Suggestions please - first troop camp experience for 2nd - 4th graders

[AnneinMpls]

Well, in just a couple weeks I'm bringing 15 girls up to Lake Itasca. As this is our first overnight outing on our own (we've done overnights with the whole Service Unit where all the activity is planned for us) we are sleeping indoors, cooking outdoors. We're staying at the Mississippi Headwaters Youth Hostel - if we like it, we'll keep this as a future destination for winter overnights once we move on to tent camping. We have 6 adults and a 15 year old helper. (Too many adults to my mind - comments?) I'm encouraging the 15 y.o. to function as an SPL. Due to the configuration of the space, the girls are divided into 4 "cabins/patrols", the 4 4th graders are in one group, and the younger ones in 2 groups of 4 and one group of 3 - each patrol assigned a turn at cooking for the group.

We've got lots of activity options - I'm wanting to avoid a pressured/overscheduled weekend. I have an adult who wants to teach map and compass, another adult who is an architect that can take us around on the historic buildings tour/hike (lots of old CCC log cabins etc.) I'll be lifeguarding for swimming and canoeing and fishing (our girls *love* to fish - never seen anything like it!). We got a boat tour of the Lake shortly after we arrive on Friday and use of the Visitor's Center to get oriented to the area. Also have a pioneer farmers driving tour we can opt in on and a campfire program led by a naturalist, and I have an email off to the director of the Biological Station to see if we can get a tour there. We've been prepping for the trip using the Junior Park Naturalist materials from the state dnr, so we've done lots of habitat/biome study. Thing is, for a 2 night 3 day trip, our plate is looking pretty full. I don't want the girls thinking they have to do it all, but knowing them, they'll want to - our girl planning tends to go like...do you want to do xxx? followed by resounding yeas - in other words, everything is a yes - I showed em the brochures from Lake Itasca, and every activity listed they wanted to do.

Dunno....how's this weekend grabbing you? I think right now I'm just feeling all the stress of the preparations (have been renewing my lifeguard training the last week and a half so the girls can do all the on-the-water stuff they want to do - big test on Thursday...) and making sure every GSUSA t is crossed and i dotted. They also wanted to do the bikeriding up there too, but we ran into logistics and budget issues at that point. I'm almost feeling like I need to get kinda arbitrary and help them to do some forced choices among activities, split into groups to do different things comcurrently, plan in some down time...whaddaya think?

[SagerScout]

Six adults is about right for 15 girls that age, but only if they all understand the rules and are good sports. You don't need negative thinking or talking people around - I don't care how bad things end up.

 

For rules: In our area, adults do not share tents or cabins with girls, no way, no how, no when. Rules about fire are very strict. Rules about food in cabins are non-negotiable; my daughter's cabin at summer camp had to be evacuated near midnight because girls ate candy in the cabin and it took a couple of hours for a massive ant invasion to become apparent. All you need is a mom to slip her daughter some fun-size Snickers to share after lights-out ... and cause that kind of a problem.

 

A good troop rule is: "leaders don't carry." I have a chronic pain condition and CAN'T carry much - but it's a good rule even if you don't. Otherwise those kids will be loading the adults down with their personal gear. If adults want to carry some troop gear, OK, but girls need to carry their own stuff. For cabin camping, it is worth telling them they should be able to carry bedding and personal gear in one trip - bedroll in one hand, duffel in the other, pillow under the arm. (Tell the parents too.) Be Prepared does not mean bring every item of clothing you own and most of your toys too. In fact, ONE toy - a cuddly to sleep with - should be the upper limit. One time I had a girl smuggle in about 20 Barbies and it caused no end of problems. The more gear they bring the worse the time you'll have packing to go home.

 

I don't know how far you have to travel, but our tradition is this: I make swaps to use for camper awards, and we stop at a roadside park on the way home, eat lunch, and I present camper awards. Make sure everyone gets one of some kind. This works nicely to make them forget how tired and cross everyone was when packing to come home (they WILL be tired and cross, or you will, or both).

