Oct. 20, 2008 - "Open Format" Merit Badge Clinics

Seiji went to an Open Format MB clinic this weekend.  It was sort of strange.  The boys have to do all of the work beforehand, then the MBCs test them.  He had opened Personal Management and had been working on it for several months.  But, since they're changing troops, he wasn't going to be able to finish it with the original (troop) counselor.  So he spent several hours this week working on those requirements that weren't done. He completed the worksheet, and was confident that he understood the material.  At the clinic, the counselor spent about three hours with a full group of boys, then those who had brought completed worksheets (3 of 7) were tested individually.  She went through every requirement and had the Scouts talk to her about them.  It was surprisingly thorough! (Surprising because we have run into those that aren't.)  Seiji passed and got his blue card signed off.  He did the same for Camping (long been completed) and the dreaded Cooking badge (see last entry for that nightmare). I like this format!  The Scouts get much more out of it than trying to push boys into finishing a badge in two or three hours (though those have their place).  The nice thing is that there were about twenty counselors who each were qualified in several areas, so the majority of badges were covered.  He'll be doing another one in January with Soumei.  Hopefully he can *finally* finish that Surveying badge at that time.

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Comments

Oct. 21, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by liveitloveitbringit

thats probably it. ill tell my mom.

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Oct. 25, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by patrizia

Hi! I never knew there was so much to know about the Boy Scouts! How very interesting! I had no idea! See, because I have all girls, I really dont know this stuff. You must have all boys? Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. So nice to meet you~

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Oct. 26, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by MitchTyRyanAndJames

Thanks for the comment about my pictures on my blog! I have to agree - I much prefer the candid ones that I took to the ones from the studio. Actually, most of the pictures that are on my walls are photos that I've taken, so I don't know why we continue to waste the time and money on "professional" pictures. Anyway, I'm glad to meet you and have really enjoyed reading through your blog - my oldest son is a first year Webelo, so we'll be getting to experience Boy Scouts before much longer and are looking forward to it!

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Oct. 31, 2008 - Your blog is great!

Posted by Anonymous

I noticed a referal to my website www.meritbadgeknot.com from your blog recently and decided to check out who has linked their site to mine. I think your blog is fabulous! I wish either my mother was more up on scrapbooking when I was a youth scout or that blogs existed at that time. What a great way to record this journey of discovery. And thank you for the link! Troy.

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