Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Scouts -- by Age or Ability?

I've seen a few other parents of scouts, and scout questions, on this forum so I thought I'd open a thread specifically for scouting.
As far as I know, Cub Scouts progress through their levels by grade level, once they cross over and become Boy Scouts then age is no longer a reason to hold a boy back.
For the parents of some of the grade accelerated kids, did you keep your Cub with his age peers? Did they cross over to Boy Scouts at the typical 10-11 age?

I am actually interested to hear responses since I think my son would love cub scouts but is too young by grade level right now. I was hoping if we grade skipped in the next year or two that he could join without emphasis on age. I would also be curious of the progression through scouts when grade skips are involved.

Good question.

No grade skip here. OHGrandma is right - cubs are by age/grade, boy scouts progress in rank independently. DS absolutely LOVES BS, even though there are no other GT boys in the group. The amount of social skills he learns there is astonishing.

Last winter DS was writing SAT/ACT for the talent search while his older friends from BS were writing it for real(Juniors, wanted to take some university courses). Afterwards DS never advertised his score as it was clear that got by far the highest in the group. We also never discussed it, but I did witness some evasive answers on my son's part. I figured it was his call...

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.

Our homeschool group just started a Cub Scout pack, including dens for 7/8yos, 8/9yos and 9/10yos. I didn't ask to move DS7 up because I know the kids and I think socially he'll do fine with the youngest group. If it were to go poorly, we'd probably take a year off and try to come back with the older group, but I don't think that will be an issue.

Of course, DS7 tends to play well with kids of all ages--I think having a brother 3 years younger helps. And many of the kids in the pack are GT, though I'm not sure about LOGs for them. That helps, too. And finally, homeschoolers are much more accustomed to and accepting of kids who are different, so the social issue isn't as great, even if there is a social mismatch. They all get along pretty well anyway.

The biggest issue I have seen is that people usually think DS7 is older than he is, and kids are surprised to find that he's only 7. That can cause some surprising problems. At a playdate, one 8yo threw a tantrum about something DS7 (then age 6) said because he thought DS was older and was making fun of him, instead of being younger and just trying to play along with him. When the other mom told the boy that DS is younger, he was shocked and kept saying, "Nuh-uh. He's older than I am. Yes, he is!" The boy just wouldn't accept that he had interpreted the situation completely wrong. DS was pretty hurt by the whole thing. It was a bad day.

I'm hoping we don't have that sort of trouble at Cub Scouts!

My son is accelerated by grade and is with his classmates, not age mates, for Cub Scouts. The funny part was when he joined in first grade as a Tiger Cub the main office for our scouting district had to "fudge" his birthdate because of some computer program that wouldn't allow his birth year for a Tiger Cub that year. I guess it automatically assumed that all kids in scouts were a certain age and he wasn't 7 yet! But now they have supposedly corrected it (we just haven't had any paperwork to confirm the correction).

MrWiggly has had no problems being with his classmates in Scouts. I don't anticipate a problem crossing over to Boy Scouts, either. But his acceleration was a really good fit, so maybe that helped.

My homeschooled son stayed with typical age level peers through all of cubs,and moved up to Boy Scouts shortly after turning 11. There is a lot of physical stuff involved in scouting, and we felt it was better for him to be with age-mates for that reason. It worked out well, as he played sports with the kids from his den. Boy Scouts can move ahead individually, so he's excited about going at his own pace now.

I used to be a cub leader, and the literature does have age minimums as well as grade suggestions.

DS is at Boy Scout overnight camp this week, and I miss him. We haven't had any contact since Sunday afternoon, when I dropped him off. Last year, I like that his Webelo II leader was a techie who sent daily email reports and photos, so I always knew what was going on, though DS didn't know that I knew. This year's leaders aren't into that.

Many bright and gifted kids are interested in scouting, and those who stay through the teen years seem especially apt to be some kind of g.

The age thing on Cub Scouts can be difficult, as a past Cub Master, we adjusted to the boys skill level, not their age. We never tried change rank though. On Boy Scouts each boy advances on their own by skills learned including leadership skills, which are a big part of the scout experance. We have a boy run troop and we try mostly to just steer a little.

We leave on Sunday for 3 Nights in Yosemite then 3 nights in Mamouth. 14 Boys and 4 adults. We are trying a non conventinal Summer Camp. For the Mom's I can be reached by cell, most of the time, we have 4 new Summer campers, so it's always something new. Sometimes we have Homesickiness, but we work hard on including the boys in everything. We do discourge calling home or haveing the parents call. The best cure for homesikness, is learning you can do things on your own.

A quick funny story, this winter we had a boy with us at are ski outing. We use a cabin in the local mtns. The new boy asked for water, I said its in the kitchen. He stared at the fridg looking for the ice and water dispenser. There was none, he came back asking where the water was, I told him the tap water, He was somewaht taken back, and he did not know how to use the single handle faucet. I thought it was funny. I politly showed him.

Some scouts need a little more reponsability at home. The hardest part about being involved with scouting is the lack of parental support. Of the 4 adults going 1 is 21 and a past eagle scout, the other two adults have no children in Scouting, and then myself with my now DS16.

Edwin-

Good for you for stepping up and being a leader. I'm sorry to hear that you have trouble getting adult helpers there. We actually have a surplus of leaders, and many hands certainly make the workload easier to bear!

One of the things my son enjoyed about Cub Scouts was acting in skits, but I think the new scout leader is more into physical things like hiking. I just don't know if I could send my son to camp next year if I knew he would have to do a lot of hiking. My son would feel bad if he couldn't keep up with the others or if they had to slow down and not go as far as they wanted because of him. I think he might be more at risk of an ankle injury than some kids. What would they do with him if he got hurt while they were out hiking? Or when his legs ache at night and there is no heating pad or Tylenol or he has a really bad headache or he won't go to sleep all night long. Also, he hates bugs and he knows if the others find out about it, he is in trouble.

He also feels that he can't be himself around these kids. He can act like he is interested in what the other kids are talking about and doing, but he says it is tiring. He doesn't even feel like he has that much in common with a friend who was identified gifted in our local public school. My son recently went to this friend's house and he told me he wondered if this friend just invited him over because he wanted to borrow a video game. He said he was left to sit on the couch and watch while the friend played, and it was only a one-player game. When kids come to our house, my son tries to make sure they are enjoying their visit.

My son has a gifted cousin who was an eagle scout. This cousin is very physically fit and loved scouts and all the activities he got to do at camp. I think his camp experiences were probably a little more fun than my son's experience would be, but I think if my husband went with him, it might be okay.

We are going to try to keep him in Cub Scouts this year since it is the only thing he is in where he would be around kids his age and hopefully his friends and his cousin can convince him to stay in it.