Ethan – Page 7 – Andelin Adventures

Ethan’s Conservation Project

To earn the cub scout World Conservation award, Ethan had everything completed except participating in a den or pack conservation project. Well his den and the pack haven’t ever planned a conservation project so it’s not like we just never participated. We have actually worked on this award while he was a wolf and a bear too, but never actually got it finished before his birthday, and as the requirements change with each rank, that meant starting all over again each time. With his eleventh birthday coming up in just a couple of days we didn’t want to get this close to finishing the award and not finish it yet again, so we discussed possible conservation projects, and let Ethan decide which one he would like to go ahead with. He decided on making bird feeders to feed the birds that stick around for the winter. Next we explored the different options for bird feeders that we could make and we decided on one that uses gelatin to make the bird seed stick together and you press it into a cookie cutter to make it into cool shapes to hang from the trees. Then we invited all the cubs in the pack to come over to our house to make some. We had about 5 boys show up, plus Ethan and Jeremy which makes about 7 from our pack. Then we invited cousins Lars and Daniel to come participate as well since they are also scouts. I mixed up the bird seed with the softened gelatin and we explained to the boys what we were doing, what the award was and how to make the bird feeders that we were making. Then I had Ethan pass out the seed.

I’m excited to finally have the requirements for this award finished, and I’m so glad that several boys from the pack came to participate. I was starting to fear that nobody was going to show. 😉

Atoms and Molecules and other Scout Projects

As Ethan gets closer to his eleventh birthday we have been trying to finish up the many scouting awards that he has started. Here’s just a little bit of what he’s been working on.

One of the requirements for the Science pin for cub scouts is to “build models of two atoms and two molecules, using plastic foam balls or other objects” (#6), and I thought that sounded like fun. Only I didn’t want to make them out of plastic foam balls or anything else like that, for the simple reason of: what do you do with them when you are done??? I didn’t want them to just become more clutter in the house. So I came up with the brilliant idea of making the models out of candy! Then the kids can just eat them when we’re done. 🙂

So I asked Kyle to stop off at the store on his way home to get the supplies. We used:

Gum drops for atoms + toothpicks to make molecules
Gum drops in the center of the atoms for the protons and neutrons (nucleus).
Pull apart twizzlers for the rings
Gummy life savers for the electrons

We pulled up a chart of the Periodic Table of the Elements, and Kyle explained how atoms combine together to make molecules, and he explained to Ethan how to make models of the atoms. Then Ethan picked a few simple ones to construct.

The other kids that were home got in on the fun too (really they were just happy to play with candy).

Tyra and Jeremy weren’t home, since they were having a sleepover at cousins house. So they missed out on the candy fun, but I’m sure they were having fun of their own.

Tonight he also worked on the eighth requirement for the geology pin: Make a crystal garden. I bought a kit for this, since I wasn’t sure how to do it without a kit.

So he got that all set up with Kyle’s help, and I took pictures of it periodically as the crystals grew.

It looked pretty cool with the light from Ethan’s terrarium on it too:

Here’s a shot of it the next day after he added the second set of crystal starters:

Being winter, and considering everything is frozen outside, I decided to get a terrarium kit so Ethan could complete the third requirement for the science pin: Plant seeds. Grow a flower, garden vegetable, or other plant. He actually started this one a few weeks ago, but I decided to take pictures of him with it tonight.

I love that the leaves have red on them. I think that is so cool.

Dental Work Galore

Today we spent a couple of hours at the dentist. Every kid needed work of some kind. Chloe, Dinah and Tyra all had cavities. Jeremy needed sealants. And Ethan needed two teeth pulled. Apparently these are baby teeth that the dentist has been waiting for them to fall out on their own since at least our last visit six months ago, and they just aren’t coming out on their own. The adult tooth, is actually coming in and pushing on the baby teeth and they are falling out one piece at a time instead of in one whole piece. I asked the dentist to somehow label the teeth and mark them so the tooth fairy knows which is which, and he put them in these little boxes for us:

Yes tooth “J” is in three pieces. This next picture is rather blurry, but that upper tooth surrounded by the red tissue, is the adult tooth that was crumbling the baby teeth. It’s totally already quite a ways out, and those baby teeth were just refusing to budge!

