Planning a Pack Campout

[Its Me 10]

Here is what I presented to the Pack last night:

 

Thursday Night:

Optional Campout (Reserving thursday is a trick to get the campsite for the weekend)

 

Friday Night

Campfire Sing along 8:00 - 9:00

 

Saturday

9:00 Webelos Flag ceremony,Prayer,Announcements

9:30 - 10:30 Fort Invasion

 

1:30 Shell hunt along beach (with lifeguards) no doubt this will turn into a swim party

 

4:00 Tug-of-war Dads vs the world

 

8:00 campfire program with den skits, I'll have a short story and if appropriate will deliver it.

 

10:30 lights out

 

Sunday, short service

 

Dens to arrange meals

 

I offered to hold the cross over during the Saturday night campfire but the campout is in May and most will have crossed over by then. Also it would eat up all our campfire skit time.(This message has been edited by Its Me)

[OneHour 11]

Words of warning about Dads vs the world tug-o-war: Make sure that you have at least 2+" (dia.) new rope. We held a dads vs kids two years ago with a brand new 1" climbing rope. The rope snapped and kids went flying and dads went on top of one another. Thank goodness that the rope the whip anyone in the face (or otherwise) or anyone got hurt badly! We got 2-3 scrapes and bruises and one sprained ankle. When you have two opposing forces that refuse to give in, something else has to! I cringe everytime I remember that event!

 

"Shell hunt along beach (with lifeguards) no doubt this will turn into a swim party." Having lifeguards is only one of the Safe Swim Defense. Don't forget to get trained (if you or someone in your pack have not done it) in Safe Swim Defense. It is a must, especially, when it comes to cub scouting!

 

Now back to Pack Campout:

 

- relays are great (about 1 hour long)

- hike (so that wolves and bears can get their hiking requirement out of the way) (about 30 minutes long ... remember you are having a bunch city dwellers who probably not wearing the proper hiking shoes or boots ... probably wearing flip flops!)

- fishing contest is good (1 hour)

- we used to have a pack campout in Sept that we had the kids bring their waterguns and we would have a water blast between the dens, betweent the kids and the cubmaster, etc. This would be great with the fort, if it is allowed.

- another campout, we had each den to provide activity for 1 belt loop or requirement at their campsite, ultimate, volleyball, badminton, etc. That worked out quite well (2 hours)

- Free time is very important (2-3 hours) where the family or den can do as they planned.

- Campfire (1 to 1 1/2 hours):

- flag retirement ceremony (a lot of people have never seen one)

- skits

- songs

- jokes

- cheers

- The rest of the time is reserved for cooking, cleaning, and just lounging around.

 

A well planned campout always gets them to come back for more, especially a fun campfire. So get your goofiest adults to be goofy! When the adults are having fun, the kids will naturally join in. I, on the hand, refuse to be Goofy. I'd rather be Donald, instead!

 

1Hour(This message has been edited by OneHour)

[fotoscout 15]

That sounds like fun.

 

It appears that you have some time blocks of time around your meal periods. Be sure to tell the den leaders that they should be prepared to fill these periods with some sort of activity. Certainly the boys need to have some unstructured time, BUT, too much unstructured time will lead to problems.

 

The meals will only take a short amount of time to eat, and for the most part the boys are not involved in preparing the meals. One of the things you can do with these time periods is to have a short bathroom break, this way the boys wont be leaving the activities to go potty. The time can be used for work on belt loops, arrow points, or activity pin work. You can also do a craft, play catch, or play cards.

 

Ive found that the whole trip will be better it everyone has less free time. But dont worry about having no free time. Regardless of how prepared you are, and how structured the day appears, the boys will find a way to make some free time!!