The Cub Scout program helps to meet your scout’s growth needs. As a scout develops, they have specific developmental needs such as:
- To learn new physical skills. They can do this through games, sports, and crafts. As they develop their coordination, they gain a sense of worthiness and acceptance by their peers.
- To learn to get along with scouts of their same age. They need to form friendships with other scouts. They needs to learn how to balance giving and receiving affection if they are to relate well to their peers. They need to belong to a group of scouts their own age. Being a part of a Cub Scout den helps fulfill these needs.
- To develop his or her mental processes. They can develop their mental process by reading, writing, and calculating. They need opportunities to use language to express ideas and to influence others. They must move from a preoccupation with self to understanding how and what others think of them. Opportunities for observation and experimentation will help them learn self-reliance. Den activities and meetings, along with the advancement program, help them develop mentally.
- To develop a value system. They are developing a sense of what is right and wrong and what is fair and unfair. They will do this by cooperating with other scouts, by being taught, by examples of adults, and from positive reinforcement. They begin to develop democratic social attitudes.
- To develop personal independence. They are becoming less dependent on adults. Their same age friends become important to them. In their den, and in the pack, they exercise their independence while learning to get along with others.
Your scout also needs to belong to a group of scouts their own age. This group is a key component of the Cub Scout program. A den is like a neighborhood group of six or eight scouts in which they will achieve status and recognition.
As you learn more about how Cub Scouting works and what goes on in a den and a pack, you will see that the program helps your child in these five important developmental needs. The uniqueness of Cub Scouting is that you, as their family, join the program with your scout. You will help them all along the way.
SUPPORT, TEACH, GUIDE, HELP
Cub Scouting is about achievement and personal growth. To advance in Rank, some reading and work has to be done at home, even if work on the badges is done at the Den meetings. Most projects for the 1st and 2nd graders are designed to require parental assistance and support.
Work on achievements toward rank is not meant to be “homework”. Cub Scouts is to be a learning experience while at the same time having FUN!
All parents are expected to help out on committees at times. We try to simplify these tasks, but parents are needed to help coordinate activities, to help make sure all activities are safe, and above all else, fun.