This is a post I wrote a long while back, but never quite finished. I hope you don't mind if I put it up anyway.
Going to school teaches our kids so much, but some important lessons have been left out for one good reason or another. Try to imagine a small classroom of twenty-nine kids in second grade, learning how to use a knife safely. Other ideas are covered in school, but really need more emphasis, like treating others with respect and learning to speak in front of a group. Cub Scouts fills in the gaps and tries to make it fun for the boys. In Cub Scouts, boys are encouraged to learn everything from using tools to how the government works. At camp, the boys learn to sleep out in the woods, that messes don't really matter, and that kids just a few years older than they are can run the place.
When the boys are going into second grade, they are ready to earn their whittling chip. It's an amazing sight at camp to see six or seven kids quietly and safely whittling sticks. By the end of camp, there isn't a single stick in the area that doesn't have a point on it. At den meetings, there are fun projects, like building a sword and science experiment that allows you to blow into a straw and suspend a ping pong ball in mid-air for as long as your breath holds out.
When you're at camp, your boy sees a fourteen year old girl tell you that you must follow the rules at the archery range or you'll have to leave, and you listen even if you are a 51 year old mom. The Cub Scouts don't get to run things yet, but they respond to this power and responsibility that they see in kids just a few years older than they are. When they organize a group to go to the BB gun range, they are stretching their wings and becoming leaders themselves.
And there are the skits. At the campfire, three boys will get up in front of everyone and perform a skit they made up themselves. They don't realize that they're building presentation skills that will help them later when they've got PowerPoint going on their projectors.
When I asked Nick what he loved best about Cub Scout camp this year, he said, "I don't know. I just love all of it." Works for me.
Thank you for listening, jb
Going to school teaches our kids so much, but some important lessons have been left out for one good reason or another. Try to imagine a small classroom of twenty-nine kids in second grade, learning how to use a knife safely. Other ideas are covered in school, but really need more emphasis, like treating others with respect and learning to speak in front of a group. Cub Scouts fills in the gaps and tries to make it fun for the boys. In Cub Scouts, boys are encouraged to learn everything from using tools to how the government works. At camp, the boys learn to sleep out in the woods, that messes don't really matter, and that kids just a few years older than they are can run the place.
When the boys are going into second grade, they are ready to earn their whittling chip. It's an amazing sight at camp to see six or seven kids quietly and safely whittling sticks. By the end of camp, there isn't a single stick in the area that doesn't have a point on it. At den meetings, there are fun projects, like building a sword and science experiment that allows you to blow into a straw and suspend a ping pong ball in mid-air for as long as your breath holds out.
When you're at camp, your boy sees a fourteen year old girl tell you that you must follow the rules at the archery range or you'll have to leave, and you listen even if you are a 51 year old mom. The Cub Scouts don't get to run things yet, but they respond to this power and responsibility that they see in kids just a few years older than they are. When they organize a group to go to the BB gun range, they are stretching their wings and becoming leaders themselves.
And there are the skits. At the campfire, three boys will get up in front of everyone and perform a skit they made up themselves. They don't realize that they're building presentation skills that will help them later when they've got PowerPoint going on their projectors.
When I asked Nick what he loved best about Cub Scout camp this year, he said, "I don't know. I just love all of it." Works for me.
Thank you for listening, jb
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