New WEBLOS 1 Den leader needs some help

[mattman578]

I am using the summer to prepare for my den meetings this fall and I am having some issues. Manly the Citizenship requirement is is so long I think it covers 3 den meetings and I am board with the curriculum does anybody have any ideas of how I can spice this up ? What worked for you when you did what did not work ?

Thanks

[Sidney Porter]

It might of taken us 4 or 5 meetings. We went to a city council meeting and they got to meet the mayor but that was a meeting in itself. Same with the service project that ended up being a meeting. We meet 3x a month and it seems like citizenship took a big chunk of time. They liked the flag history piece better than the social studies stuff.

[Fehler]

What didn't work was having it broken out to three meetings, which one-two different scouts invariably missed one of the three, leaving me with a patchwork of complete/incomplete requirements. By the end of the year, I switched to once a month, two-hour long Den Meetings on Saturday Mornings just so we could comfortably conclude 1 pin (with 1 fun Belt Loop if there was time) in a sitting. Longer time, bigger projects, and no partials.

[Tampa Turtle]

We mixed in the Citizenship requirements with some of the other ones; you don't have to do them one at a time. The best thing we did was switch over to the same schedule as the nearby Boy Scout Troops: Once a week except when school is out. Normally about 90 minutes. We hit the flag ceremony stuff hard since it gave them something to do. I'd leave the partials to the parents.

[AKdenldr]

As I remember we did not do Citizenship in the Fall. We restarted the Web 1 year with some fun, active, move your body, non academic ones. Then we had an expert (lawyer Mom) who did it in 2-3 longer den meetings with an additional field trip. She was somewhat surprised that the 4th grade boys handled it less well than the 4th grade girl scouts with similar content.

 

As our service the boys selected to serve soup at the soup kitchen for folks on the street. (Different local expert handled that.) That was the most amazing experience for all.

 

In general I suggest to make Webelos the least like school as possible. Hands on and active. Turn learning things into games. Move it around and get it moving. Add in some just for fun things.

 

Our meetings were about 90 minutes including a snack, about twice a month plus about 7 field trips a year. Plus camping.

[Stosh]

We mixed in the Citizenship requirements with some of the other ones; you don't have to do them one at a time. The best thing we did was switch over to the same schedule as the nearby Boy Scout Troops: Once a week except when school is out. Normally about 90 minutes. We hit the flag ceremony stuff hard since it gave them something to do. I'd leave the partials to the parents.

 

I did a slight variation on that. We met weekly for "normal" meetings and did our field trips on Saturday. We met for only a half hour. It was plenty for the attention span of those boys. We, did however, go year around just like the Boy Scouts. At the end of the first year, we had completed all the pins and started repeating those that some of the boys had missed. Nice review. But we also planned a major last outing that second summer (big campout they organized) The boys then moved on Boy Scouts when they aged out of Webelos, most of them the Fall before the second Blue-Gold when they traditional crossed-over. That gave them the whole winter and spring to get ready for summer camp. Because we worked so hard on the pins, the boys were basically TF 30 days after cross-over and most were well on their way to FC by the time they reached summer camp for the first time.

 

And no, they weren't bored because they had been-there-done that before they got to Boy Scouts. Instead they all Eagled at 16-17 age and had a blast in Boy Scouts.

 

Stosh

 

[Baseballfan]

I have had success using most of the reqs as trivia questions... we almost always have trivia time at the end of Den meetings, and these questions are perfect for that. I just check the names off as they get the questions correct.

[dedkad]

 

What didn't work was having it broken out to three meetings' date=' which one-two different scouts invariably missed one of the three, leaving me with a patchwork of complete/incomplete requirements. By the end of the year, I switched to once a month, two-hour long Den Meetings on Saturday Mornings just so we could comfortably conclude 1 pin (with 1 fun Belt Loop if there was time) in a sitting. Longer time, bigger projects, and no partials. [/quote']

 

I'd be interested to learn how you could possibly get the Citizenship Activity Pin completed in two hours.

[Fehler]

 

 

I'd be interested to learn how you could possibly get the Citizenship Activity Pin completed in two hours.

 

We didn't. That (and Fitness, ugh) were the driving forces of the switch to that format (which worked well enough for Scientist, Geologist, Readyman, Athlete, and Traveler).