Tiger Safe and Smart Belt loop

Hi!

Well, we went to our local fire department with our den recently. And our Den Leader asked us to finish the Tiger: Safe and Smart requirements so the boys could get the loop at the same time.

So, for the last week, we have been working on that.

Requirement 1a: Memorize address

Well, we recently moved so we had to do that anyway. Took about 15 min, but my son has it down now.

Requirement 1b: Memorize a emergency contact phone #

I taught my son my cell # when he started Kindergarten so we just used that.

Requirement 1c: Take the 911 safety quiz

Grateful for this because I never taught my son to call 911. Matter of fact, he called it 999. So, we practiced on my cell phone, talked about what a true emergency was, and took the quiz.

2A: Stop, Drop and roll

Well, I thought he learned that in school but maybe he just didn't pay attention. So we reviewed that, why you would do that, and practiced it.

2B:

How to safely roll someone else in a blanket to put out a fire

Had to explain that and we practiced it

3: Make a fire escape map with your adult

Well, my son is not that great at drawing so we went around and drew the map. We marked our smoke alarms, showed arrows where to go, discussed our safe place to meet..

4: Explain map and practice fire drill

Yup, that was the fun part. My son was on his hands and knees crawling, touching handles carefully ;looking for heat, counted the stairs to know how many, even if it is dark... He loved it!

5: Find smoke detectors and test them

We only have 2 so this was easy

6: Visit a emergency responder station

We went to the Fire Department with our den

This was an easy one but it took a lot of thought into our fire escapes. And my son learned new things that I thought he already knew. Interesting, informative and very IMPORTANT!

So glad we did this one now..

Scouts visit to the Fire Department- Tiger: Safe and Smart requirement #6

Recently we visited our local Fire Department!

And the kids had a blast.
We did this for our Safe and Smart adventure.

 We only have 2 official cub scouts and one member who comes to the meetings but hasn't signed up yet. Also we have 2 little sisters that join us for the meetings. So we had 5 kids visit the Fire Station. I am really thankful there wasn't more because it was hard to keep the kids in line. They wanted to run around and do their own tour but we, the parents, kept making them come back to listen to our guide.

So, when we 1st arrived, we had one member we had to still wait on. The kids were bored and we let them run around the front of the building to try to get some energy out. While this was going on, our den leader was asking our tour guide a lot about Fire Station  #9. We found out that they have volunteers and paid workers. All the training is free. Our guide is on a fast track course to become an EMT, which he says is a lot to learn. He has been with he fire department 13 years. 2 paid and the rest volunteer. He has his own company that started taking up a lot of time so he switched to volunteering. So it was really nice of him to come out at 6:30pm to give some scouts a tour!

We also learned that volunteers are always welcome. And they love when people bring them meals.

So once our final member came, we started our tour. Each child received a Fire fighter's hat. Boys received a red hat, girls a pink.

 We started in the building, showing us the meeting room, where they do reports, the living room, the bedroom, and we glanced at the work out room. 

Then we checked out the actual trucks. Each truck is with the company about 10 years and then replaced. But they have to take really good care of them. This particular Fire Station had 2 trucks and 2 EMT vehicles. The first truck was for emergency's on the ground. It had hoses, ladders, jaws of life, lots of axes, lots of fire extinguishers, first aid bags for any situation, and just a lot of stuff. The 2nd truck had a ladder that extends on the top. Of coarse the kids wanted on that but ALL the adults were like," heck no."

But our guide did let the kids in the fire truck, which was a big highlight!

Then he showed them the thermal scanner. It helps the fire fighters know how hot the fire is or where it is. He demonstrated by having teh kids put their hands on the wall and leave it there for a minute. Then he showed them how the heat from their hands were on the screen. The boys laughed and thought it was so cool.

After that, the guide gave each kid a bag that had colors, stickers, a safety coloring book, ect.

We let the kids loose again on the parking lot while the parents had a lot more questions. 

All in all, one of the best den meetings we have had.

Thank you for your service and the great tour Fire Station  #9....from den #9!

Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary for a requirement

For Tigers in the Wild Adventure

Requirement 7

Our den did most of Tigers in the Wild during their camping trip. My son couldn't go because of a stomach flu. So, we made other plans!

We were so excited to go to Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary  in Montgomery, TX! I LOVE wolves so I was super excited for this requirement.

I made a shirt for my son to wear that has his pack # and that he was a tiger. At the time, he didn't have his pack shirt. So he wore his "new" pack shirt on this adventure.

