AwakeEnergyScouter

I haven't seen any mention of GPS in either the wolf or bear adventures - did I perhaps miss it? Or can cub scouts perhaps earn merit badges? I thought you had to be in Scouts BSA for that. I'm not intending this to be for an award or an adventure, though, just think I see an opportunity to practice core scouting skills while having fun.

I thought about it, but I'm old-school and want to keep all electronics at home. We go out into nature to commune with nature and each other, not to fiddle with devices. Plus, GPS is to map and compass as a TI-83 is to doing it by hand. I think you should know it the hard way before you take the shortcut, at least if you can make it fun enough when it's not school. Given how much fun they had with the map and compass, I see a yes there, at least for these particular kids.

I was thinking about essentially converting the geocaches into an unconventional orienteering exercise by marking the coordinates on a map, though ☺️

On 3/8/2023 at 9:40 AM, cmd said:

And I've got writing a cub-level (or just "beginner" for any age) orienteering lesson to offer our camp on my list of things to do as soon as I finish my Woodbadge ticket. 

A bit off topic at this point, but I would love to beta test that orienteering lesson with my wolf-soon-to-be-bear den. We just did Finding Your Way and they loved it, so I see an opportunity to feed that beast with orienteering. I'm not an expert myself, just loved orienteering in gym class, so would love a plan to execute... Plus an excuse to go trail running 😇

1 hour ago, qwazse said:

@AwakeEnergyScouterBut, indeed, USA National Jamborees traditionally drew a lot of big names — including the King of Sweden!

What? You would think he would come to ours! 🤪

Actually, now that I think about, he does. The rumor went around camp that the King was there, but my patrol couldn't figure out where in time to see him.

On 2/11/2023 at 11:19 AM, qwazse said:

It may be that future Jamborees will forgo big name acts, and the arena will showcase more scout-grown talent. There might be fewer add-ons, like tours of the DC.

Wait, what? American jamborees have big-name non-scout performers and add-on tours? No wonder it's so expensive.

Our campfire arena had 100% scout talent and there was nothing to tour because we were sitting in the middle of the forest in a temporary city made out of slender young trees and rope and tents. Granted, this was now decades ago so I'm sure it's more expensive now in Sweden as well, but still... We were dropped off by our parents or by buses and picked up 1-2 weeks later.

Oh, sorry, I thought you might have sung the song.. the twist in the original is that the parakeet wants ice cream and Coca-Cola 😂

🎶 Jag är en liten undulat,
som fått för dåligt med mat,
för dom jag bor hos,
för dom jag bor hos,
Dom är så snåla.
Dom ger mig sill varenda dag,
och det vill jag inte ha,
för jag vill bara,
för jag vill bara,
ha lax med dillsås 🎶

Good improvising on the verses situation 😂

I don't remember when the formal split was, but the church lost its social power long before then. When my parents were in elementary school, they sang Christian hymns in music class, even though not everyone believed. We would have been shocked to do so in the 1990s and 2000s. Most of the people I knew that got confirmed did it because it's tradition and/or because you get presents. I think I knew a single person in my classes that was a Christian, so I'm surprised to hear there was a month-long religious scout camp in the late 80s. My mom even met a priest that was an atheist, but wanted to comfort people in crisis. But there are still Christians around I suppose, you hear about them in the news sometimes. They must enjoy having somewhere to talk about their religion.

But almost everyone, including the Christians, feels the sacredness and beauty of nature. We can all agree on that. Nobody wants to stay in a city for Midsummer for a reason.

Oh, wow, you guys in NSF scouts must have been very religious! I noticed the mention of confirmation at a scout camp earlier, which struck me as very unusual, but I thought maybe it was some extra thing a few scouts happened to be doing at the same time the scout camp was on. Is NSF a Christian organization? I thought they just wanted people to drink less. This is a scout song I've never heard! We just trolled our leaders by drumming our cutlery on the long tables like a drum circle until someone announced that we could come take food 🤭 Bonus points for for chanting Mat! Mat! Mat!

I do think we stopped that at some point because, well, we matured and it wasn't funny anymore. We started relating to the leaders more as advisors than rule-setters. 

Does this mean you sang a lot of religious songs at your campfires if everyone was a Christian? Did you sing the usual ones too, or is there a split between us regular scouts and the religious ones? By the usual ones I mean starting with fram med lägerbålshumöret.., Trampa på gasen, Temperaturen, Gasflygmaskinen, Omkring vår eld, En kulen natt, I natt jag drömde, Brev från kolonien, I medelhavet, Vem kan segla, När lägerelden brunnit ner...