Aquanaut-Swim Lessons

Ethan is well on his way to earning all 20 Webelos activity badges, and one of the few that he has left, is the Aquanaut. This one is proving to be the most difficult to sign off, because in order to do so, Ethan needs to know how to swim. I took him to the pool at Debby’s condos to try to teach him to swim myself, but the problem with that is, when do I have time, without the rest of my kids, to be able to take just Ethan to a pool to teach him how to swim? So we went once. And I’ve kind of given up hope of that working out and we have signed him up for swim lessons at the Lehi Legacy Center.

Today was his first lesson. I dropped him off, but couldn’t stay because his lesson started at 4 and Girl Scouts starts at 4:30, so I had to get right back home. Kyle met him at the Legacy Center after work, so he got to watch the lesson.

Ethan spent a lot of the time holding on to the side of the pool, even though it’s shallow enough for him to stand up in. Hopefully he will get over that and actually start swimming soon. He only has two months left to learn how to swim, and pass off the Aquanaut in order to earn all twenty badges. No pressure. 😛

LDS BSA 100th Anniversary Celebration

I heard about the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the LDS Church’s relationship with the Boy Scouts of America a few months ago, and thought it would be fun to go as a troop to the meeting. However, since moving to Utah, it seems that tickets are extremely rare, as they have around 20,000 seats in the place, and typically we only get a couple tickets for the stake to use. So, I went on, thinking to encourage the boys to go to the local broadcast.

At church a couple weeks ago, I heard that our stake has a couple dozen tickets available. I was thrilled and asked for enough tickets to take all our Webelos. I went around and passed out permission slips for each boy and let them know I would plan on leaving early enough to get there on time, but as the day approached, a complication came of not having an additional adult to go with, as my co-leader would not be able to get home early enough. I sent out a text asking if any fathers would be available to go. Then about 15 minutes before we were planning to leave, I had to send out another one, telling them we didn’t have another adult and we wouldn’t be able to go as a troop. One boy still came, a newer addition to our numbers (as he hadn’t been active in scouts until recently), and it really made me sad to tell him he needed to go home since we didn’t have anyone else to go with. His mom sent me a text that he would just go to the stake broadcast with his grandpa.

I still took Ethan and Jeremy. We left to give us plenty of time, as I didn’t know how close our assigned parking lot would be. We got there an hour before it started, and walked the few blocks through downtown, including the shopping area, then got into the building. I can’t remember the last time I saw so many people in scout uniforms. Perhaps the Jamborees that we used to go to when I was in scouts? We got into the building and kept working up, as our seats were in the top section.

The performance was outstanding. The whole program was hosted by a group of teenage boys, dressed as boy scouts through the century. They sang songs and acted out scenes, with many other scouts (possibly hundreds) assisting with the acting and songs. They also gave everybody a phone number to text to count how many people participated, and said it would be available online. Once home, I pulled up the “Mom, You Earned Your Eagle” song to play for Rebecca, which was a tribute to mothers and the hard work they put into their scouts’ achievements. Overall, I think the highlight was being in the conference center when President Monson spoke. I had no idea how much he has been involved in the scouting program, and it really makes me want to try harder in my role as leader, and in our boys’ lives.

After the celebration was over and we left, the boys were hungry so we stopped by the food court across the street, in the mall. Ethan chose pizza from Sbarro’s, and Jeremy picked a footlong from Subway. Ethan only ate 1 1/2 slices, but Jeremy finished the entire footlong by himself! I knew the boy was growing. He’s almost 8, not quite in scouts officially, but he still loved the chance to go.