When you park, you have a small hike to reach your area. Then you sign a release form. Then you wait for your guide to start. As your sitting there, you can see all the wolf dogs and the one wolf they have. Beautiful! And let me tell you, right within 5 minutes you will have a favorite. My son's favorite  was Big Boy and mine was Achilles.It was also lunch time for the wolves. So it was interesting to see how they were fed.

When the guide starts, he gives you some basic history of how this wolf sanctuary started. How it's run, what they feed the wolves, how people mislabel dogs as wolf dogs, and the traits of a wolf.

He asked the 2 boys there, who has a stronger bite. Shark, wolf, dog? My son said wolf. All the adults said shark. He was right, we were wrong. So the guy looked at my son and told him he had a gift for him in the gift shop. What can I say? That got my son's attention!

Then we started our tour.
Here is the link to the Bio's of the wolves:
http://www.saintfrancissanctuary.org/bios.htm

First we saw the enclosure for Tala and Remus. And we were told how they came to be there. Remus' brother is also on the premises but separated far away as possible to stop the fights. We were also told how much wolf was in each animal. Stories of the animals that show just how intelligent they are. You gain a deep respect for each animal, if not love them.

And thats how the tour continued. You learn about the background of each animal. What percentage of wolf they are. The personalities of each one. You learn about wolf traits vs dog traits. You learn who the alpha is and how she still controls the others. Mystery is a beautiful yet such dainty alpha.
You learn about the 3 pack that they have, the first to be known in an enclosure of 2 females and 1 male. It was awesome!
Here are some pictures.

After you have seen all the wolves and learned so much about them, you get to meet and PET a wolf dog! Yes, she is of lower wolf content but who cares! Interesting fact: we went there right after it rained. When we petted Tala, the guide had us smell our hands. No wet dog smell!
Here are some pictures of Tala walking down , letting the visitors pet her.

After Tala left back to her area, we were set free to explore a little. They have a cool memorial that was set up for the wolves that have passed. My son wanted to see it and I have to warn you, its sad. But it was beautiful! Want to take a guess at who built it? It was an Eagle Scout project for a young man in 2011 from troop 928. I think he did an awesome job!

After having a quiet moment walking around and reading the names of the wolves that have passed, my son hunted down our tour guide. And this is the surprise that he had for him.

My son and I were taken aback by the Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary patch. But it was a pleasant surprise. Then we hunted down the gift shop and did some serious shopping. Did I mention I love wolves? I had to get a beautiful necklace that had Mystery's fur inside. Not to mention it is getting close to 2016, so I had to get a new calendar. T-shirts are always great to have, so my son and I bought matching T-shirts. They had grab bags, cups, beautiful pictures, magnets, Christmas tree Ornaments... I went a little nuts. LOL
But all the proceeds go directly back to the wolves. So hey, they need it, right?
And yes, they DO need it! They are in desperate need of repairing a fence. This fence will cost them $20,000. So go visit them! If you don't have time, there are many other ways to help.
Many ways to help
GoFundMe Page for the fence
Another way you can help is by going to their amazon page and buying from their wish list. Or through Amazon Smile. Anything will help.
Amazon Wish List
I hope ya'll can go out and visit. I had a blast and my son swears he did too! And you can always use cub scouts as an excuse to go visit. He just NEEDS a new badge, right?

Cub Scouts Outdoor Activity Award

Cub Scout Outdoor Activity Award

Ok, so this is an award your cub scout can earn each year.

The 1st time they earn it, it will be a pocket flap award. This needs to be worn on the right side pocket. And from what I have read, every year after that, when earned, it will be a wolf track pin.

Now, how do you earn this?

http://www.scouting.org/Home/CubScouts/Leaders/Awards/CSOutdoorActivityAward.aspx

Here is a link that shows what each cub scout rank has to do to earn it. 

I have a Tiger, so that's what I will be talking about.

So, 1st, the tiger scout MUST finish his BackYard Jungle adventure.  It says he should do this at a camp. Then he has to do 4 of the following outdoor activities.

Here is the list from the scouting website:

Outdoor Activities

These activities must be in addition to any similar activities counted for rank advancement, and can be accomplished as a family, den, or pack.

