Scout skipping a grade...

[Eagle92]

Base,

 

The conflicting age requirements come form a variety of official sources.

 

SOURCES not listing an age for completing 5th grade

 

1) BSHB

 

2) http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/joining.aspx

 

Sources listing 10 and completed 5th.

 

1) http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/524-406a.pdf'>http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/524-406a.pdf adult application

 

2) http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts.aspx Info page on Boy Scouts

 

3) http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/524-406a.pdf This is apparently a working copy of the youth application from June 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

[Basementdweller]

Makes me laugh......

 

 

Irregardless I would keep the young man with his friends.

[kari_cardi]

Does the registration process have any sort of quality control? If an app for a 9yo 6th grader is submitted for a Boy Scout troop, will the system spit it back out or accept it, I wonder. Who wants to volunteer to try it?

[ScoutNut]

Have you all considered that the only thing that the "conflicting" quotes need to make them the same as the must be 10 quotes, is simply a comma?

 

"Be a boy who is 11 years old, or one who has completed the fifth grade or earned the Arrow of Light Award and is at least 10 years old, but is not yet 18 years old."

 

or

 

Be a boy who is 11 years old, or one who has completed the fifth grade or earned the Arrow of Light Award, and is at least 10 years old, but is not yet 18 years old.

 

 

In the second version the comma makes it clearer that if you are not 11, but have EITHER completed 5th grade OR earned AOL, AND are 10 years old, you can be a Boy Scout.

 

Punctuation is not always a strong point in any publication.

 

I believe that Scoutnet would not allow your council registrar to put in a birthday for a Boy Scout that would make him less than 10 years old. You can check with your council registrar to verify.

[K1986]

Thanks everyone for your comments and support, I think we have a solution. As far as age goes he will be 10 when it is time to cross over to boy scouts a few years down the road. He only missed the age cut off of December 1st to start Kindergarten by 18 days, so he is already the same age as the current wolves. We have talked to his parents and decided that since he is done with his Tiger badge, they are going to spend the rest of this school year until June first working on the Wolf badge. We will not rush him through it, we will go at a good pace and if he gets it all done by June first he can be awarded it. Either way on June first he will become a Bear with his cousin and friends so that his grade matches up with his scout rank.

[IshanOrange]

Could you skip all of Cub Scout and go directly to Boy Scout?

[Sentinel947]

Could you skip all of Cub Scout and go directly to Boy Scout?

Yes. At age 11. 

Edited June 24, 2016 by Sentinel947

[King Ding Dong]

Depending on the troop some boys not quite 11 are allowed to camp with the troop in the spring as guests, just no advancement takes place until they are able to join officially. YMMV.

[perdidochas]

I know I can call my local council and find out but I was wondering if anyone knew the answer off hand. I was told tonight that one of my scouts will be skipping the second grade, he is a tiger right now in first grade. He will be moving right onto third grade next year. If he skips school grades does he skip scouting levels? Can he start with the Wolf badge June first and when he finishes begin working on his Bear? He is the only tiger in his den and would be alone as a wolf next year too, I have six current wolves that would be bears next year. He is very mature for his age, knowledgeable and a good listener. Let me know what anyone knows about how this works. I've never had this kind of situation before. Thanks!

 

Up to the parent, IMHO. 

[Zaphod]

So how long before we have a home schooled 8 year old eagle???? Brings us back to the argument for a minimum age for eagle

 

We had a large percentage of homeschoolers in our Pack and this caused issues sometimes. Grades are very fluid in homeschooling and parents sometimes think because their 6 year old is doing 3rd grade math and reading that makes them able to skip ahead. This is most common for Tigers when parents decide it's easier to skip to Wolf than have to attend every den meeting. I homeschool myself so I know it's very often the case that these kids are advanced for their grade level, but it doesn't automatically make them a good fit maturity-wise. Plus, homeschoolers often have very different motivations for joining Cubs than school parents. After being with their kids all day they want to give them a chance to learn from someone else, learn how to behave in a group setting, and socialize with other kids without their parents hanging around. 

 

We don't tell parents what to do with their kids but we put in a rule that these parents must be involved in some other way if their son is Tiger age (although they are used to that and generally don't mind helping out in other ways). Also we always explained the possible difficulties that might arise when joining Boy Scouts but that hasn't made anyone think twice yet.... 

 

Update: I didn't realize how old this thread was but the idea still applies!! Let parents decide!

Edited June 24, 2016 by Zaphod

[meyerc13]

I realize this is an old topic, but thought I'd put my experience out there for others to read in the future.  My son started the first grade in the fall of 2012, when he was about a week shy of being 7 years old (with an early September birthday, he missed the cutoff by about a week to be a first grader in 2011).  In the fall of 2013, a couple of months into the school year he was moved from second grade to third grade.  At that point, he was working on his Wolf.  As his parent and Cubmaster, I had to decide what would be best for him.  We decided to keep him with his Wolf den, since those boys had been his friends for two years through Kindergarten and First Grade.  Also, this gave him a chance to experience the entire Cub Scout program.  I knew that LDS units do both Webelos and Arrow of Light in a single year, so our plan was for him to work hard once he hit Webelos to finish both Webelos and Arrow of LIght requirements in a little less than a year, so he could crossover into a Scout Troop.

 

So it went something like this:

• 1st Grade (age 6-7) - Tiger
• 2nd-3rd Grade (age 7-8) - Wolf
• 4th Grade -  (age 8-9) Bear
• 5th Grade - (age 9-10) Webelos I and Arrow of Light, crossed over in April to Boy Scouts after earning his Arrow of Light, at Age 10.

This worked well for our son, but every situation is different.  For Cub Scout leaders who encounter this situation, work with the parents on what is best for the boy.  In our case my son's friends were in his old den, and nobody from his new class was in the next den so it didn't make sense to move him.  For others the situation might be different.