Cub Scouts

Sam and I ended up being Cub Scout leaders for the 2011/2012 school year.  We were in charge of the Tiger Cubs (Jonah's troop).  Henry was a Bear Cub in another troop.  I'm not exactly sure how we got signed up to be the troop leaders, but we did enjoy the experience-especially the super cool shirts.

 Jonah was the reason we got involved with cub scouts in the first place.  

 He had heard about it and thought that it would be the very best activity for him.  Since Henry was involved in other sports at the time, we initially told him that he couldn't be in cub scouts, but it turned out that he could go on the same nights that we were there with Jonah.  So it actually worked out wonderfully for everyone!  Bridget came along with us to Jonah's class and was able to participate in the crafts and snacks and games.

The meetings were fairly structured but required a lot of parent participation-and our group's parents weren't very interested in participating.  So we just tried to keep it fun and get the requirements done as best as we could.  :)  We set up a snack rotation, planned games and crafts, and made sure the kids were earning their patches and beads as we went along.  We were also required to set up one field trip a month.  We went fun places like the fire station, and the local Christian radio station:

The cub scouts also had a chance to be in a parade!  When we got to the meet-up place the morning of the parade, it was raining and kind of cold.  Both my boys decided they wouldn't prefer to be in the parade after all, so we opted to watch from the sidelines. 

 Some of the meeting were super fun, like the one where they brought in "The Creature Teacher", who let everyone touch a tarantula.  Yuck!

Before the big cub scout camp out, we had a tent-building meeting.  The kids really enjoyed learning to put up a tent, and we packed them each a s'mores snack in a ziploc to enjoy while they played.

Near the end of the school year, we had one final meeting and had everyone come to our house for a bonfire.  The kids roasted marshmallows, met our goats, and ran around outside for a while.  We had mostly city kids in our group, and they all really enjoyed coming out to our place and having some freedom to enjoy nature a bit.  They all had so much fun!  

   It was fun to be a cub scout leader for a season, but at the end of the year Sam and I passed the torch to another parent to take over the leadership.  We decided that since we have so many other activities throughout the year that cub scouts wasn't the best one for our family.  We also spend lots of time outdoors and enjoy the experiences they were focusing on as a family.  We are thankful for the year that we had with such a fun group!