During the summer, I was in and out of the scout shop numerous times getting new books for the merit badges the boys were working on. This Council area is new to us, and I was a little perplexed with how little information is given from one district to another. So I called and talked to the registrar and riddled him with questions about upcoming merit badge events. He finally said that he didn't have all the answers and that there were people who knew far more about scouting events before he did. One of those people is a volunteer in the office and is a scout mom herself, by the name of Barbara Moss. He gave me her phone number.......and scouting, in our household, will never be the same! We were excited and active before, but Barb helped make everything easier and sounder in our goals and scheduling. She is a gold mine of information and breathes a palpable excitement for scouting!
We talked about all the ways that the boys can work on merit badges and what sort of activities to do as a troop and as lone scouts. She offered to hold some mini clinics in a conference room at a library near her home in Tacoma. I loaded up the truck with scouts and we met with her for three Mondays in a row. In three days, the boys who participated, were able to earn 5 merit badges!
Barbara even coordinated a field trip for our troop to go to the National Weather Service, up near the University of Washington.
The boys met the week before the trip for a "working" lunch at Roundtable Pizza. They went through all of the information about weather and the water cycle process before going. Because of security in the federal buildings, each boy had to be listed ahead of time. We had a great turn out! Cameron was fascinated in seeing how tornadoes are formed over the ocean by using two 2-liter bottles and a piece of pvc pipe as a connect to create a vortex in the water formation. The weather gadget somehow made it home with us!
The outing to the Weather Service was a practical application of the information they learned. They saw all the computers and world maps in real-time.
The boys even got to see a real weather balloon that is used to get data during storms. Lots of hot air in that room!
We learned that the weather was going to rain over Labor Day weekend, and not to get our hopes up even though it was in the 90's the day we went!
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| Cameron, Daniel Ostler, Braden, and Nathan |
Before school started back, we went for another outing downtown Olympia. I took the boys to the WET museum for a jumpstart on the Environmental Science and Sustainability merit badges.
The WET Museum is located next to the new Hands-on Children's Museum in the heart of Capital. We were able to tour their new, high-tech "recycled" facility. WET stands for Water Education and Technology.
It's a brand-new building, but everything in it was made from reclaimed and/or recycled goods. This chair was made from reclaimed wood and recycled seat-belts.
This chair was not! But it was a virtual demonstration about how technology has helped eliminate the over-use and waste of precious resources. Our tour guide was able to explain to us about how all of the water in the building was actually recycled water and a conservationist's dream come true!
The whole process was also demonstrated through an interactive museum area that the kids were able to do on their own. A scavenger hunt, where they had to compute data on the computers, kept things interesting, and moving along. The prizes were not too bad either!
The hands-on museum explained the process of recycling the water through a cleaning treatment and then reused for other purposes.
The boys were disappointed in me when we got there because they thought they were going "swimming" when I told them that they were going to the WET Museum. They warmed up with all the things to do there. And who wants to go swimming when you can be working on merit badges?!
Ok. It was an hour of merit badge work that wasn't all that fun...until they got to play with stuff! A turtle is kept at the museum...which was older than all of the kids. They can live up to 70-100 years. Who knew!
There was even craft projects in the classroom for the kids to make. No-takers there except for Jessica. She made a very cute dragonfly.
All the hard work is starting to show on the banners. At the Court of Honor that was held on September 11, 2013--Cameron was awarded 23 merit badges. Thirteen were earned prior to moving to Olympia, but 10 came from scout camp and our our summer activities in August!
There were over 16 rank advancements and 110+ merit badges awarded that night. Our family cleaned house. Out of those merit badges, 54 came home with us! Nathan earned 23 and Braden got off to an extremely productive start with 8 of his own! Not bad for a boy who'd only been in Boy Scouts for less than a month and a half! The boys are on fire to keep earning more merit badges. Cameron said he has set a goal to earn ALL of them. Nathan and Braden shouldn't be far behind him because as well--since they are working together on most of them! That could be interesting, as there are presently 137 merit badges. More are being announced after the first of the year, as well.
I was officially asked to be on the Scout Committee at the beginning of September, and am responsible for coordinating merit badge counselors and opportunities. (Pretty much what I've already been doing, but just getting recognized for all the planning and phone calls :) My first assignment was to Jeff. I had him teach a Computers Merit Badge class and we were able to sign all ten of the boys that came off on the new Cyber Chip safety award as well as the merit badge.
The following weekend, our scoutmaster--Andrew Monks--taught the Astronomy Merit Badge. It was 4 hours of fantastic stuff. Andrew is a fighter pilot in the Air Force and is also working on a Master's Degree in Astronomy. You could say that his presentation and knowledge was "out of this world!"
He brought HUGE telescopes and lenses to look at several planets and constellations throughout the solar system.
We started at 7pm and it went till 11pm. As it got really dark, the boys were able to Venus in the horizon and also to see the rings of Saturn.
The MOON was a huge highlight. The picture I got here was taken with my cell phone through the lens of one of Brother Monks' telescopes. It was pretty awesome!!
Merit Badges have been awesome and are great ways to keep the boys learning new things. We are as busy as we make ourselves to be..........and, fortunately, we are rocking and rolling through some fun stuff at a quick pace! It will be exciting to see how many they've all finished by the time school gets out. Summer is definitely a great time to work on them--but Fall is shaping up to be rather productive as well. Only time will tell!
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