Monday, November 29, 2010

Blog Cruise: Talking about the extras


Blog Cruise time again, only with Thanksgiving, I totally forgot.  So this post is very last minute.  At least it is a topic I don't have to think about much.

The question this week has to do with extra-curricular activities.

We don't do a lot.  We have had a couple of times where we were.  But right now, no, not all that much.  I don't want to schedule my kids' lives so that they never get to play.  And honestly, we simply cannot afford to be spending the time or money to do most of the great looking stuff out there.

Our recurring extra-curricular activities basically boil down to Scouts and swim lessons.  We also have some non-recurring things.

Scouts.  This year, all four boys are involved.  Connor and William are Boy Scouts (a Life and First Class scout, respectively), Thomas is a Webelos, and Richard is a Tiger.  I have blathered on about the huge benefits I see in scouting once or twice on here, but in a nutshell:
  • My boys are getting the opportunity to interact with other loving, Christian, mostly homeschooling MEN.  Particularly at the Boy Scout level, but also in Cubs.  
  • My boys are getting the opportunity to interact with their peers.  Boys from loving, Christian, mostly homeschooling families.  
  • My boys are getting the opportunity to learn a lot of great stuff.  Things I am simply never going to teach them.  Like the Cubs playing Ultimate Frisbee.  Like knot-tying.  Like anything beyond very basic first aid (I am HORRIBLE with first aid).
  • My boys are getting the opportunity to learn about leadership.  That has been interesting, to say the least.
  • And Scouts is FUN.  The big two do a lot of camping, cooking, hiking, etc.  The Cubs don't have as frequent of chances to do extra stuff, but their meetings are more fun week to week.
  • And my boys are challenged.  There is always something new to strive for, something else to achieve.  Which brings up another point...
  • My boys get recognition.  They get to stand up in front of the pack or troop and be awarded new ranks, new merit badges, belt loops, etc.  
  • And we get the opportunity to participate in a lot of other things through scouting.  Community service requirements pushed us to find something that we can (almost) all do.  Care & Share lets kids ages 6 and up work... so everyone but Katrina can participate. 
The other primary extra-curricular we do is swim lessons.  We aren't always able to have the kids taking them, but we do make an effort to get them in a lessons a few times per year.  

And then we have the occasional types of extra-curriculars.  Apple Camp, summer camp, a safety day being held at the city pool, a basketball event at a Christian school in town...

3 comments:

Michelle Smith said...

We LOVE our scouts here, too. We're now debating a Y membership to help our son complete the First Class rank requirements. It is expensive here, but we might just do it for a few months so our 12 year old can finish making First Class. On the other hand, we are considering dropping another extracurricular activity.

Our Homeschool Reviews said...

Scouts is a great activity! I've thought of putting our daughter in the girl scouts but we will have to wait on that when we drop something else.

Cristi said...

All of your posts about Scouts encouraged me when I heard about a pack that Brennan could join. He's having a wonderful time, even when they went camping last weekend and it got so cold that they earned Polar Bear Camping patches.