That last one I always loved ending with, and it's short, so I actually translated it to sing at our last campout. 

Vad är det du tycker så bra om med svensk mat? Det har jag nog aldrig hört någon säga om Sverige 😂

Thanks @MattR, but I know the melody very well from scouts already. We sang it around the campfire all the time, usually followed by joking about all the ways we were going to traumatize our leaders and get them sent to jail 😂

There are lots of other Swedish scout songs I wish I could share with my cub scouts, but of course the only scout who would get the jokes is mine (who speaks Swedish), so not much point. I see a modified BP Spirit in the Cub Scout Songbook, and a few English scout songs we also sang, and here I found what I thought was a Swedish scout song already has an English translation!

Do we sing the Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald's song here in the US too? That one always struck me as the most American of the English scout songs. The younger kids might enjoy the movements and nutritional naughtiness.

I wasn't sure if my scout was ready to enjoy camping yet when we planned to go to our first pack overnighter - for only one of the two nights in case it went poorly. While I had to bribe them with a surprise present to go, once they did it was a done deal and they forgot about the present. They absolutely did not want to go home, and getting to go camping for a whole weekend with the other scouts to play with is THE major draw of scouting for them. Staying two nights is also much more relaxing for me.

I am completely failing to see what the problem is, and don't have a guess either. Other parents in our pack feel similarly. This rule is almost certainly going to be effectively broken unless a good rationale can be given.

On 11/23/2021 at 11:59 AM, skeptic said:

https://1funny.com/allan-sherman-performing-camp-grenada-1963/

Thanks for posting this! I had no idea that this was originally an American song. We sang what apparently was an inspired take on this original by singer-songwriter Cornelis Vreeswijk around the campfire. Our version is definitely less clean, though:

Hey mom, hey dad!

Here's a letter from your favorite son

We're having fun at summer camp

There are 28 of us gangster kids in a

Large barrack with lots of beds

Can you send more money?

That would be a good deed

I have lost it all playing dice 
 

It's lots of fun here I can promise

Although a little hard to sleep

The guy in the bed above me

Doesn't wake up when he needs to, no
 

I have lost two front teeth

When I tried to walk on my hands

When we were playing charades

So now when mom sees me she'll be furious

Out in the forest there are germs

But my friend he has pills

That he bought from a bad guy

And if you eat them you turn into a super fun guy
 

The leader, he has gone

He will never be the same

Because the police came and arrested him

Last week when we played forest fire
 

Out in the forest there are deer

In the barracks there are nits

And my best friend Tage

He has a little pocket knife in his stomach
 

They're going to operate on him

Well, now I can't think of anything more

Hug and kiss and heartfelt thanks then

Now we're heading out to burn the barrack next to ours!

The lyrics rhyme in Swedish just as they do in the original but I didn't even try to make the meter and rhyme fit.

Does this thread mean that someone might be upset if I teach my cub scouts the American original? It seems fine to me, even ends on a happy note and nobody goes to jail 🤣

Conveniently, I already tested pre-mixing the dry ingredients for bannock in a plastic bag and kneading the dough in the bag after adding water and taught my scout how to bake it on a stick. We're ready to make bread for the pack also!

I see a few of those freeze-dried meals that might be worth a try... After all, if kids have run around enough to be hungry they might be more willing to try new things. Last I heard quinoa was boring, but being outside can shake things up. Thanks for the tip. I was wondering if I'd have to dry my own ingredients to make my own dried meals 🤔

That patrol soup looks great! I think the recipe is too big for our Trangia kitchen, but the pack has some big cast-iron pots ☺️

When I was a child on hike, I ate meat and dairy. Now I don't, and am struggling to come up with good outdoor menus - my ideas are either very heavy and/or require a very long cook time.

Even worse, my scout doesn't like the camp classics I grew up with that are veg and often turns their nose up at anything with sauces. (Except Indian food, go figure.) So, that rules out most of the freeze-dried meals that used to be my go-to. We have pre-made Indian in bags as a solid meal for both of us, but that's it!

However, since we're about to tackle Bear Picnic this upcoming school year, I see an opening to work through this as a family, but I want to have some ideas ready. 

Veg scouters, what are your favorite camp and hike meals?

Tack ska du ha!

It is always time for fika! I plan to teach the cub scouts how to bake a sponge cake in an orange over the coals on the next campout, and I of course always bring coffee. They might also appreciate making strövargodis.

Lärde du dig svenska på en sommar? Inte dåligt i så fall!

