The Simon Kenton Council Buckeye District roundtable packet for March 2010 is available.

The Buckeye District assembles a great roundtable packet each month which they post to the internet. This one has games, cooking ideas, crafts, songs, skits, ceremonies, and more for the March “Take Flight” theme.

Link (pdf)

Jeremy Zweiacker is a KISMIF.org guest blogger from Oklahoma.  He is a Tiger Cub Den Leader, an Eagle Scout, and a long time Scouter.

Winter time is a great time to do Scouting activities with your own children. Today (as I write this on January 29), I am at home with my children because the snow keeps falling. I am starting to think about what we will do when we go outside, and we will go outside! We are Scouts after all.

My son, a Tiger Cub, has a lot of options when it comes to being outside in the snow and working out of his Tiger Cub handbook. Here are a couple of ideas I have tossed around…

1F. Family Activity – Think of one chore you can do with your adult partner. Complete it together.

Shoveling the snow on the driveway comes to mind. Head outside with a pair of shovels and start digging. With that extra snow that you shovel, you can make a great snow fort or it can be made into an awesomely large snowman!

5F. Family Activity - Go outside and watch the weather.

Snowy days give you a great opportunity to head outside and talk about the weather with your Scout. You can talk about how no two snowflakes are the same, and you can even try to keep one with these great tips from Boys Life.

It is also a great time to talk about the Character Connection for Faith since the sun might not be out.

There are many electives that Tigers can work on as well.

E10 – Helping Hands: Along with your adult partner, help an elderly or shut-in person with a chore.

There are a couple ideas that you can do. Ask your neighbor if you can get their mail for them, saving them a walk to the mailbox. Maybe they need their driveway or walk shoveled? Maybe they need help taking the trash to the curb or from the inside to the garbage container. All you have to do is ask, and they are sure to let you help.

E15 – Our Colorful World: Mix the primary colors to make orange, green, and purple.

Head outside and mix primary colors in the snow. If you have enough materials, make the snowman you just created from shoveling your driveway into a multicolored snowman. Wouldn’t your snowman look funky with an orange head and a purple belly?

E22 – Picnic Fun: With your family or with your den, have a picnic–outdoors or indoors.

It sounds a little crazy, but if you are going outside you might as well take a thermos of hot chocolate along with you and roast a few marshmallows or hot dogs. While you are drinking your hot chocolate, why not collect some snow to make snow ice cream? Now you have your drink, meal and desert!

E32 – Feed the Birds: Make a bird feeder and then hang it outdoors.

Our flying friends are always looking for a place to dine. After you finish drinking that gallon of milk in the fridge, don’t through away the plastic jug, make it into a bird feeder. Hang it outside and watch the birds flock to your feeder, and as a bonus, you are leaving the world a little greener by reusing plastic products.

E-35 – Fun Outdoors: Play a game outdoors with your family or den.

Paint some golf balls black or take the football outside to toss it around. Grab some cardboard (Scouts are thrifty) and make sledding into a sport and see who can go down the hill the farthest. Many summer games can be played outside during the winter.

E-37 – Take a Bicycle Ride: Take a bicycle ride with your adult partner.

I loved riding my bike in the snow when I was younger. It was a great workout and great fun! Younger Scouts may not be strong enough yet to hit the snow trails, but peddling around on the driveway in the snow can be a great way to get outside and burn off some of that cabin fever!

There are options for Cub Scouts of all ranks with the Cub Scout Academic and Sports Program. If you are looking to start a belt loop, the Weather belt loop would be fun to start during the winter. Depending on where you live, Ice Skating and the Snow Ski and Board Sports belt loops are available as well.

I think that it is time for me to head outside with the kids. What kind of winter Scouting activities do you do with your Scout?

The new Baloo’s Bugle is out.  Baloo’s Bugle is a helpful monthly unofficial newsletter with games, activities, ceremonies, puzzles, crafts, and other ideas for den and pack meetings. This one covers the March 2010 “Take Flight” theme.

Also inside is some more information about the rollout of Cub Scouts 2010.

Click here (link) to download Baloo’s Bugle in pdf format or here (link) to download it in Word format.

Here are the top 10 most viewed posts for January 2010 (other than those solely about monthly theme items):

• 2009 New Belt Loops List
• New 2009 Cub Scout Belt Loops Coming
• Video Games Belt Loop Requirements
• 2009-2010 Program Helps Full Download
• 2009-2010 Program Helps
• Good Manners Belt Loop Requirements
• Kindergarten Lions: Pilot Description
• 2010 Scout Sunday Emblem
• Hiking Belt Loop Requirements
• Family Travel Belt Loop Requirements

And for the number fans, January was a new record for KISMIF.org with a total of 74,752 page views.

As I noted yesterday, it appears that BSA Supply Group has issued 2010 commemorative Cub Scout (and Boy Scout) rank badges.

These are images of the 2010 commemorative Cub Scout rank badges (via a pdf posted at Scoutingnews.org) which should soon be available at a scout shop near you.

Link

According to reports on Cub Scout Talk (Yahoo group), BSA Supply Group has come out with a set of 2010 commemorative Cub Scout (and Boy Scout) rank badges. Apparently each badge has notations around the perimeter referring to the 100th anniversary of Scouting.

At this point, they are not available on the scoutstuff website.

As soon as I come across a scan of one, I will post it here.

Link [Restricted list]

DLTK’s Crafts for Kids website has instructions on doing this paper bag bald eagle craft which would probably be a fun project for your Tigers or Wolfs. The site has a template for the project.

Theme: Take Flight

Link

The March 2010 Cub Scout Monthly Theme is “Take Flight”.

Here is the official BSA theme description:

“The Wright Brothers had a lot of courage to accomplish their dream to fly. Air has power to push and pull objects so that they can fly. This month learn all about air, what it consists of, and why it is needed to fly. Learn about gravity.

Make your own flying machines as you hear about the Wright Brothers and their invention. Explore different types of paper airplanes. Figure out which ones fly farther, higher, faster, longer, and why? Hold a pack-wide paper plane derby fun night!

How many things can you name that can fly? Study birds and their flyways. Why do some fly in a V formation?

Take flight outdoors with a den or pack kite derby this month and enjoy that air! Take a field trip to the airport, hobby shop, or a science museum. Earn the Science belt loop and pin.”  [Bold added]

Link

[Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoagli/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

BSA National has posted a statement calling on everyone who can to support ongoing humanitarian relief efforts following the January 12 Haiti earthquake.

The statement suggests making donations through the American Red Cross or via the World Organization of Scouting Movement website.

Link

BSA Supply Group has available this new 2009 police station visit participation patch ($1.19).

This could be a neat way to encourage boys to attend your den or pack’s police station field trip.

Link