printman31

Hello all, Last night was den meetings nights. With my tiger den we did sun prints & leaf rubbings. Most importantly we finished the bobcat requirements. The kids had a wonderful time with the leaf rubbings. Don't know how something so simple can be so rewarding to them. I think some of the parents liked it even more than the kids did. With our Weblos 1 den we finished artist badge requirements & started on fitness. We had to get these kids motivated for the fitness. They were doing these lazy half hearted push ups. My daughter was @ the meeting being very quite. She just so happens to be in a Brownie troop. So us den leaders called her up to see if she could do better push ups. She showed up those boys & they got motivated real fast into doing proper push ups. One of the boys came up and gave me a hug. That's what this is all about.making these kids happy in learning things that will benefit them for a life time.

Hello all, Last night was den meetings nights. With my tiger den we did sun prints & leaf rubbings. Most importantly we finished the bobcat requirements. The kids had a wonderful time with the leaf rubbings. Don't know how something so simple can be so rewarding to them. I think some of the parents liked it even more than the kids did. With our Weblos 1 den we finished artist badge requirements & started on fitness. We had to get these kids motivated for the fitness. They were doing these lazy half hearted push ups. My daughter was @ the meeting being very quite. She just so happens to be in a Brownie troop. So us den leaders called her up to see if she could do better push ups. She showed up those boys & they got motivated real fast into doing proper push ups. One of the boys came up and gave me a hug. That's what this is all about.making these kids happy in learning things that will benefit them for a life time.

One game that might interest you is the mouse trap game. Items needed will be 2 tables, 6-8 mouse traps & LOTS of paper. place a table on each side & set up mouse traps evenly for both tables. seperate boys evenly & have them sit in front of each table. Crumble up the paper into balls. Rules are you have to stay seated No knees, standing or squating). Each side throws paper until the other teams traps have all been tripped.

Boysmom, Have you even considered dropping PTA to do the scout mom again? It is an option if you feel that passionate about your son & scouts. I do feel your frustration. We're going through similar feelings in our pack. (see already burnt out in cub scout forum) Yes it is sad that 1 or 2 people can ruin it all for everyone. But this is the end result of being a complacent.

They probably did the age part in parenthesis because of the fact that some 10 year olds are basicly 1 year behind in school due to the cut off date for starting school. My son is one of those boys that started school 1 year late because his birthday is after the Sept deadline. Also probably has something to do with the fact that some kids are home schooled. This is just my guess as to why they added that.(This message has been edited by printman31)

Mom, I was wondering if you bothered to plan your den meetings around the schedule of the sports activities. Another option would be to team up with the Bear den instead of the Weblos II den. Your Weblos can be a benefit to the Bears just as you thought the Weblos II den can benefit your den. Ultimately it would be better to team up with the Weblos II but that's probably not going to happen.

Please let me throw in a mind bender in all of this. Which should we listen to? OBEDIENT A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he thinks these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobey them. If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. Thomas Jefferson

Another choice you have is to teach the kids different ways of starting a fire. Making fire starters is yet another option. But one thing you should consider is show the kids how to perform water filtration. If you don't know how it's real easy. Just grap some charcoal(not Kingsford)wood that's been burned in a campfire. Make sure you have no unburned wood & only that charred wood. Place the charcoal in a hankerchief & pound it into a powder. Place hankey over a container & slowly pour water over the charcoal. The water turns black but it's very drinkable. Most importantly, Don't make the hike too long if you're going to have younger Cubs.Or have an alt route where another leader can take the smaller kids back.We've gone on hikes as a pack that were setup mainly for Weblos.By the time the hike was 1/2 over.The tiger & wolf dens were so tired & turned off that they never went on another hike.

I haven't used fast track in my den. But we do use scout track. It's a nice little program that keeps all the records of the entire pack.

It doesn't matter that the flag pole was made of wood. Trees get struck by lightening all the time. Lightening will attract to the highest point in an area. Which is why they say if you're in an open field during a storm to lay flat.In this particular instance.Common sense was the order of the day. Fortunately it prevailed that day. Pete you might want to consider taking the online weather hazzard course offered on the BSA website. Now I have 1 question for you Pete. Do you know if the flag was raised after the storm passed? I'm guessing it was. http://www.scouting.org/Applications/MyScoutingFull.aspx

Thanks to all that replied so far. I have went through all the training that is required of me being the Tiger den leader. I also know that the main culprits of the hate & discontent have also went through training. The problem seems to be that those people didn't take in the values that scouting is supposed to portray. There are some good people here that only want to help the boys progress. Then we have those who think of this as some sort of position of power. They have a constant double standard in dealing with others. These kids pick up on it real quick.I already have my tigers asking me why these boys can run around & why can't they. Yes I do also have a daughter & she get's extremely bored @ these pack meetings. We also have her in the girl scouts. But her scout leader seems to be a very good leader. I'm in an urban area & the choices of packs are numerous. I'm really afraid of having my kid exposed to the same things at another pack. Money is also sort of an issue. I just paid for my 2 boys.I know if I switched packs I would only have to pay $1.00. But that really wouldn't be fair to that pack who would have to purchase all the badges for my boys. I myself absolutely won't ever again get involved in the running of any scout activities.I'm just stuck on if I should pull my kids out entirely or not.

Personally I think all those wearing a uniformed shirt should have it tucked into their pants at all times. The funny thing about it is that in our pack. The one person that goes around telling kids to tuck their shirts in. Always has their shirt hanging out. Mainly due to their obesity. Maybe if they'd stop eating McD's everyday (literally) they would probably be able to tuck their shirt in.

Hello people, I just strolled upon this forum as I was searching for scouting info. I've just started as a DL for our new tiger den. But I've been an ADL for a year now. My problem is that I'm burnt out on all this already. I was hesitant in getting involved with scouting in the first place due to the fact that anytime you get a bunch of people together. Theres always going to be butting of heads. Well the butting of heads & power trips has just gotten way out of control with this pack. It's gotten so bad that I'm seriously considering quitting as DL & pulling my kids out of scouts all together. I keep my kids away from activities now just not to deal with certain people in the pack. Funny thing is I'm not the only one who does this. Many other parents limit their Childs scout activities also because of certain people on our committee. There doesn't seem to be any course of action that can be taken against these people either. Not because they hold high ranking positions. But because the rest of the committee seem to be afraid to speak up (something I can't relate with). I was under the impression that scouting would be a good thing for my kids. And those adults would be able to put their power trips & petty differences aside for the betterment of all the kids. It appears that I was way off the mark with my image of scouting. Personally I think this pack should be shut down completely. But that's not going to happen. So the next best thing is to pull my kids from this pack. I'm undecided if I even want to put my kids in another pack or not. I've heard these same problems with other packs/troops in the area. So right now I'm leaning towards total removal. Let me apologize for venting on my very first post. But it felt good to preach to someone other than the choir.