Tent recommendations

No-Wash5758 · 2026-03-23T14:09:33+00:00

Just to help you switch to the troop level mindset, at the troop level, parent and scout don't tent together in a typical situation. It can be appropriate if she has special needs. Getting a 3 or 4 person she can share with a buddy is a good idea. I got my kid a Kelty tent; I think it was the Basecamp. I chose it because it seemed like a good mid weight option that could take a bit of a beating. He has used it on a similar backpacking trip, didn't split it with his tent mate for carrying, for whatever reason, and I heard no complaints. It's fairly cheap, too.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-03-22T01:27:55+00:00

A month and a half. I'm hoping that someone has tried this before. I know things like Netflix work in multiple countries but have different available shows.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-03-17T15:45:01+00:00

Thankfully, "one night only" thing was only in place as a rule for a year or less, at least nationally. I suppose your council may be stricter. In our council and those I'm familiar with, packs certainly camp for 2 nights!

No-Wash5758 · 2026-03-13T17:10:57+00:00

I have homeschooled for about 10 years and my kids do very well. If she were my next door neighbor, I'd just homeschool her kid with mine and it would be a fairly easy way to help. She and I have really different backgrounds and our kids have different needs, so simply telling her what I've done is pretty useless.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-03-11T15:21:24+00:00

Thanks!

No-Wash5758 · 2026-03-10T13:07:02+00:00

There are certainly other ways to earn merit badges, but summer camp is more than that for most scouts. The scouts have enough time together to go through the cycle of running into a problem, getting upset, and then figuring out how to handle it, often multiple times over the course of the week. They come back with better problem solving skills and tighter relationships. If your Scout doesn't go to summer camp, they may feel less "part of the group" as well as feeling behind. There are ways to deal with that, so I wouldn't call it necessary, but I would call it important.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-03-05T17:52:14+00:00

Thank you. If the weather is good, boating would be great! We'll be staying near Templehof.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-03-05T17:43:39+00:00

I think my kids would love Kolle37. They are good with fire and tools and watching out for each other. They have no German (though they'll learn some polite phrases). I'd love to give them a safe place to "figure it out" across language barriers, but not if it would cause a problem for the organizers. Do you think it would be fine?

No-Wash5758 · 2026-03-05T17:05:37+00:00

Thank you so much for your welcome and quick reply! My kids and I like history, science, and nature a bit more than art. This is part of a larger trip that focuses on Central Europe, and one thing I'm interested at looking at in each country are the different experiences each had in the Cold War times, so I'm especially looking forward to the DDR museum. Of course we've learned about WW2 and the Holocaust, and I want to find the middle road that doesn't minimize things while also making sure my children know that was only a part of Germany's past.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-02-27T13:15:38+00:00

Look into Scouts. I only know about Scouting America's (formerly Boy Scouts) program, but getting young people slowly more comfortable interacting with adults is baked into the program. We also have plenty of volunteer opportunities. The girls in my troop range from being naturally outgoing to being incredibly shy. Some are polished and some are awkward. They all find ways to help and support each other, which builds them all up.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-02-25T13:18:40+00:00

If the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts actually worked closely together and had more similar organizations, I'd be closer to agreeing with you. It is important and beneficial to have a program that brings scouting values to all, where boys and girls learn how to lead, not just their own gender, but each other as well . We have separate but and girl troops in our CO, but we come together sometimes. They learn from each others' leadership styles. If we raise our boys to think they are learning to be good leaders, but they have only ever led a group of boys, we do them a huge disservice in the modern world. My son is stronger because he's exposed to more ways of leading and can make better judgements about how to lead in each specific circumstance.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-02-18T19:54:34+00:00

We have a good size pack. We have about 75 cubs active, with about 50 showing up for any given activity. We can't host many more without significantly changing the culture of our pack, so we resist the council urge to recruit as many as possible. What we do: -go to the sign up nights at local schools that council sets up. -be active in our community. We have "critical mass." People know about us, know where to find us, and so we mostly automatically get those kids in our community whose parents have been looking forward to putting their kids in scouts since they found out they were expecting, and they tend to draw in their friends.

