, but they just send him to the "regular" by scout troop. (I don't know why we can't do that, too.) I have inquired of the bishop as to who will be the boys' scoutmaster, so they can have their conferences. He doesn't know. He wants to know- can the boys have their conferences with the scoutmaster of our congregation, even though we know he will not be their scoutmaster, until they are at least 12? ("Regular" boy scouts may merge too.)

He will become a boy scout on his 11th birthday, which will occur after I plan to finish showman, but before the next pack meeting.

We don't have anything for crossover. Maybe it happens on the boy scout side. So, if the boy earns showman before his birthday, can I just present the award to him at den meeting?

We don't have much time to spend on this- only 2 meetings. I have 3 boys now. (One will move next week, when we are not having scouts.) I was hoping to do the 6 in puppets and one in music and theater, but have also considered doing the 6 in music, but it won't be as fun. The boys have to write a one act play to put on as well as a puppet show. Perhaps I could give them a situation to get them started? We only have two weeks in December because things get too busy with holiday stuff. Oldest boy moves on before we'll meet again in January. Speaking of, if we do this after pack meeting (One meeting is before and the other just after) would that mean the older boy wouldn't even be able to earn the badge, if he has moved on to boy scouts by the next pack meeting? If that's so, then we can spend more weeks on this.

I wish I could cut myself off from all the rest of the committee. The committee chair (dictator) really stirred the pot. We were all fine and happy, just going along and doing scouts until she came along and started ordering us about. I try to avoid her as much as possible, but she's the one buying the awards, so I have to communicate that to her- except a lot of the time she will decide who does or doesn't deserve an award and just won't go buy it, despite the fact that I'm the den leader and if I say a boy has earned something, then she needs to go with that. Anyway, the drama continues with the transition to boy scouts... My boys have less than 3 weeks till the Arrow of Light ceremony and we still don't know which troop the boys are going to join.

^^ Yeah, the bear leader has told me all sorts of things about other people at church- including the wolf leader.

Next badge on the list to tackle is showman. Are there any great ideas of how you can get the boys to write a play (or puppet play) within a relatively short amount of time? Fill in the blanks or something? How about some easy way of making marionettes?

PS.. Seriously how many scouts AIM for earning all 134 meritbadges? In my lifetime, I have met a total of zero. I tutored a kid on bugle, whose mom ained for him to earn all 134 merit badges. Kid himself didn't. He didn't even want to play bugle. (I broke off the tutoring sessions because they were not productive, since you can't learn to play a brass instrument without practicing.)

Today's meeting was awesome. The boys had as much fun as that summer day, when we let them swim in a mud hole. I am so glad I stuck to my guns and had them make catapults! Unfortunately, I came home to find that the bear leader has been spreading lies about me. It really sucks.

You know those older boys I mentioned earlier that she has. Neither one of them did anything in either cub or boy scouts. She is not a scout person, but apparently this is the 3rd time she's been put into scouts.

I looked up the craft stick catapult. My 6 year old had to do a science experiment. (Any kind) I helped him build the catapult, then we collected stuff around the house, he hypothesized, then he flung, recorded, and analyzed. Now that that's over, he, the 4 year old, and the 8 year old are flinging more things. Catapults are super fun! Oh, I talked to the wolf leader. She says she's not mad. She just isn't sure what she's going to do, except she found some pattern for snowmen book ends and thought they'd be a nice gift, but she doesn't know where to hold scouts, and even though I already got one of her boys' parents to come to the meeting, she doesn't want to hold scouts alone, and she's so sick and tired of scouts, that she thinks she'll just not have scouts again till next month...

I am not arts and craftsy! I did the church's girl program for a year and we did one craft item the whole time. (There was only one to pass off.) I like to focus on doing things, gaining experiences, and learning by doing. Back when I was first a den leader, I had two others paired up with me. They did the craft stuff and the boring stuff (discussing choices).

