cubbingcarol

John-in-KC, if memory serves me correctly, a boy joining as a Tiger Cub will be in Cub Scouts 4 1/2 -5 years depending on how long it takes them to earn AOL and cross over.

You can not start work on the next rank until the boy is promoted to the next grade in school. For most this will be in late May or June. It's not secret stuff. http://scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/Awards/Boys/advancement,-d-,b.aspx The following is straight from the BSA site, Scouting.org If a boy completes the Wolf badge early, may he begin working on the Bear badge? No. In the Cub Scout program, all boys in a den work toward a badge that is geared to their level of development. If the Wolf badge is completed before the end of the program year, a boy may work on electives

Be careful not to step on toes by wanting to dictate what your den leaders can and can not do. Our Cub master lets us leaders run our dens. As long as boys are having fun and advancing we are a go without rules and regulations set forth by him. I have charged monthly den dues since I started in 2004. I use it for snacks and supplies. As far as Pack finances we sell Popcorn in fall and then do our own fundraiser in spring, these carry us for the year without charging Pack dues. As far as expecting leaders to pay out of pocket some of the time, that is a dangerous thing to do. Now I have been

I have heard the same except the last line was this... Rhyme it with soul.

Please someone end this debate, but please provide reference... How do you pronounce Powell rhymes with towel or soul? Thank you in advance! Carol

I agree with you Basementdweller. And like I said I have walked in those shoes.

Narraticong states "I have made many mistakes in my life. I am grateful that I am not made to remember them and pay for them every minute of every day." We are talking about the girl becoming a parent not getting a speeding ticket. You are a parent every minute of every day, whether or not you are 17 or 30. Her priorities are now shifted from herself to her child. Oops did I say her child, yes she will be the parent of a CHILD. It is time for her to grow up! Now if she wanted to give the child up for adoption (and that is a wonderful thing to do because so many people are not capable of having

'They are simply young, stupid, think they are invincible, and that things like that only happen to other people.' I take offense at the stupid part Scoutnut. I was one of those 'stupid' girls. You can say I used poor judgement, heck I will even say "yes it was a mistake", but stupid I am not. I did know what I had done to cause it. Now having said that, I realized like Basementdweller stated, my youth was over and adult life had started. I personally did not attempt to do youth activities. I was a parent now and I acted like it. We are in a council which supports the troop leaders

Just remember on the 'Whittlin' Chip' card for Bears, that is still optional. The boy can earn Bear and that not be one of the requirements done. Some boys will not be ready in 3rd grade either!

When will we stop rushing our kids into growing up? There is absolutely nothing wrong with holding out till 1st or 2nd grade to start boys in Scouting. And all this about well we start sports etc. in Kindergarten and 1st grade, so what, those things last 2 or 3 months tops (at a time). Scouting is a year long program. Your darn right kids (and parents) get burned out. And if we are competing with these other programs for a time slot in a busy families life then those that truly value Scouting will make time (as long as the leaders put together a well run program). So come on people and let th

I do not envy you at all. I am working on my second go round as Web. den leader with my 2nd son. I have done it all twice! I do not see how one (actually three or more adults if you follow adult to child ratio) can have all age groups at one time. The attention spans, level of understanding, need for adult participation for Tigers, etc. My hands are full with 5 boys.

The aunt/guardian of one of my Daisies told me a story of what the little girl said the other day. She said the girls little brother was having trouble opening the car door one day, she said the girl got out, went around and opened the door for him. The aunt told her she didn't have to do that, that she (the aunt) would have gotten it, the girl told her "I'm a Girl Scout and we are supposed to help others". Sniff-sniff. This is coming from a little girl whose mother abandoned her and her two brothers and is now being raised by her aunt and uncle. Her aunt says she has really has blossomed

Aquaticeagle, you are the one assuming now when it comes to popcorn selling being the norm for most units. We didn't do popcorn for several years. And were bullied into by our council the last couple of years. But that's a story for a different time. But I don't have 20+ years experience either so maybe that's my handicap. But for the last 6 years I have been involved with both my son's as den leader, committee member, married to the CM, on Round table staff, Activity Director at Day camp, nurse at Day camp for last several years, etc. Also serve on our Pinewood derby committee. Whew maybe

Not meaning to sound like a smarta#@ but why don't you just buy the boys. You know what I mean, pay the parents the $50 and I bet you'll get more boys then you know what to do with! Heck, give me $50 and I'll transfer my 2 sons registrations to your pack. Woo-hoo I'll have $100!!

