The Countdown Begins!

I've neglected the blog over the past few weeks as we packed in a few more trips before school started.  Regular blogging will commence!  

Today marks exactly 7 days until our first den meeting of the year.  I am excited and nervous to get things underway!  I feel that we're going to get a lot of new scouts this year, so managing that many kiddos will surely keep me engaged and challenged.  I will be leaning heavily on the other adults in our Leadership to keep things running smoothly.

I won't know how many boys will be attending on Monday, probably until right before the meeting!  I'll be working hard all week to make sure I have enough Bobcat Lapbooks prepared, enough youth applications to send home, and plenty of informational letters discussing our program and the necessary program materials and fees.

I love that we are getting a Cub Scout Camp day in October.  This should really excite the newcomers as well as their parents.  I hope all of my summer preparations and activity plans pan out well and the kids have a great year.  

I'm off to start packing up supplies!  If I don't start now I'm sure I'll forget something important!  My first meeting plan revolves around the Bobcat Lapbooks, using my returning scouts to help the new ones along the Bobcat Trail (it's a component of a Bear achievement!), making the Bobcat Trail fortune tellers, and working on our quarter circle designs to show off at the Pack Meeting.  I wonder if I'll have time to work some skit practice into the meeting!

Until Next Time,

CubMom

Den and Pack Number Keychains

To hammer home my point of always testing out my projects before I have my scouts do them, I had one go wrong the other night.  Like a "what was I thinking?!" moment.  I've had a template for making numbers for a pony bead key chain, and thought my guys might like having something to hang on their school bags once we get back in school mode and the pack numerals sounded good to me.  


In my ever growing arsenal of project supplies, I grabbed a box of pony beads, a bag of keychain rings, and a roll of 1mm stretch magic.

I made a simple loop knot (I know it actually has a name, but it escapes me at the moment).

Ah, but the knot wouldn't stay tight.  I kept pulling and pulling, but no dice.  I kept going anyway.  


Making these keychains is pretty simple; it helps to have all of your supplies right next to you, and have a nice flat surface to work on.  


Separate the strings, and put your entire row of beads on to one string.

From top to bottom, we'll call them 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.  Next, take the other string, and string it back through the beads in opposite order; 5, 4, 3, 2 then 1.  Pull the strings so there isn't any slack at the top.  You might have to wiggle and jiggle a little to get it even.

Keep using this method one row at a time, adjusting the strings as you go along.  I added two more rows to mine before I gave up!

Stretch Magic was NOT the best choice of lacing material!  I couldn't get it to lay flat, nor could I keep the strings from slipping and sliding around!  Luckily, I hoard string and embroidery floss and yarn and hemp string...see where I'm going with this?

I took all of the beads off, put some hemp string on, and got back to work.  Here's how it ended up.

Much better!  One and a half numbers in, I stopped.  I realized that doing a 3 number keychain would be pretty big, and would take up more time than I wanted to devote in a den meeting.  Solution?  Switch out the beads to blue and yellow and have them make their den numbers!  The number template link can be found here.  You may have to add rows to some of the numbers to keep them evenly sized, but the template makes it easy to figure out!


Until next time,


CubMom

Recycled and Inexpensive Items for Projects

It was a great vacation week, but now we are back to business!


I drive everyone in the house insane because I'm constantly saying, "Don't throw that away!  I can use it for Cub Scouts!"  Among the things I save are cardboard paper towel tubes, cardboard toilet paper tubes, plastic jars, plastic takeout containers, spare nuts and bolts, extra stickers, scraps of paper, and magazines that have been read.  You just never know when or how you'll be able to put these things to use!


I also stock up on specific items when I see them on sale or clearance.  This is a great time of year to stock up on crayons, markers, glue, scissors, and construction paper.  Usually if you wait until a week or two after school starts, you can get these items REALLY cheap.  I got name brand scissors at Target last year on clearance for $0.51!  I always try to have enough of everything to go around, or for two boys to share things like glue bottles and packs of markers or crayons.  


And quite honestly, the dollar store, specifically Dollar Tree for me (no affiliation), has great finds.  I stock up on measuring cups and spoons, pencils, wiggle eyes, pipe cleaners, river rocks (pet rocks, geologist pin) and many other craft supplies.  We've also used dollar store flip flops and shoe laces to make lacing cards for the Knots electives, as well as neck ties and rope.  When we put together our Outdoor Camping Essentials pack (Wolf elective 23 I think?)  I got everything but the food from the dollar store.  If I recall correctly, I found large plastic pencil cases that had a clip attached, small flashlights, collapsible water bottles, first aid kits, and a few other items.  We added granola bars for camping food.  I think there is one around here somewhere.  When I track it down I will edit with the pictures.


What items to you recycle for scout projects?  Is there anything else that you stock up on because you just know you're going to need it?


Until Next Time,


CubMom

Woven CD Coaster

I pinned this CD weaving tutorial a while back and decided to give it a try yesterday.  The blogger suggests making your own "needles" our of plastic lids, but I had some sturdy plastic needles on hand from my Wolves making bean bags two years ago, so I used that.  I recall getting a bag of 12 or so at the craft store for a dollar or two.  I won't bore you with the tutorial steps as it's already taken care of in the link above.  This was an easy project, can be tied into Making Something Useful, Webelos Craftsman, and probably the Native American themed electives for the weaving.  I had my older son give the weaving a try and he did well with it.  You can also use this to add, reinforce and enhance a knot tying meeting.  


