sctmom

Somewhat related to this topic --- I just read an article about a city that has some new rules about parents at youth sports events. When the parents sign the kid up to play ball, the parents MUST attend a 40-minute class about proper conduct at the ball field before the child can play ball.

My sister (who is in her 40's) does not say the pledge because she says there is not "justice and liberty for all". She bases this on a case of a Native American who has been in prison for over 20 years and supposedly no concrete charges have been brought up against him. I can't remember his name right now. The Pledge of Allegiance is an ideal we want the country to live up to. It is true that our country may be seen as "divisible" and that there isn't always "liberty and justice for all". Most people will admit they don't always do exactly as the scout law says, they make mistakes, but s

Many of you may also be surprised to find out some teenagers don't know how to order food for themselves, even in a fast food place! Many people don't know how to send back food that was prepared incorrectly. About 20 years ago I was in a conversation with some college professors. The college offered a class for freshman that included going out to dinner to a place that you had to sit down and order. They said many 18 year olds had never even been in such a restaurant. Many children have no siblings and perhaps one parent. I know that I am guilty of letting manners slide since it's only m

I would recommend contacting the private schools. I know of one parent who tried to get our Cubmaster to do that with the school her child attended. She had joined our pack because she hunted down Scouting. Also, talk to local churches. Does your community have a community craft fair or something similiar or school fall festivals? That would be a good time to have your boys set up a display. The boys could show interested boys scout skills, have pictures of things they've done, etc. These are only my ideas, I haven't done any recruiting. I hear also that some troops have "invit

Very nice. Easy to navigate, pages load quickly even with pictures, nice use of colors and fonts. I agree with Ed, add the first name of the boys to the den pages and try to get a den group photo.

Lawyer question: If the mother has "full custody" of this child, does the father have any rights to sue on the child's behalf? Does he have any say in her education?

I find this thread interesting because my son is one of those who just doesn't want to do it. He can swim enough to play in the pool, but nothing more. I tried to get him to sign up for swimming instruction at summer camp and he refused. In the first year program they were to do some swimming last week. He says they never went near the pool. I haven't verified this yet with the adults. Since he just turned 11, I am not pushing it yet. But at some point he has to understand he must do it to advance. Until he is ready to do that, I feel my hands are tied. I think he will be like Scoutmaster

Have him clean the latrine at least once a day, from ceiling to floor.

The boys also had a new appreciation for the scoutmaster's way of waking them up. He walks around saying "GOOD MORNING TROOP" and then starts singing "oh what a beautiful morning". They decided that wasn't so bad when they could hear the troop that was being woke up by someone banging on a pot! This troop was too far away to see but you could hear that pot banging in the morning. One of the boys said "we feel sorry for that troop". A couple of the boys had a very hard time of it. Very, very homesick. Wanted to call home but the cell phones didn't work (or did they?). Scoutmasters said the

What about trying to convince your friends to get back into scouting?

Glad to hear you, your husband and the boys had a good week. Maybe the other boys will be a bit jealous and beg to go next time. My son had a great time. Not sure if he earned his merit badges or how many requirements he met in the new scout program (the scoutmasters are still sorting that out). He accomplished what I wanted him to -- "HAVE FUN". He had an "episode" after I got to the camp Friday evening, he was tired and realized he had missed mom and wanted to go home right that minute! I made him stick it out through the night, after some time alone with me talking he felt better.

Acc, thanks, you are right I meant that he said "it is about me, NOT my daughter". Guess I was so upset my fingers weren't seeing straight.

The girl's mother has full custody of the child. So does Newdow have any rights to say what happens in the education of the girl? Mr. Newdow lost all respect I possibly had for him with the statement of "This is about me now my daughter". As a parent, he should have thought about how this will impact his daughter.

