Showing posts with label cub scouts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cub scouts. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Bike Rodeo


McKay and I went to our monthly Cub Scout pack meeting/bike rodeo last night.  Can you see by the look on his face that he's not super excited about being there?  It's funny to watch these kids of mine as they become old enough to move into new programs and organizations.  At first, they are filled with excitement and enthusiasm, but as they approach the next transition, they get antsy and move on in their little heads before they've officially moved on in age.  McKay will be 11 next month and will cross over into the Boy Scout program.  He's completed all of the Webelos requirements and earned his Arrow of Light.  And enduring additional Cub Scout activities is a bit agonizing.  I looked at this picture this morning, though, and realized that he's pretty ready for that next stage.  His Cub Scout shirt is filled with achievements (that his mother finally sewed on permanently last night...)  He's outgrown the younger boys that are still excited about new Cub experiences.  And apparently he's outgrown that bike a little bit, too.  We're both very excited for the next stage of scouting, but we have loved this time in Cubs.  (I'm not-so-secretly hoping that I'll also get to transition out of Cub Scouts when McKay leaves...)  

The scouting program does amazing things for confidence levels in little boys.  They get to build rockets, and hike, and work as teams, and discover things , and shoot stuff.  And they earn badges for all of that fun!  It's really an awesome thing to be a part of, and I'm so grateful to all of the leaders who make events like this one possible...in the middle of the summer, with less than stellar attendance.  I'm grateful that McKay has been able to earn all those badges and beads in the last 3 years and that he can look at that shirt and be proud of his accomplishments.  

Boy Scouts, here we come!  (well, not WE!  I'm definitely NOT going to Boy Scouts with him!)

Friday, June 13, 2014

Twilight Camp

It's probably not going to be shocking when I confess that I am not super excited about being in places that require bug spray and allergy meds, wearing a uniform, or being surrounded by 400 little boys.  But...that's how I spent my week.  After I dropped three girls and a set of crutches off at a muddy trek site, I transformed into a walking den leader for McKay's little pack of Webelos at Twilight Camp.  3:30-9:00pm Monday through Friday.  

Five little boys in matching yellow t-shirts piled into my van armed with buckets full of day camp necessities...water bottles, neckerchiefs to distinguish them from all the other little boys in yellow t-shirts, lunches, hats, and swaps!  

Swaps are little trinkets (either homemade or store bought) that the boys bring to trade with each other.  They collect as many as possible and pin them onto their hats.  By the end of the week, most of the boys are covered in swaps.  
last year's swaps...we made the little boots at the top
this is last year's hat covered in swaps (holy cow! look how little McKay was)
This year, we made a cute little sushi swap.  (You just never know what's going to catch the interest of a 10-yr-old boy.)  These were really fun and easy to make, and apparently a big hit with the other 10-year-old boys.  By the end of the week we saw lots of sushi swaps walking around camp on boys' hats.  
I have to say, as reluctant as I was to actually put on my camp shirt and go hang out in the wilderness with Cub Scouts, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated.  These camps are amazingly organized.  The boys spent the week rotating through projects and activities directed by trained volunteers.  They were scheduled down to the minute every single day.  All I really had to do was follow them around and assist with an occasional hammer or glue stick.  
Ring Toss wood project
Noodle Wars
BB Shooting (that's my little bandit second from the left)
Astronomy (that's a telescope in McKay's lap...that he actually assembled)
And this was my favorite project of the week...Game Boxes!
On Monday, the boys drew templates on a wood box and colored them with Sharpie markers and turned them into multi-functional, portable game sets.  On one side there is a Tic-Tac-Toe board.  One the other is a checker/chess board.  And inside is a backgammon board.  The boys received checker/backgammon pieces and Tic-Tac-Toe pieces with their boards on the first day.
 On Wednesday, they made their own chess pieces out of nuts and bolts.  So cool! 
And then on Friday, they had a chess tournament.  By the end of the week, 400 boys had earned their chess belt loop and academic pin, and part of their Craftsman requirements from just this one little game set.  And they loved it!  


I actually really enjoyed hanging out with my little Webelos this week.  They are smart and funny and get along with each other really well.  Twilight Camp wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.  The weather was blissfully tolerable.  I was able to spend a whole lot of time bonding with McKay in a way that we typically don't get to.  And I did things I didn't think I could do.  Who knew that I would willingly let 30 boys attack me with pool noodles?  Who knew that I could learn to ignore grasshoppers even while I ate my lunch?  Who knew that I would be completely unphased by the tarantula that crawled through our little woodworking site?  I know the girls did some really hard things on trek, but I did some pretty hard things this week, too.  It was a week filled with personal victories!  

