A Summer of Scouting

When Justice started out on this Cub Scout adventure, none of us had a clue what to expect.  The first year was awful for me as I was completely confused.  I had no idea what I was doing and just assumed he was getting things done at his Wednesday meetings and that was all there was to it.  And then they had their first awards ceremony, and Justice didn't earn anything.  Not one single thing.  All the other boys did, and Justice was upset (and rightly so).  And I was clueless, and felt really awful because I knew somehow I had let him down.   Right around the time Justice turned 10 and became a Webelos I finally figured out what the Cub Scouts was all about, and boy was I surprised.  Turns out that you really don't get a whole lot accomplished in only an hour a week (duh, I don't know what I was thinking) and the majority of things that are accomplished happen with adult guidance and on the Scouts own time.  After I figured it all out, I sat down with Justice and we discussed what his goals were and what he expected to get out of this experience in the Cub Scouts.  We came up with a plan that we called "learn and earn".   He decided he wanted to earn the things first that were easier and he was familiar with, then we would move on to the things that would be more time consuming and difficult, working on the difficult things during the summer when he had more time to devote to them.  One thing was for certain, now that I knew what my responsibilities were we would never have another awards ceremony where he was embarrassed and upset because he hadn't earned anything.   I created an Excel tracking spreadsheet and we were off to the races.  

I really enjoyed helping him learn and earn, which made the whole process even easier.  I was excited for him to start each endeavor, and when he was finished I loved the sense of accomplishment that he felt.  Some things were easy, and some things were very difficult.  In hindsight I don't think we should have saved all the hard stuff for last because he got a little frustrated and down about his abilities.  It would have made more sense to spread the difficult ones out, and I will remember that when it's Jack's turn to start learning and earning.  

You may be asking where The Coach was in all of this.  Well, I snatched the scouting reigns away from him because he was overworked times ten.  Between his two jobs, school, coaching, his calling at church, and his needy family he was overwhelmed and I was more than happy to step up and take that load off of his shoulders.  

Justice has been counting down the days to this awards ceremony for a few months, because he had earned his Arrow of Light.  He worked tirelessly on his requirements for that and his Webelos Badge and was really excited to be awarded both of them.   Now let's talk about that for a second...  You are absolutely not doing your son any favors if you do the work for them or it's too easy to get anything out of it.  I made Justice work like a dog for every single thing he earned.  No joke, he worked his tail off.  A couple of them (Aquanaut, Outdoorsman) even made him cry.  It took him the entire summer to learn to swim well enough to earn his Aquanaut badge, and if he wouldn't have conquered his fear of snakes he would have never earned several outdoor related things.  My goal was to instill in him the reality that nothing comes easy in this life, and in order to "earn", he had to "learn".  Hard work pays off, and pay off it did for him this summer.  We camped, hiked, biked, swam, made puppets, worked on science, health, nutrition, and a whole bunch of other things every day in the summer.  It kept him busy rather than idle, and not one single video game was played in the Mack house the entire summer.

Last night was VERY important to him.  And to me.  He had done every single task I laid in front of him, without whining or complaining (although he did cry every once in a while).  And when a kid works their tail off and does what they are supposed to do day in and day out, it's up to the adults to hold up their end of the bargain and reward the child appropriately.  On Sunday I was informed that Justice's ceremony would be postponed until November due to a communications (lack thereof) issue.  Nothing had been planned or set up and I completely tripped offline.  To say I was mad would be a big understatement.   The good news was that it only took 30 minutes to rectify the situation and the ceremony was scheduled to go on as originally planned.   This entire chain of events turned out to be a complete blessing.  Because we only had three days to prepare for the ceremony, I got the opportunity to step up and craft the actual arrow used in his ceremony.  When I showed him the arrow the day of his ceremony, he cried like a baby.  He was completely overcome with gratitude, and I was incredibly proud of him.  He said to me that it was the best present he had ever gotten because it would always remind him of our "Summer of Scouting" and all the work we did and the time we spent together.  He is a very emotional and sensitive boy, and at that moment I was glad things happened the way that they did and I had the opportunity to do that for him.  It was well worth the few sleepless nights leading up to the ceremony.

He was awarded his Webelos badge first.

Then he was awarded his religious emblem, the Square Knot.   

Then, he received his Arrow of Light.

Ah, I love this little boy so very much.

My arrow.  Definitely the oddest thing I've ever crafted.  

After he received his Webelos Badge and Arrow of Light, he was awarded all of the belt loops, pins, patches, and activity badges that he worked so hard on.

His belt is now completely full, partly because he's so slim.  If he was just a little bigger he'd have room to fit all of his belt loops.  

The patches he earned last night

Sports and Academic Pins, Activity Badges

After the awards ceremony was complete, the boys got to participate in an "egg drop" contest.  Justice lined a plastic jar with memory foam, the goal being for the egg not to break when dropped from the top of the ladder.

Checking for cracks

No breaks!

And, because no awards ceremony and egg drop can possibly be complete without some homemade Cub Scout cupcakes...

I am so very thankful for the men that volunteer their time and love to my son as his scout leaders.  He has learned so much from them, and they are wonderful teachers.  He is so blessed to have them in his life and he loves them very much.  Leaders can either make or break scouting for a boy, depending on the leaders attitude and spirituality.  My son has wonderful leaders and I know that they have made his scouting experience something he will never ever forget and he will cherish the memories he has of them.  

I asked Justice on the way home last night what he learned from working so hard this summer, and he told me he learned how important it was to work hard for something, and that he was thankful he overcame his fear of water and snakes.  He said he was happy to be a Cub Scout because it taught him how to be strong, set goals, and follow through with assignments.  

In only six more months I will have to let him go to the Boy Scouts, and things will be different.  I will cherish every single minute of this experience with him, not only because it has been so rewarding for both of us physically, emotionally and spiritually, but also because I think my experience with Jack will be more than just a little different.   I love Jack so much, he keeps it real and he keeps me on my toes.  I have four more years to prepare for Jack's entrance into the world of scouting, and I'm not quite sure that's going to be long enough.