Arts and Crafts

Several months ago I was called to be the Cub Committee Chairman. Until that time, I'd lived in ignorant bliss in all things cub or scout. I have 4 boys, so yes, I'd had some exposure, but let me say the first time I went to a pack meeting and they did cheers, I wondered if I had wandered into some alternate dimension. Who were these people and what were my sons going to be exposed to?

12 years later, I was little more informed, but not much. I'd had no idea there was such a calling. My hubby had been called to be the Scout Committee Chair about two years before, and I was amazed at the stuff he did and the inner workings of the Scout organization within the church.

Now suddenly I've been thrust into a world of little boys who know the strange little cheers by heart, love to make burping sounds, and think making fires is the greatest activity in the world. I'm not a grandmother yet!

Well, since our Cub Master is usually out of town over our Pack meeting nights (conveniently -- I might add) I have been left to run them without him, having never done this before in my LIFE! The first one was okay, but hilarious because we did water stuff. What can go wrong with water? The hose was a bigger hit than the small wading pools, but only just.

This last meeting I was in charge of, was about s'mores. (Cub Scouts, for those who are like me and had no idea -- have themes each month to help with den and pack meetings.) Basically, it was all the fun you have in summer.

Two of our new cub mothers decided this was the perfect time to have them cross off some activities in their cub books about building and putting out fires. One of the Primary presidency has a fire pit in their back yard, so she was volunteered to have the meeting at her house. Since they also have a pool, she suggested swimming be part of it as well.

Then there was the crafts part. Now, I'm thinking boy's aren't really into crafts. I mean, my boys weren't -- at least at home. So I'm thinking, the least amount of effort to put together our craft, the better -- if they even wanted to participate when there was swimming, games, a trampoline and did I mention the fire pit? The two mother's had the boys get the fire going before we actually started the meeting so that it would be burned down sufficiently to make real s'mores after swimming. This was the boy's first fire...

I've decided that there is an art to building a good fire, and with enough guidance and effort, anyone can made a good one. These kids had a huge fire going within 10 minutes, using enough newspaper to singe the edges of the dead grass that lined the pit. The member who's home we were using, carefully pointed out that using too much paper makes the big pieces of soot in the air -- but no one listened to her, I was watching. One boy even tried to point out to her the logic of their building -- It cracked me up.

Anyway -- the craft part was making s'mores to hold their kerchiefs in place. They were made out of foam with cotton balls and supposedly little rings of pipe. Well, being a procrastinator, I never found the pipe. What I did discover, was that foam makes good rings with a staple. You just have to find the right size stapler, or the loop is too big.

I enlisted my adult daughters to help cut out all the various foam squares so we had 'crackers' and 'chocolate', and then I dotted the crackers so they looked a little more real. The instructions called for a glue gun, but we were afraid it would melt the foam so we tried alternatives like glue sticks, but they didn't work on the foam to foam.

I ended up stapling the bottom 'cracker' to the ring while the kids ran to another mom who monitored the glue gun (I gave in -- there was no way it was going to work otherwise) to glue the 'chocolate' to the 'cracker' and then come back to glue stick the cotton balls to the 'chocolate' and 'cracker'. The glue stick actually worked well with the cotton balls...I was surprised. When they were finished, they looked just like the picture.

What really surprised me was how many of the boys wanted to make one! One of the older boys even wanted to take one home to make because he'd been too busy swimming. He told me he'd already made one before, but it had gotten lost and wanted to make another one.

I guess boy's do like crafts after all.

The boy who had pointed out the merits of paper in the fire volunteered to take the leftover's home so that his brothers and sisters could each make one. I'm sure his mom was thrilled...grin.

I don't think crafts are going to be an integral part of pack meeting, but at least now I know they'll do it when presented with the choice.

Life never ceases to amaze.

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