My homeschooled son was working at a higher grade level than age mates but we were told it would be best to keep him with the grade level he would be by age if he were in school. The majority of boys at our school are held back a year, so he was actually more than a year younger than most of the boys in his group. He will be in his second year of Webelos with a new group of boys who are first year Webelos. Most of them are closer to his age because they were redshirted by parents who wanted to give them an advantage in sports.
We were so excited when he first started Cub Scouts. I thought it would be really good for him since we had to homeschool and he was the only child at home with no other kids in the neighborhood. But he said he never felt like he fit in because most of the activities they did were things that required good motor skills. At first, I thought no problem, we can work on academic things first so he can at least earn those belt loops and pins. We had looked at
www.usscouts.org/advance/cubscout/academics.asp and worked on the requirements for a music pin a few years ago and he was so excited about doing this, but when we told the scout leaders that he had met the requirements, we were told by our scout leaders that he couldn't earn the pins yet, because it wouldn't be fair to the other kids his age who might find it difficult to do the requirements for the pins. They didn't think it was unfair that my son couldn't earn the belt loops for the things that required good motor skills. Now that they will let him earn the pins, he doesn't really care to and talks about wanting to quit because he says he doesn't have anything in common with the kids and he says he doesn't get anything out of going.
