Cub Scout's # 9, by Jan Farnworth

  Last night, I had the privilege of attending Darrel’s Cub Scout meeting as my husband James had to work.   I was warned that it probably would not be very fun.   I told him that it was actually quite productive.  In the Tiger Scout book, there are different activities that are lined out for the den to achieve, together.  This week one of the other den parent’s decided that the den would work on learning how to read maps; identify the types of buildings and places that are around us in our community.
  She had brought several different types of maps for the kids to look at, graph paper and some color pencils.  I made the suggestion that each child identify where they live in Grandview and the surrounding area on their map.  One child lived on Grandridge avenue, another near the high school. Darrel lives up the street from the church.   Once the child identified the street they lived on they started thinking about places that were near their homes‘.
  So I asked, “Darrel. What is near our home?”
  The first thing Darrel said, “Walmart.”
  “Think closer, Darrel, Walmart is in the next town,” I said.
  He thought a bit before saying, “The park,”
  So we labeled Eastside Park which is across the street from our home.
  Then I asked, “Okay, if we go down 3rd street what do we pass.”
  Excitedly, he said, “My preschool (which is where we were) and Tatiana’s house which is another block up.”
  Then, I asked, “What about the library and the tool store (Ace hardware).”
  He answered, “Oh yeah.”
  “Okay. Now, if we start to head out of town what else do we pass?”
  Darrel starred blankly.
  “Where do we go to get pizza?” I asked.
  “Pizza Hut,” he answered and I marked it.
  “How about what is across the street from Pizza Hut.”
  “The Post office,” he answered.  
  “Okay, now if we go straight out from the Post Office. What do we pass?”
  Darrel thought about it and announced, “The movie place, swimming pool and a bunch of schools.”
  Then, I said, “How about if we go out to the main part of town what kind of places do we see?”
  Darrel thought it and answered, “The ice cream place (DQ or the gas station).”
  At this point, Darrel was starting to get a little bored.
  “Okay, just a couple more questions. How about if we go the other way on 3rd street what would we see Darrel got all excited and said,” Safeway and my school.” Everyone looked up from what they were doing because of how loudly he had answered.
  Once my son and I had completed the map of Grandview, he colored it.
  It was fun watching him play with the other Cub’s in a organized Balloon game. Darrel’s balloon was his favorite color, Red.  The game consisted of the kids paring up in groups of two and holding hands and then hitting the balloon with the other hand as they walked down the room.  The concept was pulled off, fairly well, by a few of the cub scouts but most of them just raced down to one end and back.
  One of the Tiger Cubs has a little sister that attends the meetings with her brother and she loves to get involved in what is going on especially during the games.  At the last meeting there was a bit of an issue with Darrel and her over a paper airplane and Darrel apologize this week to this little girl about how he behaved.  The little girl got paired during the game with her brother (her mom feared she get in another argument with one of the boys).   Eventually her brother got tired of playing. Then Darrel and she were paired up.   It was so cute to see them together as they are the same height but two years apart.  They worked as team to get from one end of the room to the other without dropping there balloon.  They were both very proud of  getting to one end before anyone else, of course they were running and not hitting there balloon like the point of the game, but they had fun.
  Shortly after the 3rd round of the game it was time to head home and Darrel gave the little girl a hug and then headed towards the door.  A good time was had by all.
  *Special note by James, it sounded like fun, and it figures that I had to work.