Call the local firemen, have them bring a truck, learn about smoke detectors, and fire safety. Free, easy, though they may have to leave quickly for a call.
This is for a single pack meeting?
Ask 5 of the Webelos to show and tell of their hobbies - rock collections, sports equipment, favorite lego sets.
Invite a construction foreman to talk about construction, maybe bring a backhoe.
Police and EMTs also offer programs for scouts.
Build a kite from sticks and a garbage bag.
Draw a map, as a group, or each den - room, school, town, country. Learn about compasses.
TB A+ Partner Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. -Buddha
I didn't know what pitching pennies was, so I googled it and watched this short video:
You've got to watch it!
Back when I was in high school, there was a group of us in chemistry class that would pitch quarters during lab time or whenever the teacher left the room. She would get so pissed. One of the guys went on to be a cop, so hes probably still running a good racket.
Civil War reenactment is LARPing for people with no imagination.
You could precut wood for building bird houses and have them assemble. Cut up a fence picket, that makes it easy, less cutting. (the 5 inch wide ones) (google for plans)
1. Short attention spans 2. Hyper activity 3. Wildly different levels of developmental maturity 4. At least one bad apple
When I was a cub scout leader, I faced those challenges. Giving hammers to some of the kids could end up with manslaughter charges....
Break it up into short sections. give them snacks. Have parents assist so that they know how ill behaved their little brutes are...
The biggest problem is 3 brothers. 1 is age 7 and the other two are twins, age 9. (They have another brother that just moved up to Boy Scouts). They are good boys, but they are a family of 4 rough housing brothers. The twins get in touching distance of each other and immediately start reacting to each other. First thing I learned is to keep them separated by at least two people
Civil War reenactment is LARPing for people with no imagination.
Excellent. You have started to learn the lessons. In Minneapolis, the local scout council had material available to help you plan meetings. If you have an hour meeting, plan on four or five activities, and beating the crap out of each other is not a sanctioned activity.
Work on getting them silent when you need them to be quiet; we used to hold up two fingers.
Excellent. You have started to learn the lessons. In Minneapolis, the local scout council had material available to help you plan meetings. If you have an hour meeting, plan on four or five activities, and beating the crap out of each other is not a sanctioned activity.
Work on getting them silent when you need them to be quiet; we used to hold up two fingers.
As of June 1, its 3 fingers now, like Boy Scouts. At least, that what I was told. Another change, the guide for shooting activities had a new rule addition. Scouts are not allowed to hold targets.
Civil War reenactment is LARPing for people with no imagination.
After being den asst for 6-7 years and guiding my son from Webelos (5-6) to the end, when he graduated from Cub scouts, and looking back at the experience. I feel it was a giant waste of time. My son did not particularly enjoy it and at times I didn't either. Personally I think I should have taken all the hours I spent with him at scouts and spent that time with him teaching more directly about tools, electrical, wood working, etc...In other words, I could have taught him a lot more in the same amount of time without all the wasting of time that is inherently part of scouts.
He was bored most of the time, and that boredom translated to some minor hostilities (nothing major though) about the experience. And I got so tired of pimping popcorn.
I'm not trying to sound negative, I just feel I could have done so much more with all the time we consumed on the effort. He had zero interest in moving on to Boy scouts, and frankly, after their policies on gay acceptance, it would be a cold day in hell before I would continue to support this antiquated ritual. Maybe it had its place in the 50s. Not now.
I'm sure I'll get flamed for these comments and I know this is not a helpful answer to your original question Casey. Just my nickel. Spend time with your son, quality one-on-one time. Teach him all the details that you know about working with tools, electricity, without all the distractions.
If you feel you want your son to learn team play, how to get along with others, etc...get him involved in a sport. That will teach him vastly more about that than scouts
Chasing Ernie's post count, one useless post at a time.
I had no intention of my son ever joining scouts. I had seen a few groups of scouts out at local events (they were selling popcorn) and to be honest, they looked like the stereotypical home schooled weird kids. Last year when information was passed out in school, my boy came home begging to join. So I went along cringing. Turned out, it's a good pack. So far, he enjoys it a lot, and with his brain related health issues already, we really are trying to avoid sports for now (well, I begged him to try tee-ball but he wouldn't do it). If someone says camping, or anything in the woods, he's out the door and ready to go. A buddy of mine promised to let him help clean a deer this year if he gets one and the boy acted like we were talking about Christmas.
Civil War reenactment is LARPing for people with no imagination.
You can take them out into the woods one day to teach them how to build their own shelter. At the Camp by my house they could only use dead stuff laying on the ground, so it was lame.
River rafting in your area is a blast.
We built marshmallow catapults on one outing. Everyone liked that project. One took 1 1/2 hrs.
I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other.
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