Tigers

We signed Dylan up for Cub Scouts last night. The Pack that he'll belong to seems great. Tigers are the youngest Cub Scouts and they are in first grade. Right now they're letting the kindergartners join their meetings so that next year when they become Tigers, they'll be familiar with everything. Everyone was great last night. It's extremely family oriented and I know that Dylan will have a blast! They even said that younger siblings are able to come to the meetings/events too if it works out better that way for the family. Each child has their parent with them at all meetings/events so that Cub Scouts becomes a family bonding experience. Dads, moms and even grandparents are welcome to become involved. The kids will be taking a trip to PETCO in York in 2 weeks to learn about animals. Last night the theme was magic and the one parent did all kinds of cool magic tricks and the kids got to make their own tricks to take home. Dylan got involved right away and helped do two tricks (he didn't talk, of course, but he happily joined in and assisted when asked). I think this will be a great way for Dylan to possibly make some life long friends. In school the kids are expected to focus on learning and I don't think there are a lot of opportunities for Dylan to really get to know the other kids, but with scouts he'll be able to be around the kids in a very casual setting doing really fun activities (mini golf, snow tubing, fishing, camping, field trips... they're hoping to even visit the white house!)

What really made me even more excited about scouts was when the Scout Master (I think that was who he was) told us about their awards banquet (especially after the pathetic Knowledge-A-Thon "dinner/awards" situation). He went on and on about how fantastic their awards banquet is. The kids invite all their family (grandparents, aunts, uncles etc.) and they give out tons and tons of awards. He said those kids leave that banquet beaming with pride. He said "We make those kids feel SO special and SO proud of what they've accomplished. You can see it on their faces. We make sure we let them know how hard they've work to achieve their awards and patches and how proud we are of them and all they've done. We have a big fancy dinner and really make it a big event where the kids feel so great about themselves....." Now THAT'S what I want for my kids!