Most Practical Electives

[Scoutfish]

My son has completed enough requirements to get his Bear badge. Now, we are gonna start working on electives.

 

I am not a "collector " parent. I do not want my son to see how many he can get , and they have no meaning. I'd rather he only finish 1 elective and it mean something and he had fun instead of 20 electives that he won't remember 3 days later.

 

Now, I realize that each kids is different and that there are different strokes for different folks. There is no right answer.....but just as a guide to maybe keep me from wasting my/his time...

 

 

What ( Cub Scout/ Bear) electives are more practical/ fun/ actually worth while?

 

I suppose you could name your top 3 in order of importance to you.

[ScoutNut]

This is not college. Your son is not supposed to be treating Cub Scout Electives like each one is his doctorate in Scouting.

 

They are supposed to be FUN little activities that help him to learn a BIT more about something that interests him.

 

It does not matter what electives WE like. None of them are "important" to US.

 

Your son, and what HE likes and is interested in, is what counts. If it interests HIM, if HE has FUN doing it, it will most certainly NOT be a waste of your time, or his. Even if he does not remember every single moment of it.

 

Why not sit down with HIM and look at some of them - together. Remember, he can also count unused Bear requirements as Electives.

[Scoutfish]

"What ( Cub Scout/ Bear) electives are more practical/ fun/ actually worth while?"

 

Scoutnut,I know fun is also important, but if they had a ( for example) BREAKING STUFF WITH HAMMERS elective, he'd be all over that one. and it would be fun for him, but it would be totally useless, not teach him something he already knows and, and have no worth.

 

I do want whatever we do to be fun, but he may pick something that halfway through.....he may decide that it'snot fun.

 

What I meant, and what I should have said was " Do you have any recomendation - based on your experience - about which ones cubs may like best.

I'll let him choose,but also want to be able to guide him based on what I said above.

 

But I do appreciate your imput!

 

 

[raisinemright]

All of them have fun and practicality. I don't remember which ones my oldest son liked best, but my younger son, now a WII really seemed to do well on the hands on stuff.

 

Aircraft is pretty cool. See if there is a Young Eagles chapter at a local airport and arrange for free airplane rides. We had our entire pack and troop picnic at an airport this year. All the kids went up for about a 20 minute flight.

 

Electricity is kind of cool too cause the cub learns how stuff around him works.

 

Both my boys did well on the repairs part too. I was repainting aroom and taught one son how to remove electrical plugs and replace them with new ones. Yea, he was 8 years old doing stuff many adults are afraid to do.

 

Most of all, have fun.

[ScoutNut]

Well, since I have not seen a "Breaking Things With Hammers" requirement in any of the BSA liturature (although the Craftsman Activity Badge might qualify!), I doubt that will be a problem.

 

Actually, none of the requirements, or electives, are totally, or even partially, useless, or worthless.

 

Some may have less interest to your son than others, but that does not make then worthless.

 

Any/all of the them can be fun and intertesting to a Scout.

 

 

[Scoutfish]

Shoot,I did it again. My bad!

 

I didn't mean any elective itself is useless, just saying if it'sone my son can't do, or is something he won't grasp the concept of or remember 5 minutes after I sign the check-off....well, I'd rather spent that time doing one that he could remember the finer points of at least next month if not next year or 5 years from now.

[ScoutNut]

The point I am trying to make here Scoutfish, is that we here have absoultly no idea what it is that your son will be interested in, which electives/requirements will be to hard for him, which ones he will find boring, or which ones will spur a lifelong interest in him.

 

What our kids liked, and didn't like really holds no value for you and your son.

 

My son might love photography. Your son might be bored to tears.

 

Your son might love to collect things. My son just collects dirty clothes.

 

My son loves to tinker, and build things. Your son might prefer growing things to building them.

 

My son is not a fan of magic, but he loves ropes, and knots of any sort. He had a blast with elective 13-D. Your son might hate ropes, and have a problem remembering the square knot for more than 5 minutes, but he might love to learn magic card tricks, and have a blast doing elective 13-A.

 

We simply can't answer your question properly.

