Cub Scouts and Pinewood Derby
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Anyone else have children doing the cub scouts and/or pinewood derby? What an adventure for a mom. You start with a kit that is a block of wood and 4 wheels with 4 nails as axels. My idea of crafts is scrapbooking, card making, quilting. I don't do power tools unless its a glue gun. This is our 4th year of cub scouts and 3rd year of the car. The first year we were new in town and my husband was 300 miles away. I went to the local S-m-a-l-l town hardware store and asked for help. One tiny saw, 2 colors of fast dry spray paint and a sanding block later we were on our way. We actually sawed it into a car right there on newspaper on the floor of the store because I was afraid to leave the experts. My son actually placed in the race. The second year my husband helped with the addition of graphite for the wheels (who knew?). My son placed again. Amazing. This year - husband working - there we are the Pokemon special (cut outs from the mac and cheese box), headlights from paper fasteners - spray painted flourescent orange/pink in the snow. Due to wheel problems didn't win but had a blast racing. Every kid races at least 6-10 times in our pack. This year the cub leader invited the 4H kids to join the race. The cub winners can go all the way to nationals in larger and larger regional and state races. As a second and third grader my son actually raced those cars I didn't know how to make at a regional race with hundreds of other contestants in a large mall. Very cool.
Moral of the story - anything worth doing with my kids is worth doing imperfectly. My son every year says he's not doing it (because my husband wasn't around to help). Every year afterward he talks about it for days and each car is treasured and displayed and remembered
Kind of cool he does it himself though.
That has been the great thing. He is very clear on what it should look like, what will make it fast, the theme. Last year it was the greatamericanham machine. He cut it out in the shape of a ham and put a ham on top with the name like an old deli delivery car. THe first year he wanted a racing tank. I thought he was wrong but figured it was his car. Turns out the shape was the best design for speed unless you were going to do sleek and sexy which require power tools! This year the fluorescent orange/pink color surprised me and a new front end (it came to a point).
One little boy(3rd grader) with Dad's help designed a car that was a sea otter holding a fish. It was beautiful and fast. He won 3rd place and best in show. He has an animal thing going. Last year he did a penguin and placed in the top 3.
We do the pinewood derby also. But I live near nasa, so I am just going to say, it is very competitive.
My kids shape and paint the cars, with minimal help. We have a whole system for polishing axels (uses a dremel and a drill). We load them and they sit and hold while it spins for 30 mintues. We use a type of graphite powder. We use the lead tape to get it exact. Probably the only crazy thing is for weights we use titatium squares. These cost quite a bit, but we reuse them year to year. It allows you to get more mass in the back.
We aren't allow to shape wheels, the weight can't be over 5.001. Have to use the original kit and axels. We have a computer timing system and our top 10 winners are within 2 seconds 1st to 10th. It is crazy! It is our last year.
My son is in cubscouts also. He's a Webelos 2this year. Boyscouts will be next year. He joined last year, didn't participate too much, but this year I agreed to be assistant den leader so I'm involved as well, and that has helped him. He doesn't really enjoy being around people, he's incredibly quiet, but he wanted to do cubscouts, and this year I told him I'd get involved so he's actually having fun (well, when I ask him if he's having fun, or if he's had fun, he says yes or no or "a little", mostly it's "a little" but anything short of "I hate it and I never want to go back" and we "try" it again ... seems to be working so far).
That being said .... Pine Wood Derby, it's next Saturday I believe (around here anyway) and I'm not sure we can attend .... oldest son has confirmation mass on the SAME day !
My Webelos 2 guy ... he WON the Raingutter Regatta race in the fall .... was SO wonderful .... talk about rewards for effort .... he didn't want to go to it that day, he went last year, had a boat and everything, but didn't want to race it, was with dad so he didn't race it, but this year he was with me and it was easier as he used last year's boat, but he still didn't really want to participate. I used the "let's try" strategy, I went, just he and I (seems to help if it's something that's just he and I, with three other siblings, getting mom or dad to himself is a big deal !) he did his best, he placed and then they had a run-off race (not sure what it's called) and he won that. In fact, he just received the HUGE trophy with his name on it and everything before Christmas.