I sent my apology, explanation. I hope it is accepted. This leader did nothing for 9 months, so it is really great that she's thinking up ideas, planning, and executing them for the wolves. (She only started doing it because I was instructed that I couldn't do it for her anymore and when nothing was done, parents started complaining.) Before, I was the bear leader and I could match up bear and wolf achievements and do both without any help. Now, I can't match up webelos and wolves. Maybe we could do some, if all the boys were starting at the same point, but they aren't. My boys have almost earned their aol. One boy is about to move on to boy scouts and so I want to finish up the badges we've started. I don't have time to meander about the book. The bear leader and wolf leader are currently in the middle of a neighborly feud and therefore cannot meet together, so the scoutmaster took pitty on the wolf leader and told her she could meet at the same time/place as webelos. On that first meeting, the wolf leader told me she wanted to do joint gathering activities and opening ceremonies. I said that was fine- meaning- as long as it's what the webelos are doing, I can bring some more for the wolves, especially considering the fact that wolf leader couldn't show up on time to save her life. For the last few meetings, I've brought the gathering activity, started all the boys on it, then wolf leader shows up 10 minutes later with her gathering activity and she insists on finishing it! So, we do the opening 30 minutes into the meeting and then we're scrambling to finish our main activity! The last few meetings she even wanted to combine the main activity. I had to put my foot down to say, "no- We are doing webelos over here and you can go over there to do your thing." I have a boy, who just earned his webelos last week, who would not have earned it if we had done the awesome activity the wolf leader planned. Her activity was a great one! She brought her police officer husband to talk with the kids and do some activities. I do not deny that it would have been beneficial for my webelos, too- it just wasn't on track for what they needed to accomplish that week. I hope she understands that this isn't about her. I like her just fine. I just don't want to combine scout activities with her.

I seriously wonder why the practice of having ladies as den leaders. I think the boys would have much more fun with guy leaders. I try, I really do, but I know that guys would let loose and allow the boys more fun.

Yep. #2 (#1 is not in the household) is 18 or 19? and #3 is 13. Both of those boys have diagnoses and have obsessions with video games and movies.

I saw the catapult at roundtable. You take a block of wood (I have a bunch left over from finishing the basement.) Then you screw a small block on top of it. (We'll have to cut that small bit.) Then glue a clothespin on top, gluing a craft stic to that, with a plastic bottle top on the end. I'm still debating about what to launch. Maybe I'll bring a few different things for launching and the boys can test to find out which materials fling best. We could even make a science experiment out of it. As for minecraft, I have some issues with it. I teach the 4-5 year old class at church. I have had some major issues with one particular boy. (I suspect a number of special needs, such as add, odd, and asperger's, but mom doesn't believe in labels.) I babysat this boy one day. He showed up with the ipad. He played it nonstop for 5 hours! Finally, he had to go to preschool and his teacher, having great authority made him leave it behind. I turned it off. After preschool. the boy displayed his odd behaviors. Fortunately, my kids started music practice, which calmed him down considerably. At church, if he colors the picture I bring, he turns it into zombies. I realize zombies are the big thing these days, but they are not appropriate in a church class of 4 and 5 year olds. Anyway, fortunately, I have not heard anything about zombies at scouts. I've only heard about mario kart. (Interestingly enough, the mother of this little boy is the wolf leader.)

LDS rules state 2-deep for everything.

I had been holding webelos in the same place, same time as the wolves, so that we have two adults in the room. This week the webelos are going to complete our last project (wood) for craftsman. We need tools, so we need to go to someone's house. I asked around. The wolf leader heard about it and told me she had tools and we could do something together- wolves and webelos. I told her what I had planned. She didn't like it. She wants to make a beautiful Christmas decoration and spent time last week, searching pintrest to find something. I don't want to do that, so I spent the week finding somewhere else to hold webelos. We are going to make catapults. The boys will absolutely love them. They will be fun to play with. I even mentioned it to my husband and he told me all about the time his den made catapults as webelos. (He went on and on- and 30 years have passed since he was a webelos.) I know this is a project the boys will enjoy! I've got webelos all set. I will have 2 other adults present (we're holding the meeting at their house). The wolf leader is now unhappy because I don't want to have scouts with her. She was real excited about making her Christmas decoration. I see no reason why she can't hold wolves herself (with a parent volunteer) and they make a beautiful Christmas decoration, while we make catapults. Any good ideas on how to smooth things over with the wolf leader? Please don't tell me I should just make the Christmas decoration with them. We already made boring Halloween decorations for artist. PS- The bears and wolves will not combine because bear leader refuses to do anything with the wolf leader. They are involved in a neighbor feud.