What to do about "Cub Book Work"

[5yearscouter]

The den meeting resource guide especially for Bears seems to be written by a school teacher, rather than a fun den leader.

It is full of send this home as homework, do this worksheet in a meeting. It is NOT FUN!

Everything in the Bear book that is required can be done with very little write, sit and talk about it, worksheet, homework.

Break it up, if it's something to write, turn it into the fastest group writing project done as a group as gathering activity. If it's talk about it, do a very fast talk about one point right after you do a hands on flag ceremony, turn it into charades or role playing activity, a skit, add a song, joke or make something to liven it up.

 

" Bear 5,8, emergency phone numbers AGAIN (are there really communities without 911 ? ) 11 be ready AGAIN, 13 spending, chart chart chart, bike safety AGAIN, 17 they do this at school, 18 jot it down, school, 19 -24 ok now this fun. Go to a library ?"

 

5 is sharing your world with wildlife you need to do 4--so make a birdhouse, go to the zoo or a wildlife center, and talk to a wildlife officer. bring in some info about endangered species and toss it all out and make a group poster if you have to. that's 4, right? no homework, no sit and fill out a worksheet.

 

8, skip it and do something else, since they only have to do 4 out of the 6 choices. or go to a newspaper office and look up some history about your town(ask the newspaper people to find a couple of articles ahead of time. or make a scrapbook page/poster about all the silly guys in the den do the character connect right after a flag ceremony where you have their attention, or have the person at the newspaper office talk about the stuff with them.

 

Have a fireman or police man talk about the safety stuff, the uniform makes them pay more attention.

[5yearscouter]

the above I tried to post several times yesterday but it wouldn't go thru. came back and it was saved so I posted it.

for the write stuff ones in bear, combine the scrapbook, history of the area or pack, jot it down, go to the newspaper office, all those into one meeting and one outing--make a den newspaper and go to the newspaper office and see if they'll give you enough newsprint (or buy some) that you can cut up to fit in your printer to make it look like a real newspaper. pass it out to the whole pack about what the bears are up to, picture of the whole den, history of something or other, upcoming events, whatever. make it fun or don't do it.

 

Since the new cub scout resource book came out I have had 2 dens use the Bear pages very strictly, right out of the book, lots of things sent home as homework, lots of sitting down and working activities for the den meetings. Both dens started with 8 and ended with 2 scouts. They were bored to tears! In the same time period, dens who used the resource book, plus the old program helps, and some hands on activities from old pow wow books, the ones who searched thru all those resources for adults but only stopped at the pictures of things to do or things to build ad ignored most of the words except a few silly songs or skits--those dens started with 8 and went UP in size (stopped them at 13 and those 13 in one den crossed to boy scouts together). Sure maybe it was totally the personalities of the people in the den and the den leader, or maybe not. Both sets of dens had similar numbers of adhd boys, and involved or not involved parents.

 

I really think that new resource needs to go away. who wants a theme of responsibility?Even boy scouts have better themes than that. when the same thing can be taught with a theme of Hometown Heroes with a focus on fire and police and first aid? they are adding those as ideas for pack meetings, but it needs to go all the way back down to the den level.

[suzisk8]

KDD, for the family section, I gave that to the boys to do with their families. They are getting older, and heck, I trusted them. I didn't use the guide. My old Pack was big on the Character Connections, and if an achievement had a connection tied to it, I correlated that to the correct month. What I did was always double dip. If there was a possibility of a belt loop being earned, I would do that achievement. I know there is one that you do a couple of sports, I think it is 15? Had the boys play kickball and softball. I found my old softball and the boys got a kick out of that. I also tied in 24 into new boys coming into the Den. There are numerous ways to combine.

[mashmaster]

I don't have a problem at all with the book stuff you refer to. We do present and talk about them in different ways than what is in the book. I do den leader training and instruct the new leaders to drop the den leader resource guide in the trash.

 

For example, the food pyramid or "myplate" stuff goes much better when you have two bagged lunches, one happy meal and one brown bag healthy lunch. Then explain that the happy meal has been on the counter for a week. The boys really react well to that.