I was hoping to be able to participate in this race too, although I already knew it was a bigger deal than the boat race (Kaye, I cannot imagine all of that preparation you go through !) but there really isn't any comparison, if we have to go first in the race (Webelos are supposed to go first), we'll have to miss it, Confirmation Mass is a once in a lifetime thing, oldest should have his whole family there for him, ya know ?
We have scouts tonight, the other leader has a conflict for that day as well, I'm going to see if our boys can run their race at the end of the day instead of the beginning, I don't know if that's a possibility or not, but I can see.
IF SO ... I'll be back on here BEGGING for tips, as this entire thing seems very compicated and involved !!!!! I'm SO much better at being a girlscout leader than a boyscout one !
Harlena,
In our pack because families have 5-6 kids and constant schedule conflicts they will let you drop off a car to race even if you can't stay. That way he could stay in the competion and actually do the car. I love the let's try strategy - we use it all the time.
If you decide to do it I'd be glad to help. We have to do it by the book in our troop also but there are ways to keep it simple. Just get the kit, weights and a driver if he wants one from the scout store. That way no matter what you decide you have the basics. If you don't use it now its a great kit to use for a rainy day. It doesn't have to take a long time and sometimes the simpler cars race faster and the kids enjoy them because they did it all themselves. This is our 3rd kid in scouts.
Linda
Kaye,
I want to know about this dremel system. I feel like next year I will be able to graduate to such things. My brother and brother-in-law are engineers in fact my brother-in-law worked on NASA projects so I understand the exactitudes in all things that are technology. Even though that isn't happening in my home, projects like this help. My son also spends time with his uncles and I send him to anything techie/science I can find to make up for my own lack of tool and tech friendliness. If you hear of other science/tech opportunities I am always willing to try something new. Thanks, Linda
well a dremel is like a hand held drill. So you take the axels, spin the in the drill and use the dremel to polish them up. You buy polishers grit or sandpaper, very specific stuff. Do a search on fast pinewood cars, you will be amazed at what is out there. The other thing we do that is excessive..LOL..is we buy a lot of extra wheels, so if you look at them they have a number, we try to match all four numbers, if nothing else we match the front two and the back two. There are slight variations between molds. The key is as little friction as you can get. So the wheels get sanded lightly to remove that little dimple, you aren't allowed to shape our wheels at all, but you can smooth them.
I thought maybe you found a way to spin the axels in the wheels while on the car with the dremel - definitely going to polish axels and check out tire #'s next year (we have a lot of extra wheels). We bought extra wheels but only in case of loss or damage. The web searches we've done were related to design. Each year he likes to try something new. Hi tech for us was weights or quarters and graphite powder. Glad to see we have plenty of room to grow and learn.
well, both the leader and myself (I'm the assitant) have issues with our Pinewood Derby Day, we're both supposed to be elsewhere. I spoke wtih the Boyscout leader (he was helping the boys with tool at the meeting on Tuesday night) if they were participating, he said not this year, but probably next year .... so I think the leader and I are just going to let ourselves off the hook for this year, and do it next year, there's only SO much you can do in any 24hr period of time.
One of the leaders told me we could drop of his car, but in my opinion, that's not a biggie, if he can race it himself then ok, but he's not competitive at all, so it's not about placing or winning (that'd just be icing on the cake) it's about participating and coming away from the event glad that you were there. In this son's case, if that's not part of it, that's ok, we can wait til next year.
Now, my leader is a different story, her kids have been doing this for a long time, maybe they'll want to drop of their cars, I don't know, I'll mention that option to her (I think I forgot to tell her that on Tuesday, thanks for reminding me Northcountrymom!)
You can also get car kits at places such as hobby lobby that are already cut into car shapes for those of you who aren't able to use tools. You still do the sanding and painting and everything, you just start with a shape instead of a block!
And they are approved for scouts use.
Adena, they aren't approved by our district. You have to use the official kit. Part of the project is the building it with the boys.
Gotta love cub scouts - only the incentive of our sons could get 7 women to be on line comparing notes and rules on car kits, car finishes, the advantages of tools, polish and need for speed axel treatments (and I am one of you).
I also love comparing regional scout differences and similarities. Its do or die in one area and not even a rule in other areas. Love volunteer organizations.
Thank you for being such great moms for your sons. Your inspirational.
