Scouting is a life-long adventure

To many, Scouting is something of a novelty, and I was recently taken aback when I realized how many people have never been involved in the activity. 

Jacob recently joined Cub Scouts as a Tiger Scout. I was a Girl Scout (up until sixth grade or so) and my brothers were both Boy Scouts. So it was only natural that Jacob join as well. 

Jacob is a first grader and is a Tiger Scout. Scouts advance ranks by grade.

We attended his first meeting Oct. 16 during which I sat in a room full of adults who weren't quite sure what to do. But we could all plainly hear the boys were having a blast in the room down the hall. 

During introductions, a good majority of the adults who had newly enrolled Scouts had never been involved in Scouting. My jaw nearly dropped. While it had been a part of my life growing up, I didn't expect everyone to have been involved. but I figured more than half would have some experience with the national activity.
Us adults did our adulting -- meeting in parent groups for different dens, purchasing uniforms, awkwardly discussing who would lead groups, and so on. 

The boys had fun and were almost sad to go. 

Jacob said, "Cub Scouts was great! It was so short!" 

When I told him he was there for an hour he couldn't believe it. 

On Thursday, Jacob's belief in the fact that Scouting is just great was reinforced when we went Scouting for Food, a community service project. Boy Scouts annually hang plastic bags with instructions on doors throughout town, asking for donations to the local food pantry. 

If that wasn't enough fun for one night, Jacob was more thrilled on Saturday when we went back to pick up any food people left out. 

"We got 12 donations, Mom! That's so great!" 

He was so excited to help people who don't have what they need. 

We helped sort the food at The Salvation Army, which he also thought was great fun and is super excited for his next project with his Tiger Den and Scout Pack. 

Although I was a Girl Scout, I longed desperately to be a Boy Scout. They did so many more cool things than we did -- wood working, Pine Wood Derby, building stuff, camping, winter camping, and so on. (I secretly read my brother's handbooks and remember being fascinated by the projects they did.) That's not to say our troop didn't do some fun things, but I just wasn't overly interested in designing clothing, cooking domestic meals or finding what colors matched my skin tone (apparently I'm supposed to wear pastels). I wanted to be outside and cook over fires and learn how to survive in the woods, go canoeing and learn about nature. 

I suppose now I will need to learn those skills and will do so right alongside my child as he learns them. It should be quite the adventure.