What do you do when your young man isn’t interested in Scouting activities? Or they can’t stand playing basketball? Or they dislike the camping aspect of Scouting? How do you encourage them to continue to attend activities that do not hold an interest for them? Here are five things you can do to help your boys become more interested in weeknight activities.
1) Explain to your son that he will be learning skills that can help him later in life. It is important to know how to hike safely. It is important to know first aid and fire safety. These things are taught at Scouts. If you can convince him that the things they are doing do have a value to him, it will be easier to get him to attend the meetings.
2) If your son will attend the Wednesday night activities, but refuses to go camping, you may want to compromise. You can offer to let him skip every other camping trip. If this doesn’t work, see if he will go to part of a camping trip instead of missing the entire activity.
3) If your son is not interested basketball, and that seems to be all the leaders have planned each week, you may want to call the leaders and request that they add some variety to their meetings. It is important that the young men’s leaders make sure there is variety in the activities offered so they are reaching boys of all interest levels.
4) If you do not attend all the activities you should be, it will be hard to convince your son that he needs to. You should set the example with your regular attendance at church activities. If he sees that it is important to you, it will more likely be important to him as well.
5) Encourage your son’s leaders to build a relationship with your son. This can help your son to feel more comfortable at weeknight activities. This can also help your son as he makes important decisions regarding a mission and college