• Participate in a nature hike in your local area. This can be on an organized, marked trail or just a hike to observe nature in your area.
• Participate in an outdoor activity such as a picnic or park fun day.
• Explain the buddy system and tell what to do if lost. Explain the importance of cooperation.
• Attend a pack overnighter. Be responsible by being prepared for the event.
• Complete an outdoor service project in your community.
• Complete a nature/conservation project in your area. This project should involve improving, beautifying, or supporting natural habitats. Discuss how this project helped you to respect nature.
• Earn the Summertime Pack Award.
• Participate in a nature observation activity. Describe or illustrate and display your observations at a den or pack meeting.
• Participate in an outdoor aquatics activity. This can be an organized swim meet or just a den, pack, or family swim.
• Participate in an outdoor campfire program. Perform in a skit, sing a song, or take part in a ceremony.
• Participate in an outdoor sporting event.
• Participate in an outdoor interfaith or other worship service.
• Explore a local city, county, state, or national park. Discuss with your den how a good citizen obeys the park rules.
• Invent an outside game and play it outside with friends for 30 minutes.

Easy, right? 

Lastly, let your den leader know you are finished with it. I just let our Den leader know about this 2 days ago. She will be contacting our pack leader's wife, who will then, hopefully, let us know if another step must be taken. If there is, I'll post it here.

Good luck and have fun doing this!

Fun With Son 2015 at Bavoy Scout Ranch

Fun with Son 2015

at Bavoy Scout Ranch

There are many activities and opportunities with your scout. I subscribed to my council's Facebook page and they post all kinds of things. Activities, camp outs, ideas, you name it and it is there.

One such thing was the Fun with Son Camp, which was one day of activity, followed by a camp fire and some boy scouts doing skits and cheers, then sleep in your tent. Next day we had some things too but check out was at 9am.  For $24 a person, you get a lot of stuff.

So, for us, we stayed Saturday to Sunday. Check in was 12-2pm. We got there around 1:30 pm. When you get there, they have packets that include a colored wristband ( ours was green because we were team hulk!), your scout's badge, a activity schedule, a map and some other stuff. We went to our campsite right away and set up our massive 8 person tent. I would suggest a smaller tent, it took forever to put up and to take down. Most people had a 2-3 person tent which I was envious of. 

So then after putting our tent up, we hiked to our 1st activity scheduled, which was BB guns. Parents get to lay down with their child on a map and help them pump and shoot a BB gun. We could also do the "wrist rockets" which were sling shots but my son didn't want to.

Next activity was leather works and catapults. The kids received a leather bracelet, which they got to "stamp" designs and letters into it by hammering certain metal stamps into the leather. My son chose to put a tiger head with the words BEWARE. Then he went to make a catapult out of a spoon, rubber bands, and Popsicle sticks. Note: all the activities really required a parents help for the tigers. 

After that, we went to make rockets out of paper and tape. They used a pipe to get the right size so that it could blast off. My husband enjoyed this the best because they worked as a team at 1st. Then he had the bright idea to design his own and talked smack about how he was going to beat my son's rocket. Other parents laughed at him smack talking to a 6 year old, whose rocket was built by my husband also. They had a blast trying to see who could go farther and highest! My husband now wants to do this activity at my son's birthday party.

So now we came to the part that my son loved, which was to make his own hero costume. He made a cape, a mask and a shield. He actually lost his shield while making his cape, so Mommy had to jump in and make another for him. But while I was working on another Captain America shield, he was helping the person running that area by picking up markers and paper off the ground.

And last activity before dinner was archery. I'll be honest, my son needed help on that too. He couldn't pull back the string and aim. The 1st three arrows landed in different parts of the grass, then the 4th, with my husbands help, had a bulls-eye. So now my husband is into that too...LOL

During all these activities, there is a tent that has goldfish snacks, cold caprisons, and bottled water that we could go to at anytime to re hydrate. 

Ok, after those activities, we headed back to the tent for an hour, where the kids who were complaining for the last hour about how much they walked, miraculously had a burst of energy. They climbed stuff, played with other scouts, ran around, played with these flyer things that the ranch gave every boy...while we parents sat on the ground or chair and just watched, exhausted.

We let him play for a while but my husband went to Walmart to pick up worms so that we could fish. So as soon as he came back, we drove down to the catch and release lake. It was really nice. My son caught 3 little perch and released them. We fished while noticing other dens were there with lots of their kids, playing games or doing stuff as a den. 

We had our other member from our little den there too but really didn't interact much. I won't lie, some people it requires me to search my brain for something to say. It then makes me uncomfortable and feel kind of forced, so I would rather do the small talk for 10 min and just walk away.  Nothing to do with the person in general. I didn't know him so well, so it was just forced. Matter of fact, I tried to call his wife to ask if she wanted me to take pics of her son and hubby but I had NO reception   ( warning to Sprint Users). And thought it might be a little weird to take pictures of them without getting her permission, so I didn't. 

Dinner was set as a cafeteria thing. You wait in line, get your food, sit at a table and eat. My son hated the whole dinner so he ate a fresh apple. He didn't even like the cake. I thought it was ok but I was starving. We had chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy and cake.

