New here from Michigan

[patricksmomma]

Hello all! My name is Ellen and I have one son named Patrick, who is in first grade. We just signed him up to be a tiger cub and wouldn't you know it no one could be a den leader so by default it is me now. I am very excited and a bit nervous too. I was not a girl scout and my husband was not a boy scout. I have been reading the tiger cub manual cover to cover though and I think that I have the basic idea of things. I just may have a lot of questions for you all though. Tonight is our first meeting and I have a whole itinerary set up. We are going to start on the bobcat badge and do one requirement for the tiger cub badge. I also have one word game for the boys to do as well. My group is about 9 kids assuming everyone has decided to stick with it.

 

Sooo in short nice to meet all of you and any suggestions would be very much appreciated! thanks

[acco40]

First, congrats! My story is about the same except my wife signed me up as Tiger Den Leader and now, after two sons getting Eagle and 11 years under the bridge, I'm ready to retire or at least ease back from Scouting.

 

Second, set expectations for the boys (communicated to both them and their parents) and set expectations that you have for the parents.

 

Third, keep in mind that most of them have the attention span of about 15 seconds and make sure they have something to do (i.e. draw, run, move, act, write, speak, etc.). No lectures or anything that resembles school.

 

Fourth, contact a local troop and investigate the use of a Den Chief.

[prof]

Patricksmomma,

Welcome to the virtual campfire!

Prof.

[patricksmomma]

Wow! Well I just had my first tiger cub meeting tonight and it was nuts. I had envisioned it being way more organized. The one bad thing is that the room we are using at the school doubles as the 3 year old preschool room and the kids were totally into all the toys. I was trying to juggle informing parents about what to expect and keep the kids involved. My goal for next week is to have an activity waiting for the kids to do immediately when they get there so that they don't have the chance to get crazy. Overall it was tiring but fun. I hope that it can only get better from here.

[Narraticong]

CONGRATULATIONS!!! You said the secret word- FUN!!! You can do all the badges in the book, but if it's not fun, you will lose the boys. A few years ago when I was a Tiger Den leader and all the way through Bears, I thought Advancement was the goal. Well, it may have been for me...but if I had been listening to my son, I would have heard him telling me how boring the meetings were. By Webelos I started to figure it out. Make the meetings and outings fun and everything else will fall in place.

 

We now have a year old Scout troop with those same boys. And we are growing steadily because they are bringing friends in. We still focus on having fun. Kids have lots of options to choose from today. Scouting offers a strong outdoor program they by nature are drawn to. Make it fun, and you'll have a successful unit!

[patricksmomma]

I totally intend to keep the aspect of fun in mind for sure! Thanks for putting it into that aspect of the kids are there to have fun. My intentions were totally goal oriented but when it got crazy I figured fun was good.

 

I see you are in warren, I am not too far from you at all north of Romeo. We are in the Tall Pine Council out of Flint though.

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement!

[ScoutNut]

Welcome and thanks for taking on the FUN of being a Tiger den leader!!

 

Being in a room with available "toys" can be a chalenge. Throwing balls at one another is soooo much more enticing than sitting. You need to set some ground rules and let them know that the classroom equipment is off limits. Have some coloring pages, mazes, word searches, etc ready for them to do as a gathering activity. See if you can get an older sibling, or Boy Scout, to come and help with gathering, games, songs, etc.

 

Have an "official" opening and closing ceremony that defines the meeting. I do a simple flag ceremony to open the meeting. When the flag comes out the boys know it is time to stop running amok and start the meeting. I use the Living Circle (with everyone present including siblings) to end the meeting. They know that when I call for clean-up, it is not time to just run out the door. There is a formal ending to the meeting after which they are free to leave.

 

Make sure to use Shared Leadership, and include your Adult Partners in everything their Tiger does. They are a TEAM, and joined at the hip for a year!

 

Have you taken the online training yet? BSA has Cub Scout Fast Start training and Youth Protection training at -

 

http://olc.scouting.org/

 

It looks like your council has New Leader Essentials and Cub Scout Specific trainings coming up this month. Sign up for them as soon as you can.

[ccjj]

Tigers are GRRRRRREAT!

 

It's nice to see another TPC'er on here.

 

Keep making it fun...with a purpose.

 

ccjj

[raisinemright]

Welcome to scouting! Now that you've been sucked in to the vortex, sit back and enjoy the ride. You're gonna have a blast.

 

As a long time den leader and asst. cubmaster, I wanted to help out Tiger den get off on the right footing. Our leader is new as are most of the families in the den. I went to their first meeting last night and it was helpful. The DL had a well planned and executed meeting, but I was able to pump up the boys a little bit and explain to all of them how Cubs and Tigers work and what they can to to "help the Pack grow."

 

Two suggestions, have an experience DL join you at one of your first meetings.

 

Also, if Tall Pines does not have a University of Scouting event, Clinton Valley/Detroit Area Council has a joint one November 1 in Madison heights. An invaluable amount of info and support is available at the University and is worth taking a day for it.

 

Check it at cvc-bsa.org.

[derf]

Welcome, and thanks for being a Scouter, as well as an involved parent. I was in your shoes 6 years ago. The only advantage was my years as a scout. But it is completely different on this side of the fence. Get as much help as possible: Program helps book, How-To book, Leaders book, etc.

They will make it a lot easyer. Get trained. Any thing helps! If your council has roundtables, try to go.

 

The program helps book is the best help to give you an idea of how to run a program. Use the "Host family" to your advantage, it gives everyone their 15 minutes of fame, and leadership. If you have a couple of assistant leaders, use them to keep the boys going, while you convey info to the parents. But make the adults be involved, it's a team concept. If they aren't involved, the kids won't be either.

And, unfortunatly, it the adults don't have fun, they won't bring back the scouts. And most definately, try to find a den chief or an experienced scouter for a mentor. It cuts the learning curve back. The den chief can keep them directed and they have a better energy level than us old, tired parents.

 

The "Baloo's Bugle" (online) gives some great ideas too.

 

If I can be of any assistance, derf13@charter.net

 

Thanks for what you do for Scouting, everyone will thank you in the years to come for the difference you are making now.

 

Yours in Short Pants, Fred