Welcome to Day 1 of this awesome blog ‘hop’. With 3 boys who are at different levels of Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, I have way more than 5 topics I could blog about here.
A year ago, I shared briefly about using Cub Scouting in our homeschool endeavors. We still do incorporate as much as possible as there are such wonderful opportunities for the boys.
Beyond the basic materials, Cub Scouts have the ability to earn belt loops and pins in a variety of academic and sports topics. There is pretty much something for every boys to choose from on the list (even video games if you child is like mine!) Under the academic category, you will find 25 options. There’s another 31 options under sports. And, some of the belt loops are so easy to earn with only a small number of requirements to meet. The pins do take more effort,although there are usually more options for requirements that have to be done to earn it.
The most recent belt loop that D has earned is the Horseback Riding one. I think all the boys in his den enjoyed the outing. All they had to do was:
- Explain five safety precautions for when you are near a horse.
- With help from an experienced horse handler, demonstrate how to safely mount and ride a horse and then how to safely dismount the horse.
- Go on a supervised horseback ride for at least 20 minutes. Wear an approved helmet (such as one approved for horseback riding by the ASTM, or American Society for Testing and Materials).
Here are a few photos from that cold weekend trip:
For those that are curious, both R and D earned the Video Games belt loop and pin. And, no, it was not all about playing video games for hours on end!
Rather, they had to learn more about responsible play and what the rating system really means. What they actually enjoyed the most was trying to teach a parent to play one of the video games. I’ve done a few on the Wii and Mr. O has only tried once with the Wii Sports (it’s not his cup of tea.)
Here’s the one time he did try boxing with the older boys teaching him (long before the video games loop was out!)
Now that D is moving up into Webelos, he can re-earn belt loops and pins to count for Webelos work. What we need to decide is if he’ll wear the loops on his belt or get the display case at the Scout shop to hang on the wall.
Come back tomorrow to see what I’ll blog about next with the topic of Scouting with Boys. And, don’t forget to click the button to the left and see what my other TOS Crewmates are blogging about this week. Don’t worry if you can’t read all 325 posts this week….bookmark and keep visiting when time permits!
