ezrabean2005 Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 My little Tiger Cub Scout was in his first Pinewood Derby today. He built his own car and was SO proud of it. He had the worst time out of anyone and got last place. Dead last. He was very sad, but he didn't get mad. He just cried when I gave him a hug. Then he said he was "just upset". He recovered. But I was proud how he handled such a huge loss. I don't think I could have handled it as well as he did. Even when he was crying, it was hard for me not to cry too. He said he wants to try again next year. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Good job! He's a good sport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 What a little sweetie! You must be so proud of him for dealing with it so well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Awww. What a sweetheart. You're doing a great job momma! My ds got dead last place last year too. Luckily, he's a happy go lucky type and just didn't care! But, he is a bit older. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justasque Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Our troop always gives a "Most Rustic" award to the car which looks, well, like the kid worked hard on it without Dad taking over the project. My kids have been just as proud of their "Most Rustic" wins as of the times when they had the fastest car. For next year, note that there are a lot of things you can do to make your car go faster, including managing the weight so that the car is just under the weight limit at weigh-in, true-ing (sp?) the wheels, using graphite for lubrication, etc. Chances are that those kids who had the fastest cars had parents who helped them with such things. Obviously, there are pros and cons to this approach vs. going for Most Rustic. :-) YMMV, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezrabean2005 Posted January 28, 2012 Author Share Posted January 28, 2012 I knew other moms would understand! I wish they had a "most rustic" award - he surely would have walked away with that one. I'm hoping he'll be able to do better next year, but I'm glad he was able to lose well. I was telling him that you don't really learn anything from winning....the whole deal... But then his best friend (a Bear Cub Scout) said it best: "You didn't make it to the finals? Me neither. Doesn't it stink?" :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justasque Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 ...I wish they had a "most rustic" award - he surely would have walked away with that one. ... You might want to suggest it for next year. We have quite the treasure trove of "Most Rustic" ribbons around here... (Not to mention the "Scout's Choice" we got for an EXTREMELY rustic cake in the annual Christmas Cake competition. "Churned" is the adjective that best describes that cake. But hey, it had LEGO guys in it! (Up to their waists - there was a back story involving some kind of battle, of course.) Who wouldn't vote for that?!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia64 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 I read this proudly to my 8 year old Bears! One of mine wanted to pass this on and said, "tell him 'as long as your car is still really cool. . . now you have it as a toy!'" :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cougarmom4 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Aww, that's hard to watch isn't it? What a guy to be able to bounce back so quickly! Our pack usually has a leader car that is made to go as slow as possible and it always takes the place of dead last. Not that I think kids need to be sheltered from ever losing, but it's just hard to put so much effort in and then have a boy have to lose race after race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhotoGal Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Congrats to your little guy. I'm so glad he has the "try again" spirit! That will really take him far in life. :thumbup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplewoman Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Awe, been there done that. I was Cubmaster of our Pack for a few years and we introduced a trophy for the slowest car in each Den & Pack. We live in an area where a lot of the Dad's are mechanical engineers. The races were getting ridiculously competitive. The kids were off playing while the Dad's were gathered around the race track and I'm pretty sure world-wide Derby records were being set. The rule for slowest was that the car with the single slowest time won, but the car had to cross the line every time it ran. It actually takes a lot more skill to win as slowest than trying to win as fastest. My Dad (a mechanical design engineer) and a few of the other engineer dads started a good natured contest to win slowest in the Open Class the first year. We usually only have a few families stay for the Open Class, but that year we had a huge crowd. Everyone cheered at the end when my Dad won. The boys who won during the Den & Pack races had obviously made their own cars, but they were treated as heroes. I'm really not of the mind that we should give every kid a tropy for just showing up, but in this case the slowest trophy was such a boost for our Pack. The kids who don't win fastest or slowest don't get as frustrated because they fall in the middle somewhere and just figure that somebody probably did worse than they did. Every kid doesn't have to be a winner, but it's also very painful when someone has to come in last. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Then he's a winner! He has figured out the point of PWD! :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maus Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 For next year, note that there are a lot of things you can do to make your car go faster, including managing the weight so that the car is just under the weight limit at weigh-in, true-ing (sp?) the wheels, using graphite for lubrication, etc. Chances are that those kids who had the fastest cars had parents who helped them with such things. Obviously, there are pros and cons to this approach vs. going for Most Rustic. :-) YMMV, etc.Umm, yeah. We are Bear Den Leaders and we just had our Pinewood Derby. One of our boys had the winning car, and he had the winning car last year, too. There is a requirement (21a in the Bear book) for "build a model from a kit" and building your PWD can count, so this week in den meeting I told the boys, "If you built your car, or at least helped a lot, I can sign this off." The boy who won didn't raise his hand. I asked him about it and (at least he was honest!) he said, "The only thing I did was to help sand it a little." I know parents are reluctant to let the boys loose with power tools, but we let our son do as much as we could. He helped with everything, and did all the painting, masking, and stickers himself. By-the-way, the wheels are supposed to be the number one most important thing to consider. Having them free of burrs and knobs, and bends in the axles, and well graphited, and absolutely straight is supposed to affect race speed more than anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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