mrwoolery

Involving parents is vital. One of the best things about scouting (from a parental perspective) is that my son and I have had more focus for our fun together. Our pack is great about giving parents the opportunity to be involved. One thing that can help is to have new parents leaf through the manual for a few minutes and pick one achievement they feel they are really well-suited to helping the kids with. You might find someone who is a chef, a carpenter, a thespian, a police officer, or an artist. Whatever! There's going to be something that person can look at and say "sure, I can help with this one." Then, get them to pick a night when they will want to work on it. It might be several nights. But if each parent is already committed from the start to helping the boys learn to do something, then each parent is going to feel more committed to showing up. For example, there's fellow in this town who can cook almost anything you can name in a dutch oven over a campfire. Amazing guy. Give him a job of teaching kids to cook that way and he'll probably have them make a pineapple upside-down cake, a main dish, and some sides. The cake is the real show-stopper. Have the kids show up early and tell everyone the boys are going to make supper tonight, perhaps assign everyone certain ingredients to bring for it. Kids learn loads, there is at least one thing to check off in the book, the parent who led that night feels a sense of ownership in the den, and the kids can't wait to see what they do next time. I'll be leading a den full of Bears next week with getting their Whittling Chip cards. As a wood carver (hobby level), I am very attached to this particular craft and want to encourage it among boys. My daughter will be present as well because I want her to learn it, too. I'm giving up my usual Tuesday plans (my wife normally takes our boy to CS) so I can do this. You bet I feel attached to the den! Anyway, while it is totally vital that kids have fun, I think making the parents feel accountable to the whole den is a part of ensuring the kids will be there. Sort of the long way around to making a short point.

Our pack does it with each den having a winner. This means that Tigers are not trying to compete with Webs. The winners from each pack can compete against one-another, though. Suggestions: 1 - decide ahead of time if non-standard designs will be allowed. There's actually a lot of good to be said about those designs, as kids will learn a bit about boat design from them. If you have big enough dens, you can run a separate race for non-standard boats. 2 - tell the parents and kids whether they will be blowing through a straw or just mouth. My son wanted to practice this year and we practiced just like last year, which was just mouth. At the regatta, the kid whose parents provided the track had also clearly practiced blowing. With a straw. If people are told early which method will be used, it gives everyone an equal chance. 3 - State the width and length of the track in the rules. My son made a boat that was too wide for the track, this year, since it was a new track (different size of raingutter). 4 - Offer prizes for best looking boats, not just the winners. Some boys put hours into their boats and should be recognized for it. Do your best to keep it from becoming too competitive. There is a book on making super-fast regatta boats (I'm pretty sure the winner used that book) and it just takes the fun out of it. My son's boat is fast because he and I spent hours working on the design. He did all the work (except a little bit of bandsawing I did for safety reasons) and he tried several versions of the sail before deciding on the one he liked best. This other kid's boat really didn't look like he'd had much input in the design or making of it. My boy was not the only one who was disappointed at this race. Kids put in time and effort to design their boats, practice with them, then someone gets tips from a book and wipes the field. Try to inspire a feeling of cooperative fun with this.

One site for a simpler version of the cookie tin banjo: http://dennishavlena.com/banjo.htm A book worth looking at is Dennis Waring's book Cool Cardboard Instruments. There are some very cheesy things in there, but also some real instruments that use cardboard. Many of these could be adapted to work well with other resonating containers. Another site to see is the Folk Urban Music site, especially the Ukulele he makes out of a cheap plastic container, a bit of foam-core posterboard, and toothpicks for frets! http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/folkurban/uke/uke.html I have made several banjos and other instruments of varying complexity. I'm not quite ready to attempt it with a mob of Bear Scouts, but perhaps next year they will be settled enough to do it. Good luck! -Patrick