My Scouts first summer camp experience

[beardad]

My oldest son just returned from his first experience at summer camp. He spent a week at Camp Baldwin, in Oregon. He came home dirty and muddy from head to toe, so it looks like he must have had some fun. none of the other boys were very dirty, so maybe they didn't have as much fun.

 

He was the only first year scout in our troop to go to camp. I have been a member here since he was a bear, and I've read all the stories about camp, and it still did not prepare me for how hard it would be for me to let him go. His mother, and I worried the whole week. I was not so worried about his safety, but more along the lines of the other kids and adults getting tired of him, because he doesn't know how to do things for himself, and acts kinda weird and immature sometimes. He didn't seem to have any of these issues, and did fine.

 

He did a couple of merit badges. rifle and archery. (He was going to take four, but apparently first years only could take two) neither of which he finished due to not qualifying on the range. no problem. hopefully somebody has his blue cards, and he can finish those up after some practice next year.

 

He took a T 2 1 class and finished his scout badge and most of his tenderfoot. He just needs to have a patrol flag, and yell, but none of his patrol mates were at camp.

 

This camp was a patrol cooking camp, and he got to make most of the breakfast's for his camp patrol, and said that when the patrol was cooking the food was good, but the 3 meals they had in the chow hall were bad. good for him. he is learning the value of making food for himself.

 

One of the benefits of Camp Baldwin (and the reason my son's troop traveled the 6 hours from WA to get there) is they have a bunch of horses. He wasn't old enough to do the Horsemanship merit badge, as they required him to be 14, he did however get to go on an overnight horseback riding trip. they slept out under the stars. I am jelous. that seems like an awesome experience.

 

Sorry for the long rambling rant. I just wanted to type out my thoughts about this, and if any of you want to read it great, if not no harm in just skipping it. (although if you got this far you already read it, so jokes on you.)(This message has been edited by beardad)

[Scoutfish]

Nah, nothing wrong with a bit of rambling. I thought it was interesting.

 

 

The only thing I am curious about...and I say this having NO boy scouting experience...is why so many things are above his age availability.

 

I mean, you'd think a scout camp would at least have as many things availible for his age group as their were for the older boys.

 

Actually, you'd think there might even be more activities for your son as that's the best way to retain scouts to reach the older ages.

 

But at the same time, camping without having a entire days activities scheduled out is a good thing too.

 

Tell him it's his job to cook at least once a month at home now!

[beardad]

There were a whole list of merit badges for him to choose from. including 4 of the historic merit badges, of which he chose carpentry. but with his two class limit, he chose archery and rifle. those were his choices. the only one he got told no on was the horsemanship.

 

yeah he will be cooking once a week now. or at least help out.

 

thanks for the kind words

[CalicoPenn]

Sounds like your son had a lot of fun - though he probably could have hit the showers at least one more time.

 

A lot of camps will put some limits on merit badges at camp based on age. The limit of 2 seems a bit odd but I'm guessing the reasoning is that 11 year olds (or even 10 year olds who have earned the AOL and aren't quite 11) can sometimes feel very overwhelmed by it all, and often are so gung ho that they'll try to do more than they can really handle (which makes for a very negative experience). If he's doing T-2-1 classes and a couple of merit badges, that's a lot to fit in to a day.

 

I went to a summer camp that had it's own horse ranch (Ma-ka-ja-wan in Pearson, WI). This was many years ago, and they had an unofficial effective age limit of 14 to work on Horsemanship as well. The reason was because it was a very popular merit badge and there were limits in the number of Scouts that could take the badge every week (limited by the number of available horses of course). As the staff was going through the listing of those that wanted to take the badge, they would prioritize the older scouts (the 15 and 14 year olds - the rare 16 and 17 year olds - most 16+ Scouts didn't go to camp - they were either working at a camp, or working some other seasonal summer job and couldn't get the time off). Usually, by the time they accepted the 15 and 14 year olds, they had filled the course. Occasionally, there would be room for some 13 year old Scouts - who would be drawn from a hat for that week. Sometimes, there wouldn't be room for all the 14 year olds - if the 14 year old was staying for a 2nd week of camp (and many units at Ma-ka-ja-wan stayed for a 2 week program), he would be accepted for the 2nd week. If for some reason he couldn't get in for either session, the staff "reserved" a guaranteed spot for him the next year (amazing what a camp staff could do with just paper and pen - no computer needed).

 

Now I imagine there are some camps that might not accept the 11-13 year olds because they don't want to take on the liability risk - but I hope not.