There is so much work that goes into Cub Scouts.  I'm so grateful for people who aren't deterred by a little heat and a few grasshoppers, and who sacrifice countless personal hours to make Twilight Camp happen.  And I am in awe of the ones who do it year after year after year.  

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Community Helpers

We finished our Citizenship requirements in Webelos this week with the help of these two awesome community helpers.  

Shawn - Jr Volunteer Fire Fighter
I left several messages earlier in the week with the Allen Police Department, but started to panic when I still hadn't heard from anyone by late Tuesday night.  Shawn is Megan's friend and I vaguely remembered her telling me some time ago that he went on frequent "ride alongs" as a student fireman.  So in a desperate attempt to secure a guest speaker for our den meeting, I asked Megan to text him and invite him to come talk to the boys.  And guess what!  He was not just willing, but thrilled to do it.  He packed a bag of equipment for them to look at.  He went through his Firefighter Academy manual with them.  And he had pages and pages of notes that he had jotted down sometime between Megan's text at 9:00 last night and his appearance at 4:30 this afternoon.  The boys loved talking to him and he was a wealth of information.  I made sure to send him home with a big bag of chocolate chip cookies as a thank you!

...and Officer Mike - Allen Police Dept
Late this morning, I got an email from one of the officers I had contacted, saying that he would be able to come to our den meeting, but not until after 5:00pm.  Perfect!  I could have Shawn talk for the first half, and Officer Mike cover the second half.  An over abundance of community helpers is never a bad thing.

I can't even say enough how impressed I was with Officer Mike.  He was personable and related to the boys.  He answered all of their questions and even brought stickers to pass out to everyone.  After he talked about road safety and car safety for a little while, he showed the boys some of the things he carries on his very cool motorcycle, including his speed gun.  He showed them how it worked and then one of them asked if he could clock their running speed with it.  And he said, "Sure!" as if he had nothing better to do on a Wednesday evening than watch 6 little boys run the 50 yd dash.  What a nice man!  (Incidentally, 10-yr-old boys apparently run about 12 mph.)


I'm so grateful for the things these boys are learning about life and career options and people who are generous with their time.  I'm grateful for two community helpers that make me feel a little safer in my neighborhood at night.  And I'm really grateful for a den meeting that came together better than I pictured it in my head.  

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Enough


I have a hard time knowing when to try to be amazing and when to just do ENOUGH.  Last night was the Cub Scouts' annual Blue and Gold Banquet.  I've been to a couple of these, but I've never been a den leader before so I've never really paid attention to what they looked like or noticed all the details of the "behind the scenes" efforts.  There's a lot more to those things than I ever realized.  And I wasn't even in charge of this one!

Early last month, the entire Cub Committee divided up responsibilities and I took TABLE DECORATIONS and COOKIES.  I really thought it would be a breeze to have the Webelos make little robots that could double as both Craftsman requirements as well as decorations for the banquet.  And I already know I can make sugar cookies in my sleep.  Seriously, I think I could actually do that.  So how hard could it be to get a few tin foil robots together and blast out several dozen sugar cookies.  Easy peasy, right?

Somehow the reality of it all is never easy peasy.  I don't know why that is.  Do you think it's just me or does everyone feel that way?  And I don't know why it is that everything turns into a small tornado on the day of an event.  Well, I do kinda know why that is.  I am the world's biggest procrastinator.  I pretend to prepare for stuff, but I leave a lot of stuff for the day of.  And PROCRASTINATION = TORNADOES.  

Yesterday, I agreed to meet the Cub Committee Chair (is that even what she is?  I'm not sure) at the church at 10:00 in the morning to decorate for the banquet.  I planned to leave at exactly 9:55 which would get me there right at 10:00…except...recyclables that have been barely glued together by 10 year old boys and precariously perched into strange robot forms are not as portable as plain old recyclables.  It took me 15 minutes to load the Jeep.  So I was already late…

My vision of the "set up" went like this…I will carry in the robots from my car, put table cloths on the tables, set the robots in the middle, and then go to lunch with a friend.  Nope.  My 10:30 target exit time came and went while we hauled stacks of tables and chairs out from under the stage in the gym and set them up.  I honestly have never done that in my life.  I just assumed everyone's husbands were responsible for tables and chairs.  Apparently not.  Please don't tell Craig that I'm ridiculously spoiled and sheltered.  I don't think he knows. 

