Liz sent in this question:
My son is a Weeblo first year. He will have completed all his requirements by December. I understand that I cant do his next advancements until after May graduation BUT can I keep doing electives and getting credit for them?
Thanks for the question Liz. Your son may continue to work on electives and receive recognition for them. However, there is no rush. If he wants to earn some on his own, I recommend you let him look at the choices and pick something he thinks he would enjoy.
You might want to consider that his den might also be working on some of these electives as a group both this year and next. So he may end up repeating some with his den. This is not a problem if he is willing to do this. Remember a big part of Cub Scouting is working together with his den. Meeting with the other Webelos and doing fun activities as a group should not take a backseat to earning things on his own.
Also, remember that Webelos is a transitional program which helps get your son ready for Scouts BSA. In the Scouts BSA program, the Scouts are responsible for their own advancement. Start letting him take ownership of the advancement process. It will benefit him in the long run.
Great answer!
We have 3 Webelos who attended a camping weekend with AOL and Boy Scouts, and they all earned Camper. Can a Webelos earn that AOL required adventure before they complete their Webelos rank? Thank you!
Thank you for your response. I totally understand that the electives as a Boy Scout is his doing. I didn’t write my question so well. As a Webelo he is doing the work with little guidance from me. So I didn’t mean ” Can I keep doing the electives”. His goal is to have all of them by graduation of Webelos II. He has 10 completed now. He is enjoying learning about every aspect of life. As a 10 year old he has goals which turn into challenges for him. Thank you again.
My younger son is a Webelos and his brother is Boy Scout (Star). They are both pretty eager and working hard on all they can and I love it. My understanding is that my Webelos can work on earning both Webelos & Arrow of Light requirements … but he cannot receive the Arrow of Light award until he has earned the Webelos rank. Is that correct? Similar to new Boy Scouts… how they are (were? not sure if that changed this past year) able to work on Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class requirements at the same time … but have/had to earn the ranks in order.
NKaye, The Webelos and Arrow of Light ranks are no longer connected as they were, or as Tenderfoot, 2nd and 1st class are. In a 2 year program, it is assumed they won’t focus on the Arrow of Light adventures during the Webelos 1 year, but it is not prohibited. And just like a boy can earn the Webelos patch even if they did not earn the Bear, they can earn the Arrow of Light without having completed the Webelos rank. Even in most 1 year Webelos programs I’ve seen, it’s simply a matter of focus, that boys are guided to complete the Webelos adventures prior to Arrow of Light, so AOL remains the pinnacle.
The other thing I would have to acknowledge is that you may want to step in and watch what ones he is doing when. I only say this is that my son LOVES STEM and wanted to do as many of the Stem/Nova awards he could. They have to do certain electives that they have not already done to do this. Plus if he attends a resident camp or day camp he might quickly earn one to three that he could do those Stem sheets. My son attended a resident camp this month (June) and completed one whole elective (Aquatics), and got two other electives all cleared but one thing on each. He will also attend a two-day camp in July. But after his resident camp, I had him look at what Stem awards he could complete before working on other electives. If he is interested in the Stem projects then he needs to look and see what ones he wants to complete. None are that difficult at all. Hard part is visiting the local places. But even that is not that hard. Then if he wants to go for the SuperNova award then you have to get an actual counselor or mentor in your area. My son does not mind redoing some of the electives with his troop anyways, though. But not sure they are going to do anything outside the requirements this fall when we get back to scouting since we are trying to cross over sometime in Jan. My son wants to do more things so he is working on them this summer.