By the way do you know that if you make it to Eagle Scouts there are college scholarships, credit toward increased rank in the military, increased rank and salary in many state and local law enforcement organizations. Also a disproportionate number of senators, members of congress, CEO's, astronauts have been Eagle Scouts.
There is one man Jim Iaacone who comes to our pack meetings every other week - he hikes, builds, teaches. He was an eagle scout in the 1920s or 1930s. He wears his impeccable uniform to meetings, works for the forestry service parttime and is in his 80's - what an example of service and life long good habits for our boys.
Linda
speaking of Scouts .... tonight we had a special meeting ... officially I believe it was the Board of Commissioner's Meeting for our (small) town, but it may have been county (there's only 3 actual towns in the coubty I believe, so it's pretty much one and the same, town or county, anyway I digress, as I so often do ...)
One of our cubscouts (Webelos 2, meaning we'll be Boy Scouts next year) in December saved his brother from drowning. I kid you not.
The short of it is that the fire department responded to what they were told was a drowning, they got to the home to discover that wasn't the case, a boy (our CubScout, at most 11yrs old but probably 10) had jumped into a pool that had the cover on it (it's FL but for people who live here, it's too cold to get into the pool so for the most part, they're covered at this time of year) got his 1yr old brother off the bottom of the pool, got him out of the pool and remained calm enough (while the adults around him were all too hysterical to do anything) to administer CPR. He got him back breathing (the little guy had been completely gone) and kept him breathing until the Fire/Rescue guys (again small town here, fire and rescue are one and the same.) He attributes his knowledge of CPR to a meeting we'd recently had on first aide. We didn't have a nurse or American Red Cross person there teaching, it was just us going over stuff in the book. Now we are going FAST, we have a number of boys who are new and have a lot to get accomplished by March when Webelos cross over to BoyScouts and we have a lot of badges to earn, so I don't see how he managed to soak all of that in, (I'm only the Assistant and the Leader doesn't see it either) but he did, the brother was saved, and he was honored tonight. It really was a miracle !!!!!
We are working on him earning a high honor in the cubscouts as well, I don't know what it's called but there's a lot of paperwork to be filled out and people to sign affidavits, etc .... (guess at this point I'm thrilled to just be the assistant and not in charge of pulling all of that together.)
Just thought I'd share with you other cubscout moms, when it comes out in the paper or the news, hopefully I'll be able to share a link with you.
He's a great little guy, and his mom is SO proud of him, and thankful that she still has her other son ! I cannot even imagine the panic there on that day, nor the degree of relief afterward, ya know ? Nothing NOTHING short of a miracle !
Very cool! I love to hear great scout stories.
Since we live near Nasa, those astronaut eagle scouts do a lot for our district. Mike Fossum, is probably the biggest name, he is actually scoutmaster of a local troop. He always does speaking engagments about how some boy scout knot saved them on some shuttle mission and how he uses his scout skills in space.
We are huge scouting advocates in this house. I was on the Girl Scout leadership team, and still have my troop of freshman. My husband is now in his third year of cubmaster, recently received his woodbadge. Our boys excell in scouting, our 7th grader is a first class scout and service project away from star. Our 5th grader is a web2 and 1 pin away from super achiever.
Any idea what award you are up for? I assume it is quality unit, based on the paper work 
Holy cow .....
Let's just say our Web2 will be fortunate to make the Arrow of Light .... but that's an incredible feat in and of itself ! Especially since most of our boys started up in September and haven't been working on it for the last two years.
As for my Ds, I'm just glad he still wants to participate in people activities, he's much more content to be at home than out with others, but he's enjoying scouting, so I'm very VERY thankful for this experience.
We have a campout coming up in February (for outdoorsman) and then Webelos Woods where they'll all cross over in March. I'm not much of a camper, any tips would be great !!!
The biggest camping trip is not to stress too much. Keep it simple.
There is a chance your patrol will come up with a mean plan. If not the basic rules are, show up fed on Friday night. On Saturday am you want a hearty cooked breakfast. Sat lunch should be no cook, no assemble. Sat night whatever works. If we are just us, we often do sausages, hot dogs. But we have done chili, spaghetti, chicken a dumplings, fajitas, steaks, depends on the day. Sun am, you want another no cook meal. The less food you have to carry in and carry home the better.
The things we often forget for camping, flashlights and chairs!
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