After dinner, we went back to the tent to chill for a little while before heading over to the camp fire area. It was fun. We had 4 boy scouts there doing cheers and skits. I felt like I was back in a high school pep rally. My son had a blast! Even the cheers were the same that our cheerleaders did..LOL Towards the end, the kids received a glow necklace, which everyone loved. Then we went to the tent and stared at the stars fro about an hour. Most of our little campsite went to sleep but other sites were playing and laughing, playing music, and just having fun. But my little family took the cover off the tent and just looked at the different stars. Do you know, you can see a lot of satellites? I remember when I was a kid, you never saw them. But we picked out so many, it actually made me kind of sad. Won't give up my DirecTV though...LOL. But that's how we fell asleep, mu husband, my son and I looking at the stars on a beautiful clear night.

The next morning, my husband and I woke around 5:30 am. He was freezing! I was actually warm in my little sleeping bag. So he went to the car with the heater, then I really wanted a coffee and he drove 22 miles to get me a Starbucks coffee. True Love! Especially since he didn't tell me how far he was going to drive to get it. In that time, I woke my son, ate breakfast around 6:50am and just walked around afterward waiting for daddy. When Daddy arrived, we went to the little store they had, bought some really great root beer, my son got a hiking stick and some decorations for it and arrowheads. Went back to camp, where everyone already packed up and started our own packing. Check out was at 9am and they had some flag ceremony at 9:30. We didn't wait around but after checkout, we left. 

Here is the badge and the certificate that my son received. If you notice, super heroes signed it, which to my son, it is SO AWESOME!. His words,,LOL

So yes, this camp was well worth it! He also has a shirt that says Fun With Son on it.

My Family's Duty to God belt loop (Needed)

My Family's Duty to God!

Well, I'm sure this will bring some feed back..LOL

With the scouts, they support every religion out there. That way ALL boys can be a part of them. 

So, for Requirement 1, the scout has to find out what duty to God means to his family. I sat with my son and explained to him that God is very important to us. Also, I explained that to us, it means LOVE.  So, when I asked him to draw a picture, he drew Daddy, him and I together.

Requirement 2- Find out what makes each member of your family important.

So he wrote about him, me, Daddy, Grandma and Granny. He had to write what their strengths are and draw a symbol next to their row. 

Requirement 3- Make a project that shows your family's beliefs about God.

Well, I had Gold poster board ( I wouldn't suggest it) and he did some crafts on it. He drew a cross with silver stones under it. He drew his version of the devil/evil. He also drew the symbols that he made for everyone. 

Requirement 4- Participate in a worship ceremony... We haven't got around to that.

BUT!!!!

You HAVE to do #1 and then select 2 requirements from 2-4 to do. So really, he is finished. Requirements 1-3 are done.

Games Tigers Play- 2nd belt loop ( Needed)

Games Tigers Play

Honestly, we signed up for Tiger Day, which did most of the requirements for this adventure.
You can find out more by looking at my post on it.
Tiger Day!
It covers these requirements!

Requirement 1A

Requirement 1B

Requirement 1C

Requirement 2

Requirement 3

Requirement 4 asks for you to go to a sporting event and ask the coach/player question. We went  to a Junior High Football game ( we are in Texas and everyone loves football!). One of our old neighbors ( a friend from my son)  plays football for the team so we asked the parents if he can interview him at the game. They said sure. So we rushed over there ( which was over 40 min drive) and still was late. But we got to see most of the game! My son was more interested in playing with the younger siblings, who he hasn't seen in about 6 months. I don't like using names on my blog but we did get to watch #41 play, who we found out was the captain of that team. And since we couldn't interview him before the game, he was nice enough to let my son call later that evening and ask him 2 questions.
Why do you like playing football? Answer: It is fun. ( my son won't try because he doesn't want to get hit...LOL)
What do you do to get ready for a game? Answer: we get our pads and jerseys on. Then if it is an away game, we get on the bus to go play.
His team lost this game but won the last. We still said it was a great game and we had fun. Then we thanked him for allowing us to go and he thanked us for coming. ( These kids have the best manners. Their parents raised them right!)

And after the game, we had sushi! So it was a win/win for us.

Requirement 5 asks that you bring a nutritious snack to a den meeting. Well, at our last den meeting, my son brought pretzels because it was a healthy alternative snack. 

Make sure to ask the den leader what kind of allergies the kids have. We only have 2 boys in our den so it was easy. And the other scout had to make up a game for our den, that way both boys got to sign off on something.