Mark, that's one of my favorite threads!

I totally agree with Ken, that there's plenty of time for kids to do Scouting in Scouting. Outdoors and wilderness are but a portion of the program. There's lots of time for other stuff too! That's one of the great things about the Cub Scouts program - variety. My son's already been exposed to cooking, sewing, pet care, handicrafts, collecting and the space. We built model rockets a few weeks ago and launched them this past week.

Even though we design our meetings and events around opportunies for badge work, as well as learning team work and responsibilty, the youth are free to work on whatever badges they want to. Even though we encourage them to try to earn a badge every two months, we test them based on their own abilities, not some inflexible criteria. We have some kids with a full sash and their Six Star Award and some with almost no badges. They keep coming back because we let them explore and have fun. That's what it should be all about!