The Scouts Are Back!

I had my first Cub Scouts Den meeting (we took a break during the summer) earlier this week.  I have 3 new boys, but only 6 altogether.  Brody, Ryan and Riley quit.  I was kind of disappointed to hear that they wouldn't be coming back, but at the same time I wasn't surprised.  Scouts isn't for everyone.  Don't get me wrong..it's a lot of fun..but it's also a commitment.  The boys are required to help out within our community and to participate in multiple fundraisers.  They learn multiple core values and are expected to use them all the time (not just during Scouting events).  In addition to all of that, there are so many different activities available to kids these days.  Some kids just prefer the more 'active' activities, like baseball, football and soccer.

I'm very happy that Kyle truly enjoys Scouting and wants to stick with it.  He was very excited for the Den and Pack meetings to start up again!

This year our Pack is bigger than ever.  We hosted a Bike Rodeo event a couple of weekends ago and had a lot of new kids sign up.  We're kind of under 'new management', which is playing a big role in helping the Pack to run more smoothly.  Organization is definitely a major key.  Unfortunately we don't have nearly enough volunteers.  Basically there are only 4 of us running the entire Pack (yikes!).  We're forced to wear many, many hats and devote a lot of our time to Scouts.  Right now I'm the Pack Secretary, a Webelos Den Leader and I'm handling Memberships.  It's a lot more work than people realize but I feel it's worth it because Kyle - along with a bunch of other boys - are getting so much out of the whole Scouting experience.

Last weekend Jim & his Dad took Kyle to the Scouts "Family Fun Day" over in Cranston.  It was a free event that took place at a Scouts Camp.  They had all sorts of fun activities set up for the boys - bb guns, sling shots, archery etc.  Kyle had a blast!  Jim said there were a ton of kids there, but not too many from our Pack.  I don't think the parents realize yet that there are lots of fun Scouting activities that take place outside of the Den and Pack meetings, although I sent an email to everyone advertising Family Fun Day.  I'm going to bring it up at the Pack Meeting next week - it would be great if our Pack became more involved in the various Scouting activities that are run by others.  I would love to see the boys doing more together as a whole Pack.

The boys in my Den will need to do a lot of work in order to achieve their Webelos badge in Feb.  I'm hoping to make my Den meetings as fun as possible for them.  This will require MORE work on my end - coming up with fun games & ways to keep the boys motivated - but over the years I've gotten mighty good at juggling!  I've already figured out what we'll be doing for the next couple of meetings.  The boys are going to concentrate on doing the requirements necessary to earn their Engineer achievement.  Last week they were architects and had to draw a simple layout of their home.  At our next meeting they'll be building catapults out of cardboard boxes..