Seven year olds in the Wolf Den?

[Eamonn]

I know that I can be confused without too much effort. But can you have seven year old Lads in the Wolf Den. I thought that seven year old boys were Tiger Cubs.

If we have seven year old Wolves don't we end up with Webelos Scouts that earn the Arrow Of Light at nine and a half?

Just Checking.

Eamonn

[ambana]

Yes you are correct,6yrs tiger,7 wolf,8 bears,9 weblows 1st year,10 second year. Because all birthdays are not all the same.There could be 9 and half year olds with the arrow of light.kinder starts at 5 yrs old,so first would be 6 and that is the the grade they can become a tiger.Now I dont know what state you are in, so it could be different where you are.But that is how it is in CA.My eldest son is 10 and got his arrow of light in june.

[cajuncody]

My 7 year old is also a Wolf. BSA describes a Wolf as "an 8 year old or a boy who has completed First Grade." (A Cub Scout who has completed first grade (or is age 8) works on 12 achievements to earn the Wolf badge.) Now on that note, my youngest will be an 8 yr old wolf because the timing of his Birthday puts him in Kindergarten the same year he turns 6 as he won't be 5 by the cut off date but turns 5 in January. (This adventure with him begins with Tiger Cubs - a program of exciting indoor and outdoor activities just right for a boy who is in first grade and/or is 7 years old.)

Kristi

[cubbingcarol]

You have to look at your school district's cut off age/date. Down here in this part of TX, our cut off date for kindergarten is Aug 31. If the boy is 5 on Aug 31 then he may attend kindergarten (or be held back if the parent so chooses). That would put him in Tigers at age 6, Wolves at 7, etc. My son is 7 and is in the Wolves, in fact, he will earn his Wolf badge before turning 8, but only by 2 months. And then I have twins, that just turned 8, in the Wolves. Their parents chose to hold them back because they were born in later Aug.

 

Carol

[Laurie]

Yes, Eamonn. Seven is the norm for Wolf Cubs. Eight for Bear Cubs. Nine for first-year Webelos, with some turning 10 in that second year prior to bridging and some turning 10 after bridging. I have one of each, and it all depends upon when their birthdays fall.

[zippie2223]

September 31 is our school cut off date. My son is six and a wolf cub. He turns 7 on the 25th of September.

[Eamonn]

Thanks for the help. I have spoken to Her Who Must Be Obeyed and she has tried to explain the workings of the School District.

I tried my best to look as if I was getting it!!

Eamonn.

[johndaigler]

(This message has been edited by johndaigler)

[FScouter]

"My son is six and a wolf cub."

I don't get it. Your boy is six and completed the first grade already??

Cajuncody quoted the rule as age eight or completed the first grade. What's the straight scoop here? Eamonn, if you understand this, I'm really in a sorry state.

 

[Eamonn]

Hey Zippie explain that to me.

I was having problems with six year old Tigers.

At this rate you will have a seven year old Bear

A eight year old Webelos Scout and he would go into Boy Scouts at nine?

Help??

Eamonn

[cajuncody]

I too am having problems seeing a 6 year old as having completed First Grade It gets even worse as you go. That would put the future high school graduate at a very young 16 if my math hold true. This must be wrong.

Cajun

[Bob White]

This is nothing new. I started first grade at age 6, and that was several years ago. If your birthday is in the Fall (as mine is) you began first grade as a six year old. I started cubs in second grade (there were no Tigers then). Although I would have been 7 when I started second grade I turned 8 in November(pack meeting was canceled due to Kennedy's assasination that day) so I had to wait until the December meeting to join.

 

So it is very feasible to have 7 year old Wolves at this time of year. If they have a birthday between now and The end of February they will cross to Webelos at 11 years of age.

[scoutmom]

My son has a summer birthday and started Kindergarten at age 5. In our school district the rule is that you have to be 5 by the cut off date which is the end of September. So you might have one kid who is 5 on September 30, who is permitted to attend Kindergarten and another child who's birthday is October 1 who has to wait a full year.

 

He joined as a Tiger Cub in the First grade at age 6. He was a Wolf at age 7, Bear age age 8, earned his Webelos rank at 9 and the Arrow of Light and crossed over to the Troop at age 10. He had his 11th birthday 2 weeks before his first summer camp experience. So..... six year old Tigers?, 7 year old wolves??? Yeah, it happens ...... probably happens a lot.

[SR540Beaver]

Typically:

 

5 yrs old - Kindergarten - too young to join

6 yrs old - 1st grade - Tiger

7 yrs old - 2nd grade - Wolf

8 yrs old - 3rd grade - Bear

9 yrs old - 4th grade - Webelos 1

10 yrs old - 5th grade - Webelos 2

11 yrs old - 6th grade - Boy Scouts

[NJCubScouter]

Zippie, Cubbingcarol, Bob (and a few others, it's getting complicated to figure out who) are correct. In a unit that goes by grade in school to determine the joining requirements (which to my knowledge, means almost all units not chartered to the LDS church), it all depends on the cutoff date for starting kindergarten (or first grade). In my district the cutoff is Oct. 1 (one day later than in zippie's.) To my knowledge, all schools in the U.S. start kindergarten at age 5 -- but what that means is that if you are born between the first day of school and the cutoff date (in other words you were born in September), you are actually starting kindergarten at age FOUR -- or more precisely, 4 years, 11 months and some number of days. Zippie's son, born Sept. 25 (and assuming school started Sept. 1 in the year he turned five), started kindergarten at 4 years, 11 months, 7 days. Then, assuming for simplicity that school ends on June 30, he finished first grade 22 months later -- at 6 years, 9 months, 6 days (please don't fault me if I am one day off.) That is the day he will be (or in this case, was) eligible to begin working on Wolf requirements. Even if things do not "get going" until September in his pack, he is still a 6-year-old Wolf for several weeks. (By the way, cajuncody, by my math, zippie's son will still be 16 when he STARTS 12th grade, but when he completes it (assuming June 2015) he will be 17 years, 8 or 9 months.)

 

Now, one might say, hey, wait a minute, does that mean you can have FIVE year old Tigers? Yes, it does. Just subtract a year from all of my math about zippie's son, and he started first grade several weeks short of his sixth birthday -- or in a unit that gets going at the beginning of the summer, he could have been almost 3 months short of his sixth birthday. That is not a fluke, it is what the rules say, combined when school starts and ends, and when the cutoff date is, in a particular school district. If the cutoff date is Oct. 1, and school starts Sept. 1, then one-twelfth of all children -- a small but not tiny percentage -- will start school when they are 4, meaning that they can (briefly) be 6-year-old Wolf Cub Scouts.

 

This, by the way, is the main reason why, when someone has brought up the idea of starting Tigers in Kindergarten -- to match what the Girl Scouts so with their Daisy program -- I have questioned whether it would be a good idea. It would mean you could theoretically have a Tiger who is FOUR -- though weeks (or at most about 2 months) short of his fifth birthday. That doesn't seem like such a good idea to me -- and evidently not to the BSA either, since they have not adopted this suggestion.