 

All of the electives are age appropriate for a 3rd grader, so your son should have no problem completing any of them. All of the electives can be interesting, and fun. All are things he should be able to understand easily.

 

To find electives your son will love, remember, and be worthwhile to him, talk to HIM. Have him pick out a few things that sound interesting to him, and spend a Sunday afternoon together exploring them.

 

 

[NJEaglemom]

In my experience, most of my Scouts have enjoyed Space, Electricity, Aircraft (especially building a model airplane),Art(they love playing with clay), Nature Crafts (loved the bird caller)and Maps.

 

You can't go wrong with Space. I haven't had a Scout yet who hasn't loved building a model rocket.

 

 

[Scoutfish]

scouthut ;

 

 

 

I believe we are completely on the same page. I mentioned in my original post that each kid would be different and that there was no correct answer.

 

The biggest thing I was trying to do wsa save a bit of time. If I got 35 posts listings for ...........let's say space as a elective that all the boys loved, but not a single prop towards rock collecting' Then I would try spacefirst.

 

Granted, my son may hate space and want to collect rocks ( He sure loves to throw them in my yard!), but at least I had a start instead of randomly starting anywhere.

 

Now,it's not that I won't let him choose on his own, but rather - well, we are talking a 8 year old here. When we go on our 3 mile dog walk, ne always wants to go farther. Yet after we have turned around after no going farther, he usually complains about half way home about being too tired to make it home!

 

Good thing I didn't just do what he said about wanting to go further,

 

Same thing about that second big helping of spaghetti. He swears he really is that hungry, but never does finish more than 1 or 2 more bites.

 

I do want him too choose what he is truely intersested in or thinks he might possibly be interested in. But I also want to help guide him.

 

 

 

So anyway, I get what your saying, and agree completely up to the point of knowing my own son's personality . I just want to narrow the choices down based on similar experiences parents had with their boys.

 

Lust like the rocket thing..so far, none of her boys have hated it. I'm gonn atake the chance mine will love it too. I may be wrong, but it gives me somewhere to start.(This message has been edited by scoutfish)

[Lisabob]

Scoutfish, you are way over-thinking this. Just sit down with your son and let him decide what sounds exciting. Part of the point is to let him explore his own interests a bit. And if, half-way through, he decides he's not that interested in a topic after all, so what? He's in 3rd grade! This is the best time in his life to explore, with no particular consequences if he doesn't like or doesn't finish something. It isn't like you're investing a whole lot of time and money into pursuing these things.

 

By the way - I know a parent who, when their son joined boy scouts, tried to do exactly what you're doing, only with merit badges. Heck there are about 120 of them and many sound exciting. This parent figured they'd help their son line up an array of "useful" merit badges to choose from. You know what? It didn't work. Badges that the boy *might* have pursued on his own (and who knows, might even have liked), he refused to do because his parent was making decisions and setting parameters for him.

 

You have to let him make choices for himself, might as well let this be an opportunity to practice. Don't over think it.

[Scoutfish]

Lisa...OUCH!!!! What a slap in the face!

 

But you are right. I'm about to become one of those very parents that I do not like! I started confusing guidance for him - with choosing for him. I almost got scared that he might ( God forbid) make a mistake . A mistake that will teach him more than I could, by trying to "assist" him too much..

 

Thanks! Yeah,I guess everybody else pretty much said the same th8ing, you just didn't hold back!

Thanks. I really needed that!

[Lisabob]

Sorry there, I really did not intend it to be a slap in the face. If it makes you feel better, that parent I mentioned (re: Merit Badges) was me, only nobody told me I was over-thinking things. I was so excited for my son, and thinking of how I would have loved doing a lot of those badges, and how some of them fit so well with his budding interests in science. I remember that I really thought I had his interests at heart, but as you say, it is easy to blur the line between guidance and taking over. (And while I'd like to think I learned something from that experience, it would have been better to avoid it.)

 

We parents probably all go through this somehow or other. This is one of the things i find really useful about scouting, is getting perspectives from other parents traveling the same road. Sometimes, I even agree with them!

 

 

 

 

[Scoutfish]

Well, I didn't mean THAT kind of slap in the face.. I meant "an eye opener".

 

Well, I meant it in a good way.