Don't forget to be a parent

Give me a moment to be preachy. Let's not forget about what Cub Scouting is all about and some of the guiding principles that I follow.

I call Cub Scouts the "Don't Forget to Be a Parent Club", where you pass along some information to your son, you experience things together, and you learn something yourself. It is also a time to live up to the things that you say to your son are important: honor, learning, discipline, hard work.

I say this not to be self-righteous, but more to describe my perspective. I'm not about win-baby-win. This is to give you the tools that I wish that I had when I was doing Pinewood Derby. This may not be for you, or you don't agree with my views.  That's for you to decide to take with you. Really, it's about tools to help you out and make your son happier and smarter.  That's a good thing, right?  But ultimately, when I followed these rules, we learned, we did it together, and we nearly won the whole thing. So, these techniques work.

Honor

Pinewood Derby is not about winning. If your pack is like ours - it is now 170 boys strong - the chances of them winning it is pretty low. So this may be one of the first times that your son can fail - and fail safely with minor consequences.  Yes, egos will be bruised. It will hurt and there is a decent chance he'll cry, but here comes a great moment in parenting. So here comes a moment for sportsmanship in staying positive and congratulating the boys that do well, learning about how to handle "losing", and keeping true to the motto "do your best".  And if you're like me, there is nothing like a huge, a person acknowledgement of pride, and an ice-cream wouldn't solve.

The top thing about Pinewood is that this is the boy's project, not the father's.  So let them take an age-appropriate amount of responsibility in making their car. One of the more interesting things is, as the Scouts go from Tigers to Wolf to Bear to Webelos, the cars get *worse*. Let's be realistic. Kids today are wonderfully more advanced at art, reading, technology, and science that us parents (or the people who designed the Cub Scout requirement trail) ever were as kids. How many times did you laugh at requirements that today are quite quaint and anachronistic like "eat food that is not American", "read a whole book without moving your lips then get a major award", "whittle a hickory halltree that will hold your bowler and trundling hoop". Seriously. Let your boy do as much work as he can.

Tigers - depending on the boy - may not understand a single concept. Some start to really grasp the basics.
Wolfs understand the basics, but generally lack any stamina, dexterity, attention span or  to do anything for more than 15 minutes.  They get frustrated easily and need lots and lots of patience.
Bears take a big leap forward. They generally understand complex concepts and can work on projects for more than 20 minutes without getting tired. Depending on their motivation, you can really be just the teach/mentor/guide and they do all the work with your hand gently on top guiding them.
Webelos.  Again, you are the guide/mentor/cheerleader - they do everything.

Learning

I covered so many topics with my son that it was as involved some serious physics. My son isn't dumb, he's just never experienced physics or did in school superficially. So I spent the time on weekends going over dozens of physics lessons that taught him some amazing things. Sure, let's keep it age appropriate and you may  have to go over the same topics over and over again, but let's not under-estimate what they can learn. I probably spent 40 plus hours talking to him. He ask a question about something. We'd go off on a tangent. We ended up doing fun lesson about surface tension, viscosity, speed of light, refraction/reflection, humidity, cellular biology, and  And it's a pleasure to teach him.

Discipline

You do the planning, teaching, cheerleading, encouraging, rewarding, prepping, cleaning, buying, and guiding. Tell them you will help them every step of the way, but they will do their cars. I tell my son that if he doesn't do the work, it will remain a block of wood. No yelling, no screaming, no getting angry. I will remind him all the time, but no stern thoughts. Every boy knows that this is THE biggest event of the Scouting year, so no consequences need to be meted out if his car remains a block of wood.

Your kids probably get fed a steady stream of wake up now, eat this now, time to go to school, do your homework.  This may be the first time that your boy has a big block of time that will need many, many days to complete - especially since 6-10 year old boys have short attention spans. So they (and you) will need the discipline to get this done in 15 minute segments - give or take some time dependent on your kid's patience. I taped a calendar to my son's wall. He writes down the days he goes to the library (and is responsible for those things), and deadlines and benchmark times we want to be finished by.  If it's February and you say the race is in April - it is too distant. For a lot of boys, it might as well be billion years. Having them count, cross off, and designate days is invaluable in terms of getting used to the concept of "long term" planning. He gets it now. And that is how I will write this blog - in 15-30 minute blocks that you can do with your son(s).

Hard work

Sanding sucks. It's boring. And it is a bit dangerous. There even may be blisters and cuts. But at the end of this, they will have something that will look good and they will be immensely proud of. No need to lecture him about this.  Every kid displays their car proudly in their room after they are done.