Well they all survived camp. By Friday afternoon the ones that still had money were trying to bribe arriving adults into taking them home or at least let them sleep in the vehicles. They said the food was not bad and was plentiful. Yes it rained, really stormed. But that made it easier to catch the frogs! When I arrived on Friday afternoon, my son was a pro at the ax, lantern lighting, fire building and frog catching. Also, knew his way around camp and was speaking to everyone he met as we walked (pretty good for a kid that the school says has social interaction problems). About 2 hours a

Let's move this subject out of troop hats. I understand not having name tags on small children. It doesn't take long around the boys to find out the name of one or two if that is what you want to do, even without name tags. Every few minutes someone is calling one of the boys by name (usually to keep him out of danger or trouble). I would not want them worn when traveling. But at a scout event, it would help to have their first name on a small tag. Most kids end up going places in their baseball jerseys. In our area they all have their first name on that jersey until they are teenag

Here in Georgia most peopel don't have equipment for extremely cold weather camping or snow camping. Last year it got down to the around 25 one night on a campout. Luckily we were dry. Any lower than that and I think we should not camp -- because we don't have the right clothing, tents or sleeping bags. I've seen Cub Scout camping cancelled because of weather forecasts that never came true. Severe lightening, tornados, hurricane flooding, snowing -- things to cancel for.

Let me summarize what I hear Rooster saying: If Rooster is asked to say a prayer, in any setting, he will say a prayer that is meaningful to his faith and in line with his faith. If someone else is asked to say a prayer and does so from another faith, he will silently and respectfully listen. He will not expect anyone else or anyone else's child to say the exact prayer he says, especially if he does not know their faith. He would recommend his faith's prayer and explain why, but not INSIST you say it. He also will not say a prayer from someone else's religion, since that would be against

I like the nametag idea too. I cannot remember the names of all the boys AND the parents.

Yep, you better run it past that parents committee..hehehe. I think the new "low-profile" baseball caps look good and look comfortable. The problem I see with my son's troop is that the boys try to get away with wearing any hat they want. Even though they have been told and told and KNOW they will get caught and told again.

I have heard of POTUS before. At first I thought you had mistyped SCOUTS, then realized it must mean something else.

I think the idea of silk screening on the back of your existing t-shirts is a good idea. I have never done that, but sounds like a good way to continue to use the existing shirts. About the shirts being big, I have one of those 4 ft tall, 60 pound boys and he wants his shirt somewhat big but hates his troop issued adult large. It falls off his shoulders, is too much shirt to tuck into his pants and if he wears it over shorts, it comes to his knees and he looks like he doesn't have on pants! He's not the only one, there seems to be a lot of small scouts in our troop. The theory when the sh

I was contacted last night by my son's 2 grandmothers and his dad -- they all wanted to know if he had called, did I know how he was doing, did I know the weather at camp, etc. LOL So, at least my son is well-worried-about.

As a parent I would be concerned about my son joining a troop that had over 60 kids in it. Most of the reasons have already been addressed by previous posts. How well the scoutmaster can know the kids. How many kids get a chance at troop leadership. How can the kids know each other. I think Bob has a good idea about perhaps a new CO. I know in our area one of the local churches was wanting to charter a new troop. I would think that most churches would want to charter a troop as an extension of their youth ministries. Are their nearby troops that have very low membership numbers? Ma

Our troop uses wooden boxes with 2 drop sides that function as table surfaces. The legs are metal posts that slide into the handles for carrying -- 2 big boys or 4 small boys can carry this. Each patrol has a cookbox packed with campstove, cooking utensils, cleaning utensils. There is also an "adult" cookbox -- it has the coffee pot in it! After a campout, the cookboxes go back into storage (troop trailer and garage). The dishrags go home with the QM to be washed and brought back. The cookbox idea does solve the problem that someone else mentioned about the boys forgetting the frypan. Ea

Come to think of it, my mom does the same thing. I went with my son's class on a 2 night trip a few months ago. My mother emailed me to remind me to take bug repellant and rain gear! I've only been living on my own for about 20 years, the last 4 as a single mom. But I can't blame her, she learned from the best. My grandmother was the Queen of Worry. Once we were sent home from school early because of snow, my granny called to see if our mother had gotten home yet, said to call her in an hour if mother was not home. Granny lived 40 miles away with no car. My sister asked what was Granny going t