Scouts

In the last couple of weeks scouting has gotten underway. Luke has den meetings every Sunday afternoon and Tetyana and I have Brownies every other Monday night.

I have been to several meeting that are supposed to help new leaders. I can say honestly that they have not helped me one bit! The Girl Scouts need to come out with a Girl Scout Leaders For Dummies book!! This is how you run a meeting....this is what you need to buy....thank God for the internet! I am such a type A personality I want everything to be perfect and don't want to let anyone down. I was so afraid we wouldn't do something as a troop and at the end of the year all of the girls and parents would be upset with me. Luckily, another leader invited us to her meeting so I could see how a meeting was run (remember, I was never a Girl Scout). Turns out I was putting so much pressure on myself for nothing!

Last week I had a parents meeting and let the mothers know that I could not have a meeting without a co-leader, blah, blah, blah and there was this mom there that was all over it. Too much into it....but I was grateful for help and was looking forward to the meeting this week. One thing that concerned me was she wanted to bring her 15 year old daughter to "help" and couldn't understand that if for some reason the mother couldn't attend that I didn't want her to drop off her 15 year old girl. Weird. This past Monday was our first girls meeting and she doesn't show up! Luckily, there was another mom who stayed and I think I can talk her into co-leading with me!

Despite the little problem, the meeting went very well and the girls all had fun. Tetyana knew one of the little girls because they ride the bus together. We learned 2 songs, did the Friendship Circle, and Tetyana's favorite part of the evening...ate snack!

Luke has been working on his Citizenship and Athletic badges. Poor kid, thought he was going to eat chocolate cake and have fun with his new den...they had the boys doing the aquatic portion of the badge and I think they must have swam for 2 hour straight. My family is so spoiled because I heat the pool for them. The water at the den meeting was freezing and Luke was really unhappy about this. His little lips turned purple! This past Sunday they did push ups, sit ups and ran like crazy. He is having fun but I don't think he expected the work. He is getting ready to go in front of the store and sell popcorn. So, if you see a scout out selling popcorn, please buy!

I think he would sleep in his unform if we let him. He has it on all the time and even got to wear it to school yesterday to promote Cub Scouts at school. I think they both look so cute in their uniforms.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are run so differently. In Boy Scouts it is all about the family. There is no dropping your son off at the den meetings. They invite the whole family to come and participate. This makes Tetyana a Den Princess. Girl Scouts have leaders encourage the parents to drop off the girls. Let them be independent. They are about going on a "Journey" and not just earn badges to fill up your vest. I am quickly finding raising girls and boys are so incredibly different!

I think scouting is going to be great for both kids and our family!! Let's just hope Drew will do the camping!