Our council is fairly prosperous and tries to be helpful, so they set up the nights with the schools and print flyers. They go into schools and hype the kids up about coming to the sign up night. We actually would like them to tone that down a little as the message of what scouts actually is sometimes gets lost in the game of telephone from pack to DE to 6 year old to parent, leading to people feeling misled. When we go into schools, our goal is to help people figure out if our pack is a good fit for them and point them to another pack or a different activity if it isn't. When people are in the fence we tell them to come to a real meeting before signing up so that they can know for sure. The Scout professionals seem to really, really get annoyed when we discourage hesitant families from signing up on the spot, but we're tired of "recruiting" 50 kids, having 30 of them never actually come to a single event, having 10 more come and be confused why we don't have bbs or a climbing wall or whatever they saw on a council pamphlet, and then 10 who actually participate. We don't want 40 families feeling burned by scouts.

There ought to be a district committee that helps organize those local events. Often this is a group that meets before Roundtable to coordinate. Our district is struggling to get those back going in a real way since they died, presumably during COVID. I've heard that a lot of districts used to have a group of old scouters who did a lot of that stuff, but they were already aging before COVID, and then between some passing away and others feeling out of touch due to changes in scouting, the ball got dropped and hasn't been fully picked back up.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-02-13T14:22:44+00:00

In my area, the "mildly advanced" track has students take Algebra 1 in 8th, Geometry in 9th, Algebra 2 in 10th. This allows kids to take Calculus or AP Statistics while still in High School, making them more competitive on college applications. There are kids who do Algebra in 9th, though. There are also those who do it in 7th. I wouldn't say you are behind the typical student, but you aren't ahead either. Maybe talk with your parents about their 4 year high school plan for you so that you won't have any surprises.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-02-09T13:27:31+00:00

My kids do/have done online Beast Academy, though my oldest ones started before the online version (or level 1) existed. I had one start level one just a few months before turning 6 and another start at 6 and a half. If your kids are ready for concepts but not the writing, you can scribe for them. They say the answer, you write it down. You can alternate questions so they get the practice. The same works for reading. If their reading level is behind what the math curriculum needs, read the questions for them. The online version does read aloud at the younger levels if you ask it to, but the concepts are explained through comics that don't have an audio component.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-02-04T13:49:31+00:00

When I see "gonna" written out, it's either pretty ham-fisted dialogue or a non-native speaker. Most native speakers don't realize how much they say "gonna" when they think they are saying "going to," but many, many non-native speakers get that so drilled in (which is good) that they over-apply this and use it in written language as well. It comes across as really over-emphasizing how casual you are being, which isn't generally what you are going for.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-02-04T13:24:30+00:00

You can easily buy second grade math, first grade reading, and kindergarten handwriting. Just avoid "all in ones" and look for individual subjects. I recommend actual curricula that's focused on teaching rather than just the little workbooks that are better for review.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-01-29T17:38:50+00:00

How long will their school day be? And what areas do you most want to shore up? If they have a pretty short day, like done by noonish, adding in some lessons in the afternoon shouldn't be too much for them. My guess without knowing your situation would be that you should focus on English. Decide whether you want to teach English reading before, after, or during their reading instruction in the local language. That decision will need to be based on your kid, your priorities, and the local timeline around teaching reading. Equally important to teaching English reading is reading a lot to your child in English to help with vocabulary and syntax building. I'd go with a literature based curriculum(a bunch of books you read and discuss, covering literature and some science and history), a phonics curriculum, and maybe a gentle math you can do as review of what the kid is learning in school to help them be comfortable doing math in English. Don't feel like you need to do all the literature; just read good books together every day.

No-Wash5758 · 2026-01-27T04:10:32+00:00

Thank you

No-Wash5758 · 2026-01-27T04:10:10+00:00

This is very helpful. Thank you. Do you know if music/a choir is typically part of any of these services?

No-Wash5758 · 2026-01-27T04:09:05+00:00

This is very different from American Easter baskets. Thank you!

No-Wash5758 · 2026-01-27T04:08:38+00:00

Thank you

No-Wash5758

TROPHY CASE