I don't know about anyone else's Little League but here in our town if we as parents want our kids to have a trophy (or medals, etc.) we have to fork over extra money. Does it seem fair? Not to my pocketbook, but hey, I want my kid to get a trophy (or medal, etc.) Should I expect someone else to pay for my share? No! This isn't welfare, I signed my child up and I was made aware of the potential cost. Same goes for Scouting. If this is the way it is and I was made aware of it then I will pay, after all I signed my child up. As for our pack, we as a unit get free advancement for attending t

I must echo John-in-KC... ROUTINE ROUTINE ROUTINE With my older son's den we met the first 3 Monday's at 5:30 for 5 straight years. With my youngest son's den we did the same for first 2 years and only this year did I have to change it by 30 minutes due to a change in my work hour. People can't retort about inconsistency!

Sounds awesome! Of course I have a way to go seeing how my daughter is only 2nd year Daisy Oh well, lots of good ideas being cultivated in the old brain garden! Carol

Since we opted to start with the age separation last year I am the Daisy troop leader now in our 2nd year. We started with petals and we are continuing them this year. The next Daisy leader can work on the Journey. I have the materials but decided to just stick with the petals. The journey seems like a whole lot of storytime and gardening. Maybe Brownies will be better. Carol

Depends on what badges you are talking about. Councils or even SU (service units) or I have even seen some troops, develope there own patch programs. These can be related to a service project, museum, etc. Some patch programs such as 'Zink the Zebra' are available to girls through cancer awareness teaching. All these types have specific requirements. Now there are also fun patches and these are just that, fun. We had a 'My guy and me' pizza party, we gave those girls a patch. Had ice cream with the residents of our local nursing home, got a patch. Had a pool party, got a patch. The pat

Ahhh, but don't forget this is a *New program* year. They have introduced the Daisy Garden with accompanied 4 part patch program. Of course you can still use the old Daisy petals but they are also introducing another part of the *New program* next year. And don't forget Daisies are 2 grades in the same troop, Kindergarten and 1st grade, which makes planning next year a little more difficult in that you will have younger ones that may not be as advanced as your 2nd year Daisies. That is of course unless you have enough of one grade to sign up and then split the grades into 2 different Daisy

Our success stems from the fact (as I previously said) that we are the leaders of both pack, troop and SU. We had one GS leader who was a little standoffish at first as well as one of the den leaders but they have both come on board since. Now granted we haven't planned anything more than service projects or summertime activities, so we haven't encountered any problems with rules, regulations etc. And as far as meeting times, places we are spread out enough that we don't interfere with one another. Carol

Girl Scouts ROCK!! We have 13 girls registered in my Daisy troop. This is our 2nd year so we've had a chance to work out some kinks. I have 11 to all 13 at every meeting all the time! We meet once a week for the first 3 weeks of the month and then on the 4th week we attend the Power Hour (just like a Pack meeting). Oh BTW did I mention... GIRL SCOUTS ROCK!!! Carol

We had joint floats in the Old Settler's day parade, put flags out for Memorial day (and we will be doing that this week for Veteran's day), etc, etc. The boys (esp. the older 5th graders) have done an excellent job of showing the girls flag etiquite(?) When we had our annual Halloween Pack meeting/costume party, we had to have the girls Power Hour/costume party at the same time due to their meeting place being under construction. They had a great time together. Of course the boys (and parents of boys) are shocked by the size of our troops. We're continuing to grow, just had 2 more girls t

I have to agree to some extent. I believe family involvement is not nearly as emphasized in GS as it is BS. And men are the outsiders unfortunately. I say that but my husband is SU manager and our Brownie co-leader is an only parent father. But I do get the impression. CArol

We are the lucky oddballs here. My husband and I spearheaded getting Girl Scouts reestablished here in our town as soon as our daughter turned 5. Since he is the Cub master (and Scoutmaster) he stepped up to the Service Unit Manager position and organized it very similar to the Pack. We have monthly 'Power Hour' meetings (think Pack meeting). All the troops continue to meet weekly on our own. We had recruitment on the 2nd of this month and have been meeting since. Of course, it helped that we already had leaders for all the troops. In fact tonight was our 1st 'Power Hour' and we had 32 gi