My kår was Ludvika Scoutkår, then run by SSF. My dad was a member as well, and I took a peek at their Facebook page and it looks like things are still going there! 

https://m.facebook.com/100064894952670/

That location near Vättern looks lovely. We mostly built our camps from the thin young trees (slanor) and ropes. One year we were so lucky that we had an international jamboree nearby outside Kopparbo (https://kopparbo.com/), for which we helped build a small city with nothing but axes and rope. That was also where I first encountered gender-segregated scouting for the first time, we met some English scouts that were all girls and were called guides. Perhaps you're onto something with the measurement systems idea. My American husband thinks he's being helpful with mnemonics for how many noses in a king's elbow, but that you even need a mnemonic illustrates the problem if you ask me. I'm all in for a combined solution to irrational measurement systems and duplication of scouting leadership effort if you have a suggestion.

Coping with the heat isn't trivial... I know the symptoms and stages of hypothermia off the top of my head and I have gear and clothes and routines for staying warm, but I'm realizing that in 30+ heat - especially over 40 - you need to know the symptoms of heat stroke in just the same way. I have gotten many horrible headaches that don't seem to go away and gotten really lethargic a couple of times, and looking around I don't see others being as affected as I seem to be. My child also turns pink and red from the heat in a way that the other kids don't seem to. (It fades quickly in air conditioning, so it's not sunburn.) I don't know if it's my limited tricks for heat or if it's really the downside of physiological cold and dark adaptations. I try to drink all the time (used to live at altitude and am trying to follow that habit) and wear a hat (and tons of SPF a million sunscreen of course), but it's often not enough to avoid feeling sick. Got any tips? I hear they will arrest me if I go naked, and I will have to spend all my time reapplying sunscreen anyway so I'm pretty sure that's not the way forward.

Bit late here, but WOSM provides training and activities on the SDGs in a way that's linked to the Messengers of Peace program. If you follow the bread crumbs from Scouts BSA's website on MoP to WOSM's website on MoP, it links to Scouts for the SDGs. The activities provided there are really nice.

I just facilitated a cub scout pack meeting around defining a MoP project with inspiration from the SDGs. (We figured that lions and tigers would struggle with even the simplest exercise from WOSM.) I heard a lot of good conversation around how we scouts can build a better world. I highly recommend what WOSM has to offer on the SDGs.

Hello!

I'm a Swedish immigrant to the US. I was a scout when I was a kid and really enjoyed it, and my family did a lot of what we in Swedish call "fresh air living", hiking/fishing/camping/biking/paddling/skiing/skating kinds of things. We went tent backpacking in Lapland for vacations. (But then again, part of my family is from the Arctic Circle so knowing that nature and landscape intimately is also knowing my roots.) My troop met on the edge of a forested hill, so we spent a lot of our time outdoors. I made some of my best childhood friends through scouting!

Anyway, because scouting meant a lot to me, I sold my child on scouting adventure and we signed up with Scouts BSA in cub scouts after a lot of waffling on my part to understand this two aligned but gender-segregated NSOs situation. I'm still not sure I understand what's going on there, but we happened to have a well-run family pack very close to our house so that and the normalcy sealed the deal for Scouts BSA.

After observing as a parent for a year, I have decided to help make sure this pack continues to be well run by becoming a leader myself to help ease the burden on those already serving. Our local council has wonderful facilities and regularly arranges suitably adventurous activities, so that's also very nice.

My only complaint is that they failed to take the opportunity to teach the kids that you don't whine and quit just because it's cold when they cancelled the last adventure day due to cold when it was still well above freezing. There's no bad weather, only bad gear, as we say in Sweden. In Texas they think they're freezing to death if they're not sweating. (Ok, ok, I'm exaggerating, but there's a kernel of truth in there!)

The Texans are teaching me about hot weather camping, though. I have now added a scorpion-finding UV flashlight to my gear along with a battery-run camping fan. International scouting adventure is always exciting!

Good morning, scouters!

My cub scout recently finished their Metta Award, and as per the guidance I am planning an uplifted religious celebration for awarding the pin itself.

Because our lineage also gives out pins for authorizations or empowerments, it makes sense to follow that custom for the Metta pin also. We do a lhasang, have the teacher purify the pin, and then student and teacher bow, the teachers gives the pin, and then they bow again.

That's all fine and good, but then what? I think my cub scout is going to want a more lively party afterwards than we adults do, particularly since we usually start with a dharma talk and then have a formal feast practice! I'm thinking dharma wheel cupcakes and maybe three jewels sugar cookies, but there needs to be some kind of activity.

What have others done to celebrate cub scouts earning Metta Awards?