Lion Cub

A few weeks ago, Ben came home with information about Boy Scouts.  The boys had heard a short presentation at school and were went home with a flier about a sign up night.  He was enthusiastic.  I think the excitement came from the fact that the pictures on the flier depicted boys fishing and shooting at targets which is not exactly what they do at every meeting in the elementary school cafeteria but I wasn't going to discourage him.  I was in Girl Scouts and Justin was in Boy Scouts when we were kids and we both liked it so we went and signed up.

It turns out that usually boys don't start Cub Scouts until 1st grade but there is a new program this year for Kindergarten kids called Lions which is kind of a transition program.  They don't have as many meetings and they get a t-shirt to wear instead of the full uniform shirt.  Last week was the full "pack" meeting and last night was the first "den" meeting.  FYI-Den refers to the smaller age groups and pack refers to the whole assortment of ages in one location.  I am familiar with these terms because my classmates were in cub scouts when we were kids but I never really paid attention to specifics.

Last night, since they don't have uniforms to display their badges they earn, the Lions boys made tote bags with decorations on the front.  They left the back blank so the badges can be attached to it.

There is another boy named Ben in the den so BENA is back again just like the first year of preschool!

I was excited to show off my old girl scout sashes and patches.  I have the Brownies (brown with triangle patches) and Juniors (green with circle patches) sashes.  The brownies one even has the patches all sewn on.  Well...I should say it has all there were possible sewn on.  We moved overseas to the Middle East when I was in Brownies and the leader tried to mail me the ones I had earned and they never arrived.  They were lost to customs.  Customs was like a black hole there.  Of all the things to take...Lucky for me, my mom knows how to sew so mine were all actually attached and not safety pinned or glued on.  

The next meeting in October is an outdoor hike at the park across from our house.  That will be fun!  Ben will get to the level of fishing and shooting eventually.  Those activities are generally done at camps.  

I had to take a picture by the rock bed in front of the school on the way home.  He found his rock-it is a red one with the Pioneer "P" on it and he was proud of how nice his P was . 

Oh...I forget the best part of the transitional Kindergarten boy scout program...no fundraising!  I almost ran for the door at the last meeting when the wreath and popcorn sales forms were handed out.  I know school and activity fundraisers will now be a part of life for the foreseeable future but I am still traumatized from the constant fundraising in high school.  I grew up in a family where the general philosophy was that it was the family's responsibility to pay for trips, uniforms, etc. and selling overpriced crap where we only earned a small portion of the cost while constantly harassing the same friends and relatives multiple times a year was not the most efficient way to do it.  Some might argue that it teaches the child to be responsible but guilt tripping people into buying wrapping paper, crummy bath products (that were extremely overpriced and showed up sample sized-that one was my favorite), coupon books and multitudes of other nonsense never felt responsible to me.  It felt awkward and intrusive.  And everyone just bought from everyone else throughout the year.  Just save your money for yourself and everyone pay for your own crap and all your money will go to the cause...how about it?  Sigh...I doubt it will ever happen but a mom can dream...There are better ways that I have personally participated it.  To raise money for prom our classes at my school started working in the concession stand at assigned basketball games starting in 7th grade and accumulated money through the years.  For one organization I was in we sold apple pies in the fall and before you dismiss it as the usual cookie dough/braid bread fundraiser there is a twist...we spent a Saturday in the school home-ec room actually making the pies (with lots of competent supervision from moms and a few grandmothers). Also, if you have those $2.00 boxes of chocolate covered nuts or huge candy bars from World's Finest Chocolate for sale I will be first in line.  We used to sell those for band and to promote them the music teacher would ask a trivia question over the intercom during morning announcements every day and the first person to get to her with the answer got a free candy item.  Usually it was "name that tune" and it always caused a stampede.