Scouting Saturday: New Merit Badges & More

My kids are so excited!

BSA announced some new merit badges for Boy Scouts, and some new belt loops and pins for Cub Scouts.  And from the looks of it, they aren't taking away any of the merit badges either.

First, the stuff my Boy Scouts are thrilled about:

• Robotics Merit Badge:  coming 4th quarter of 2010.  Uh, yeah, I'd say I'll have two boys who want to camp out at the Scout Shop waiting for this merit badge book to arrive.
• Inventing Merit Badge: coming 1st quarter of 2010.  Connor already has this on his list of merit badges to earn by the next Court of Honor.  That might be pushing it (Court of Honor is scheduled in April -- so I guess it depends on whether this comes out early in the first quarter, or late.)
• Geocaching Merit Badge: coming 2nd quarter of 2010.  William was particularly interested in this one.  I think he'll be trying to convince his uncle to work on this with him next summer.

There is also a just-released Scuba Diving merit badge, and Scouting Heritage merit badge is due out in the 2nd quarter of 2010.  I think that one sounds intriguing, but the kids don't typically give me a vote in what merit badges they earn.  I say "typically" because they have been informed of a few that are mandatory (such as -- they will earn the Traffic Safety MB before I will even think about allowing them to get a driver's permit -- and that goes for all of them.  If they aren't Boy Scouts -- like Trina -- they will still need to meet all the requirements.  Mean Mommy.)

Cub Scouts has even more new stuff.  There is an academics and sports program, where the kids earn a belt loop for doing a real basic introduction to an area, and they can earn a pin for going more in-depth.  The new options that excite my kids:

• Family Travel
• Photography
• Reading and Writing
• Video Games
• Hiking
• Kickball
• Horseback Riding

There are a bunch of others, some of which excite me (I do plan school around a lot of the belt loops/pins):

• Disabilities Awareness
• Good Manners
• Nutrition
• Hockey (okay, they probably won't earn it, but I'm thrilled it has been added)

And there are a couple others that don't really excite any of us, except that it is great to see new things out there:  Pet Care and Skateboarding.

Isn't that all just so great?  It is going to be a fun year of Scouts...