We set up 9 round tables for seating and three long tables for food.  And then I got to the part where I was finally able to put table cloths on them and select the perfect robot home for each of the boys' creations.  They looked a little sparse to me, so I sprinkled some nuts and bolts that I had fished out of Craig's tool boxes and brought with me.   






At that point, I was technically finished with my part of the banquet, except for the cookies which were still at home and not quite ready.  But as I looked around the room, I wondered if we needed MORE.  More what?  I don't really know.  More flash?  More robots?  More inventions?  More tin foil??  That's the point where my mind starts to wander and the regret sets in for not starting things earlier.  If only I had started in January when I found out about this, I could have made a LIFE SIZED robot that could have greeted the boys at the door!  If only I had started last week, I could have wrapped the entire gym in tin foil and hung giant nuts and bolts from the ceiling!  ughI have a serious problem.

Fortunately time was not on my side for any grand plans and I had completely booked the rest of my afternoon with a lunch date and another batch of cookies still left to make.
  
In less than two hours I made 4 dozen robots and threw in an extra 2 dozen...those are gears, not grey flowers...because what if one of the boys didn't want to decorate a robot?  What if someone just wanted to eat an already frosted cookie?  And I think in the past, they usually just buy a giant sheet cake from Costco for dessert and what if the adults were disappointed that they would have to prepare their own dessert this time??  I bought frosting instead of making my own,  but I decided that I didn't want it to just be plain white, so I scrounged through my food coloring and mixed like a mad chemist to get the perfect shades of bright, bold, BOY colors!   Except gears can't be frosted with bright colors or they might be mistaken for flowers, so I mixed up a half batch of royal icing and tried desperately to make it look like a very industrial, very non-floral, metallic grey.  Instead, I got that color up there.  

Am I making your head spin yet?  Wait there's more...

I realized at 5:15 that the boys might not know what to DO with the unfrosted cookies and that I should have made a poster or a prototype or something.  EEK!  I hurried and stuffed my hair in a clippy and put on my Scout uniform which I still do not love and absolutely dread putting on once a week.  Even sparkly earrings and lipgloss can't make that thing look feminine.  And I left the poster to Emma who was very capable and more than willing to help me get it done.  No flashing lights, no fancy details, just the necessary information combined with a few juice box robots to make it interesting.  
McKay, Emma and I loaded all that stuff into the car…posters, cookies, frosting, trays, my camera, and whatever else I could think of, and drove to the church for our 6:00 call time.  We got there at 6:10.

The point of all that madness is not to prove to you that I'm a lunatic, although I probably did do a pretty good job of that.  The point is that all of the craziness and time spent worrying yesterday was completely unnecessary.  The boys absolutely loved the night, and therefore, the parents and the leaders loved the night.  Other people filled in the gaps that I thought I had left out.  And the evening was a huge success.  





Emma and a few of the other "big sisters" who came were such a huge help all night long.  They served food, made sure little hands didn't reach for their own pickles, helped younger kids build burgers, and then rationed out frosting for the cookies.  I love those girls so much.  The food portions of the evening would have been complete chaos without them.  


The lesson I keep learning over and over in my time here on earth is that less is ENOUGH.  Little boys don't miss things like LIFE SIZED robots, and no one was expecting the room to be wrapped in tin foil.  Even the women don't need or expect all that fluff for RS meetings.  A grand ice sculpture can never substitute for a great spiritual message and time to connect with sisters.  The church doesn't have to be perfect.  My house doesn't have to be perfect.  The food doesn't have to be perfect or even completely ready when friends arrive.  People prefer comfort and warmth and a relaxed hostess over perfection, I've found.  

I am so grateful to be involved in Cub Scouts for a short time.  There are lessons to be learned here.  It is a huge blessing to get to work on all these requirements with McKay for the next few months and to see what actually goes on behind all these Cub Scouts' scenes.  I am immensely grateful for all the people who have worked quietly and in unspectacular, but much needed ways over the years to bring together things like Blue and Gold banquets and Pinewood Derbys and Rain Gutter Regattas.  I had no idea how many hands it takes to efficiently organize a little pack of Cub Scouts.  

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Companions


I was stressing out this morning about tomorrow's Cub Scout activity.  (I think they're called Den Meetings…someday I'll get all this Scout lingo down.)  My companion/co-den leader and I had spent the better part of one October morning meticulously planning all of our activities Den Meetings through the end of the year.  But this month we're working on the Scientist requirement and our Guest Scientist isn't available until next week.  Which meant a little shifting and scrambling would have to be done to fill in the gap for tomorrow.