[AnneinMpls]

hehe - it's always the adults who are the trouble makers I have one mom apparently really unhappy with the 5 am departure time I've set, and now they seem to have the idea this is negotiable....sigh. It's a 5 hour drive....add in stopping for a quick breakfast, etc and the whole day can slip by pretty quick.

 

I'm already writing up a lil page regarding expectations for chaperones, including a substantial message regarding allowing daughters to enjoy their own experience of camp apart from mom (and to avoid allowing special privileges!), and the girls have already gotten to identify adults *other than mom* that they can go to (meaning that, they can go to any adult on the trip, but this helped them to already begin acknowledging their mom's different role for the trip - I did this on the same page that I made up for girls to select cabin mates/buddies - all kept confidential)

 

The girls already are very skilled in packing and carrying their own belongings. We work on this at troop meetings and I do very detailed specific packing lists. I have to work a bit with our 15 yo helper, as she is happy to be used as a pack horse by anyone who gets tired or whiney.

 

I do like your idea for the trip back - keeps things upbeat (though gotta say it...I'm really proud of these girls! They are cheerful to the core)....hmmm, I might do this with the girls voting...awards for keeping each part of the promise and law....that's 3 plus 10....I need two more...umm, oooh! Motto and slogan

 

My bigger concern right now is the pacing of the weekend. I know that some of the very best stuff happens when nothing else is happening...

[Twocubdad]

In my humble opinion, it sounds to me like you've planned a really fun weekend -- for the adults. A driving tour of pioneer farms? An architectural tour of old CCC cabins? I would be facinated, but I doubt my Scouts would be.

 

Try and make the stuff more hands-on and active. On the farm tour, can they get out and grind corn or milk a cow? At day camp this year, at the nature station we had rubber models of animal paws and made tracks in the sand. The boys made plaster casts of the tracks. Dismembered animal parts, playing in the sand, slopping plaster all over -- a Cub Scout trifecta!

 

The water activities sound great. You might plan an hour or two of swimming each day. My Webelos all had a scheduled swim period at camp but then chose to go swimming a second time during free period.

 

Turn at least one meal in to an activity by letting the girls prepare it themselves. Hobo dinners (can we still say "hobo"? Is that PC?) have the advantage of being easy AND everyone gets to participate.

 

You've got the big-theme activities, but I would have in my back pocket some easy filler activities like knot tying and stretcher races. Throw a ball in the car for a quick kickball or dodgeball game.

 

I think freetime is great if there are things available that kids can do on their own, like play areas or fishing. But if free time is down time, you're inviting trouble.

[AnneinMpls]

I know - I have a truly nutty bunch of girls - they even get excited about the serious "boring" adult-sounding stuff. Anyway, I restructured a bit so that they're forced to choose only *some* of these less fun-filled sounding activities Somehow I ended up with a troop of little professors like my own kid - at least they like fishing I think I do need to remind them we can always come back another time if we don't have time to do it all!

 

We got filler activities up the wazoo - some are projects in progress, some new stuff. The girls are preparing all the meals (even though we're rotating patrols for the meals, most of the meals have things for every girl to do to make her own - the patrols are in charge of prepping ingredients and getting the fire going mostly)

 

From what I remember from my Cub Scouter days, cubs seemed to need a *lot* more "entertaining". Brownies from my experience seem to get a lot of fun out of doing "grown up" stuff (think about it....girls do a lot of playing house...not too many cub scouts would put up with more than 2 and a half minutes of *that*. Camping out with Brownies becomes playing house on a grand scale - from the differences I see in what young boys and girls appreciate, I do wonder how co-ed scouting programs make it work - from what I saw of co-ed scouting groups in Belgium, it looked like the boys found other outlets outside of scouting to burn off that typical boyish energy, and the girls in the same way did their more "girlish" play at home - the scouting program kinda fit in the middle overlapping areas, but umm...I'm digressing badly!)

 

But I do share your reservations about the driving tour - since you spoke up I found a website (my original info only came from park staff) and I've emailed them asking whether the program will be of interest for the kids I'm bringing.

http://pioneerfarmers.tripod.com/index.html

 

I'm guessing that once I get the kidlets in on and around the water, that's where they'll want to be (forgot to mention the wading and hopping from stone to stone across the baby mississippi )