Due to my near constant need to reorganize, I couldn't think for the life of me what I did with the box of blank CDs, so I just borrowed a movie from my kids!  I had to cut off my weaving to give it back to them when I finished!  


This is the loom part.

 Tie on your first color with a square knot.  

 It's just simple over and under, around and around.

 Tie on a new color when you get bored!

 I didn't finish all the way out to the edge, but you will want to to cover the entire CD.  I saw a pack of 12 CDs at the office supply store for $4.99 if you don't have any laying around the house.

For Wolves and Bears, I would have the loom part already prepared.  I'd have the Webelos do the entire thing themselves.  Depending on how many CDs you have on hand, you could give the boys a few extras to do at home so they have a set of coasters that they could give as a gift.  There is no limit to how many colors they can use, encourage them to tie on as many as they'd like and in the colors that they like.  The craft store usually has decent yarn in a variety of colors for $1 each.  I think this is something my scouts will really enjoy making!

Until next time,

CubMom

Wax Paper Sun Catcher

Did you know that wax paper can be used to make a sun catcher?  Neither did I, so I thought I'd give it a go!  

I did a google image search for Cub Scout coloring pages, and I came across this little gem here.  I grabbed a piece of wax paper, and a box of Sharpies (washable markers will NOT work on wax paper!) and got to work.

I just moved my wax paper around to the different shapes to trace all of the components.  Then I colored it in.  Apparently, I haven't used my sharpies in a while, so many were pretty dried out.  Good thing I gave this project a try before I brought it to a meeting!  The results don't exactly look like a Cub Scout uniform, but I got the job done.

Then I cut it out with some zig zag scissors, punched a hole in the top and strung some ribbon through.  

Add a suction cup and you're good to go!  This project is definitely a keeper.  I'll put together several different printed images that the boys can trace, and also give them the option to draw something of their own.  You can tailor the images you print to go along with whatever achievement you're working on to add to your programming.  This could also work for the Webelos artist activity badge, art belt loop, or the make a gift electives in each of the handbooks.

Until next time,

CubMom

Den Meeting Projects (crafts)

I've been working on a post for almost a week now about some projects that my scouts really enjoyed.  The only problem is that I don't have pictures of these projects, and it would be ridiculously boring to just read about them.  I contemplated posting a bunch of links, but then you have to go back and forth between the post and the linked page.  So we're just going to muddle our way through.  


I've mentioned before that my group LOVED doing craft projects.  It was perhaps the most asked question at the beginning of each den meeting.  Crafts and projects are supposed to be used to add and enhance your program.  Simple cut and paste jobs just won't do!  I tried to make all of our projects tie into what we did in the meeting, or used them to get us started on what we would be working on next.  Just about everything we did counted toward an achievement, elective, or portion of a belt loop or pin.  Around holidays, we did something using that particular theme.  I know that 90% of my pack is returning, and I'm anticipating doubling our previous number of scouts in the new school year.  Nothing gets past these guys, so I surely won't be able to use something next year that I did last year!  So I'm spending some time this summer to find some projects that are new and different.  Most of that time so far has been spent in Pinterest!  


I found an activity that I'm going to do at the first den meetings.  Each boy decorates a quarter circle inside a square outline and then you put them all together.  When I click through the pin to the original link, it's in German, and it's a private blog.  Womp womp.  So here is a template I made.  

I made mine 4" by 4".  6" would have been too big once I fit them all together.  I plan on printing them on white card stock so the squares are study, then I'll attach them to poster board for the first pack meeting.  The plan is to match up ones that are similar, so the boys can see that while we are all individuals, together we make up a group with things in common.

On another note, mixing my colored rice worked well, and I'll be able to use it for "rice art" bottles, and the iSpy bottles.  My wee one made an iSpy bottle with the rice and it turned out really well.

Once I saw that the rice layers well, I shook the jar for a few minutes to mix it all up for our iSpy bottle.  My little guy had fun choosing what "spies" to put in the bottle.  We used a funnel to pour the rice in, and he loves shaking it up to find everything in there!  Included are animal and vehicle beads from Joann Fabrics, as well as a bunch of various shaped buttons from several chain craft stores.  There are also some plastic bingo chips, alphabet beads, pony beads, and plastic charms.  Bags of several hundred beads are just a few dollars.  I mixed everything I had into a big hexagonal shaped jar with a lid.  Finding everything in there is an adventure in and of itself!

I'm working on more ideas.  Hopefully my kids will want to demonstrate them for the blog!

Until next time,

CubMom

Den and Pack Outings

As a Cub Scout Leader, I try to plan outings for my boys about once a month.  Some months this is hard because of testing schedules, holidays, other school events, etc., but for the most part, the goal was accomplished.  


Here is a list of the outings we did.  Some of these were done in place of the regular den meeting, and others were done on weekends.


Clean up at a local state park
Bowling
Geology program and planetarium show at a state museum
Packaging holiday gifts to send to the troops serving overseas
Overnight trip to a local museum
Cub Scout Camp day program
Cub Scout Camp overnight program
Trip to a nature center for a pond study
Home Depot kids building program


Last summer, I made a list of everything local and semi local that would be able to accommodate our group, and accomplish an aspect of scouting for the boys.  Everything we did came right from that list, and really enhanced our program.  Several of the trips didn't cost us any money, and the others were just a few dollars per scout.  


This year I am planning a visit to a radio station, police station or fire house, horseback riding, another park clean up and packaging gifts for soliders, and some more museum visits.  


What types of outings are popular in your pack?  Do you find that it's easy to find places that offer a good enhancement to your program?


Until next time,


CubMom