Webelos Campouts - How Many?

How often do you schedule campouts for your Webelos? Whats an acceptable number of camping trips and how much is too much? I will most likely be a Webelos Den Leader next year and I appreciate your thoughts.

How do the boys in your den feel? Some dens have boys that are really into camping, you could shoot for a camping trip every month or 2, other dens are not so outdoor oriented, and would have to be introduced to camping much more gradually.

Most packs have an outing every month but Webelos need to do some camping on there own. The Webelos Den Leader should go for a class called WOLT so he can take just the Den.

The boys should then plan the campout for the most part. Things like the meals and what they want to accomplish. The parents of course control it but give the boys a chance to help as they will need the practice when they go to a troop.

Before you go camping have a practice Den outing. Plan a hike for a couple of hours and see how the boys are. If the hike area has a campfire ring maybe plan some smores or whatever after the hike.

The guidelines in the Webelos book seems to lean to one campout as a Den as a Webelos II. But more is better to give them the practice.

Let them setup the tents and help with the fire building.

Also get the other parents involved to help teach a badge or two on the campout. The boys prefer a structured outing to a free for all.

After being a Webelos leader for two Dens and a SM, my opinion is between three to five overnight outings over the two years as Webelos. Any more than that and I found that they are actually a little bored on their first couple of Troop campouts. I actually had one Webelos Den join our troop that had camped every month as Webelos. They were better at scout skills than most second year Boy Scouts. We lost all those scouts by summer camp because they never felt like they could fit in. No wonder, they had kind of become their own troop as Webelos.

I like to tell Webelos leaders that they need to take their scouts on enough campouts to where they can sleep in a tent without mom or dad. They dont need to be experts at cooking out, just comfortable with the idea.

Barry

In our Pack, the Pack camps 3-4 times a year (1-2 at district camporees), and Webelos will go on a campout with 1 or 2 troops, either both years, or fall of 5th grade.

Our Pack camps twice a year. If they entered at Tigers, they will have camped 6 times by Webelos. They would have an additional 4 Pack campouts during Webelos.

I had a Webelos 1 den campout last fall. They all slept in boy only tents. We held a den meeting where they picked the menu, picked a grub master who bought the food using a budget, and they all cooked the food at the campout. We had a 3 mile hike to meet some requirement. We had some fishing time at the lake.

This was just one over night so you figure we get to campsite by 9:30-10am. Setup tents, cook eat and clean up lunch. Afternoon hike. Cook, eat, and clean up evening meal. Campfire time. Next morning, cook, eat, clean up meal. Break down tents and pack gear. Brief service. The boys wanted to have a game of football with the dads. We left the camp by 10:30-11 Sunday.

We have a Pack campout in 2-3 weeks. I am treating it the same way. They have already chosen their menu and selected a grub master. I expect them to set up their tents as a den and work together as a den all weekend.

My boys are ready to go camping with the Boy Scouts. I may try to squeeze in one more campout this fall but time is tight with Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The AOL is February. I guess we could have a campout in March but the Pack campout is in April where they cross to their respective troops.