I worried.  I Googled.  I read over and over again through the list of Scientist requirements to try and find ones that I'm qualified and prepared to teach.  (There are none.  I'm SO not science-y.  Where are the Music Requirements??  I could totally do those.  Or the Scrapbooking Requirements??)  I checked on YouTube for Pascal's Law and Newton's first law of motion to find out what the heck they even are.  And just as I was about to throw in the Cub Scout towel, my Co-Den Leader texted, "Just wanted to double check what requirements we're working on tomorrow.  Will you call me or text me back when you have a chance?"  EEK!  More pressure!  That's actually what I texted her back, too, btw.  "EEK!  Sorry, I don't know what we're doing tomorrow.  As soon as I figure it out, I'll call you and let you know."  

And here's where the clouds parted and the relief came…

Do you know what she texted back??…"Why don't you call me when you're free and we'll figure it out together."

TOGETHER!  Oh yeah, there are TWO of us.  I don't have to do this alone.

All morning I had been trying to be amazing, trying to come up with a plan, trying to figure things out ALL BY MYSELF.  I had said a prayer and asked for help, but it really didn't occur to me until that last text came that I had a COMPANION in this Cub Scout calling.  And not just any old companion…this one has been in this calling for over a year.  She's done all the requirements already.  She knows the Scout lingo.  She is practically an expert.  And I was turning to Google instead of her.  Crazy, huh?

I called Cali a few minutes later, and in less than 30 minutes we had come up with a plan for tomorrow's Den Meeting…TOGETHER!  I'm doing half of it and she's doing half of it.  Brilliant, huh?  

So here's what I learned today:  We're not supposed to do this stuff alone.  None of it.  Parenting requires a COMPANION.  Missionary work requires a COMPANION.  Cub Scouts requires a COMPANION.  LIFE requires a COMPANION.


The many missions which we have in life cannot be embarked upon successfully without the help of others. Birth requires earthly parents. Our blessing as a child, our baptism, our receiving the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, our receiving membership in his church, ordination to the priesthood, going on a mission, being married, having children of our own, blessings during illness and times of need—all require the help of others. And all these are acts of love and service which require the help of others and the giving of help to others.
When we return to our Heavenly Father, he does not want us to come back alone. He wants us to return with honor with our families and those whom we have helped along the road of life. In preparing this message, it has become very clear to me that the true nature of the gospel plan is the interdependence we have upon one another in this life and the estate in which we now live.  - Elder Robert D. Hales
I am grateful today for a Cub Scout companion who reminded me of the value of working TOGETHER.  I'm grateful also for the many other companions in my life, especially for my amazing, patient, steady, faithful, compassionate Eternal Companion/Husband who might not help me with Cub Scouts, but helps me with every other thing in my life.  What an inspired plan it was for Heavenly Father to provide companions for us, so we don't have to do this all by ourselves.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Cub Scouts

I don't know if I mentioned that I'm one of the Den Leaders for McKay's little group of Webelos.  

Well, I am.  And I can't even tell you how far out of my comfort zone this calling has launched me.  First of all, Cub Scouts is a totally different language for me.  Like what in the heck is a WEBELOS anyway?  

There are merit badges, rank advancements, academic pins, pack meetings, den meetings,  crossover ceremonies, uniforms, little beads and patches to put in specific places on those uniforms, arrow points, deniers, a scout oath and motto, and a whole manual full of other stuff that is still pretty foreign to me.  

But I'm getting there.  

Every Wednesday afternoon, another mom and I meet at the church and have organized activities to help our little den of Webelos progress toward becoming Boy Scouts.  This week, we were working on the Handyman Requirement.  I volunteered to teach this one because I figured I could handle talking about the importance of being responsible, doing chores in your family, and maintaining things around your home and school.  Easy, right?  

Well, there are a handful of other things the boys have to do to earn this requirement, including checking the oil in a car, checking the air in the tires, and washing a car.  

Are you laughing yet?  It's ok.  Everyone in my family did when I asked Craig to help me figure out how to open the hood of his Jeep so that I could find the engine.  That is where the oil lives, right?

It was a stretch, I tell you, to make the boys think that I knew all about cars and try to keep a straight face while doing it.  Fortunately, McKay was the only one who knew my secret and he didn't say a word.  In fact, in these pictures it sort of looks like he had a pretty big role in the instruction portion of this lesson.  I promise I did most of the teaching.  







We ended the day with five happy (and wet) boys, two squeaky clean cars, and one new den leader who breathed a sigh of relief that I got through another den meeting without anyone finding out that I don't have a clue what I'm doing.