[King Ding Dong]

I don't have a problem at all with the book stuff you refer to. We do present and talk about them in different ways than what is in the book. I do den leader training and instruct the new leaders to drop the den leader resource guide in the trash.

 

For example, the food pyramid or "myplate" stuff goes much better when you have two bagged lunches, one happy meal and one brown bag healthy lunch. Then explain that the happy meal has been on the counter for a week. The boys really react well to that.

Lol. The requests or McDonald's have gone way down once I banned happy meals. All they really want is the crappy toy.

[Sidney Porter]

the bike safety quiz' date=', bike safety AGAIN, [/quote']

I don't have a problem with the bike stuff being repeated. It is really one of the first ways that a kid can really be independant. It is also a great teaching vehicle on taking care of stuff and how it works mechanically. There is risk involved with it a bike is going to lose any battle with a car, I think it takes hearing this more than one time for some kids. Both times we did it it was part of a bike ride. The first time was an a dirt trail so they got to experience a little bit of mountain biking. For about 1/2 of the kids it was the first time there ever rode off of their street. The 2nd time was on a paved bike path that crossed a lot of streets it was picked to give them practice with interaction with traffic.

 

[Sidney Porter]

We are meeting immediately after school on premises. We can make some field trips work' date=' but the bike stuff would be a logistical mess. Bear at least offers a lot more flexibility, so if we do the bike thing on a Saturday and some cubs don't show they can do it own their own or pick another one to do.[/quote']

 

It sounds like having it on school property is easier, but that may also make it seem more like school.

 

[TSS_Chris]

I don't have a problem at all with the book stuff you refer to. We do present and talk about them in different ways than what is in the book. I do den leader training and instruct the new leaders to drop the den leader resource guide in the trash.

 

For example, the food pyramid or "myplate" stuff goes much better when you have two bagged lunches, one happy meal and one brown bag healthy lunch. Then explain that the happy meal has been on the counter for a week. The boys really react well to that.

For food pyramids, I start with the dry stuff from the http://myplate.gov/. To get them more interested, I start with my collection of some alternative food pyramids that I've collected over the years. The "zombie food pyramid" and the "You are here" cartoon are always hits.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/khcwkmdvl6gcx1i/Food%20Pyramids.pdf

[King Ding Dong]

I don't have a problem at all with the book stuff you refer to. We do present and talk about them in different ways than what is in the book. I do den leader training and instruct the new leaders to drop the den leader resource guide in the trash.

 

For example, the food pyramid or "myplate" stuff goes much better when you have two bagged lunches, one happy meal and one brown bag healthy lunch. Then explain that the happy meal has been on the counter for a week. The boys really react well to that.

Thanks. That stuff is great.

[dedkad]

I don't have a problem at all with the book stuff you refer to. We do present and talk about them in different ways than what is in the book. I do den leader training and instruct the new leaders to drop the den leader resource guide in the trash.

 

For example, the food pyramid or "myplate" stuff goes much better when you have two bagged lunches, one happy meal and one brown bag healthy lunch. Then explain that the happy meal has been on the counter for a week. The boys really react well to that.

I gave the boys a bunch of food magazines and grocery ads and had them cut out pictures of food that went into each food group and have them put those on their plate or pyramid. Not super exciting, but any hands-on activity is better than just talking about it.

[dedkad]

We are meeting immediately after school on premises. We can make some field trips work' date=' but the bike stuff would be a logistical mess. Bear at least offers a lot more flexibility, so if we do the bike thing on a Saturday and some cubs don't show they can do it own their own or pick another one to do.[/quote']

 

It sounds like having it on school property is easier, but that may also make it seem more like school.

Being able to do things on the school grounds that they can't normally do at school is exciting for the kids.

[King Ding Dong]

We are meeting immediately after school on premises. We can make some field trips work' date=' but the bike stuff would be a logistical mess. Bear at least offers a lot more flexibility, so if we do the bike thing on a Saturday and some cubs don't show they can do it own their own or pick another one to do.[/quote']

 

It sounds like having it on school property is easier, but that may also make it seem more like school.

Due to several of the boys in the after school care program it makes attendance much easier and will help greatly in the winter months. Overall it will be better as we can do more outside activities. Though we me need to move whittling chip off-site.