 

Interesting thst your son took some of the most difficult merit badges to earn at Summer Camp - it often takes a couple of years to earn rifle and archery. But the advantage of partialing (is that a word?) on those merit badges is it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that they are difficult badges to earn, and there were likely to be plenty of other Scouts who also took home partials so it would take the sting out of it. Imagine taking fishing merit badge where there is a requirement to catch a fish, spending all week at camp fishing in every spare moment, and never catching a fish then having to take a partial on that badge. Now that's a heartbreaker.

[Eagle92]

My experience with First Year Camper programs is that they are all day programs that really don't give you much free time, except for a period or two, so you can't really focus on MBs. I bet he has more signed off than just Scout and tenderfoot, as most program focus on basic T-2-1 skills.

 

My questions are the following 1) Did he have fun? Sound like he did

 

2) Did he learn anything? Again Sounds like he did.

 

3) Is he starting to become more self reliant? yep.

 

I think you have a winner of a camp!

[kari_cardi]

Sounds like he had a great time, and worked toward advancements as well. My question based on experience with my young Boy Scout - did he change his socks? Personal hygiene seems to be a challenge for first time summer campers!

[frank10]

Assure your son he experienced the best of the horses. There's a reason the merit badge isn't called horseback riding. It has a lot more to do with the two ends of the horse than it does with it's back.

[beardad]

About his socks. I don't know if he did or not. I think he may have come home in the same socks he went in originally. I do know he showered on Wednesday, but I think he put back on his dirty clothes. We sent him with more than enough clean clothes. not sure why he didn't use them.

 

He is already talking about going next year. His experience with the horseback riding over night is awesome. He was excited that they even slept out under the stars no tent. That is one lucky kid. I have never even done that.

 

I may volunteer next year, if I can get the time off. Both of the adults who went this year, say they aren't doing it anymore. I specifically didn't want to go to camp his first year, so I wouldn't be a distraction, or an excuse for him to not be self reliant.

[GKlose]

Beardad -- I did the same thing with my older son. His first year at camp, I dropped him off and then picked him up. He did a lot of growing in that week.

 

During his second year, I was there for the week, but I pretty much left him alone, except for one thing. He didn't pass the swim test on Sunday, so Monday morning I made sure that I walked down with him to instructional swim, and then he passed the swim test. That was good, because he was going to work on Swimming MB in the next hour. Things were fine after that.

 

This year, his third year, was my younger son's first year at camp. I was there for the week again, and I pretty much left them alone except for occasionally asking them if everything was going well. We only had six scouts in camp, and I left them all alone during the week, except for occasionally talking directly to their patrol leader.

 

Guy

[OwntheNight]

beardad- At least yours took 1 shower through the week, mine decided that a shower was not in the game plan, even with private shower facilities on the premises. As I watched the daily pictures from camp show up on our troop website, I realized scoutson was wearing the same clothes all week At least he had fun and wants to go next year! It sounds like your son had a great time at camp. I'm in the same boat with you, I stayed home and just let him go through his first camp on his own. I worried all week about him, but I knew our ASM's were top notch and I trusted their judgment.When they got back, all of them raved about scoutson and how he would just grab a book to sit down and read if there was some downtime. Of course they all did comment about mixing in a shower next year. Glad to hear all went well for your son.

[insanescouter]

Sounds like he had a blast and to me that is more important then anything else ... I have worked summer camp staff 4 different yeas at a local scout camp and have come across way to many who come to camp just to come home with 12 merit badges ... I have also heard of cases where the Scout would get into big trouble for coming home with less then say 8 merit badges ... to me summer camp is as much about having fun, getting away from home, hanging with your friends and peers and personally growing ... as it is about getting a few badges I normally even for older Scouts (of course on case by case basis) recommend only 4 to 5 badges a week. Now if they go to more then one Scout camp over the summer that is another story... sorry rant over...

 

as far as wearing same cloths .... thinking back I think I did same thing my first year or two at camp ... I think its just a "boy" thing ... you know you had a good week if at the end of the week you socks stand up and walk off all by themselves

 

I am hoping next summer I will be able to volunteer to staff a summer camp for at least a few weeks ... we shall see...

 

 

Scott Robertson

http://insanescouter.org

http://twitter.com/insanescouter

 

[allangr1024]

I had one first year camper who had only been camping with the troop once before. At summer camp, he did not want to sleep in his tent. He put his sleeping bag in front of the two man cabin tent. I told him to sleep in his tent on his cot.

 

The next day he told me he was afraid of spiders, so he could not sleep in his tent. I looked and did not see any sign of spiders, an re-assured him that all would be well. That night he asked me to kill the spiders. He opened the tent flap and pointed at the ceiling. There I saw a dozen Daddy Long Legs' that liked to hide in the shade in the afternoon. I shooed them away, and told him these would not harm him, and that all was well. He followed me around for the rest of the week like a puppy. I apparently had made a friend.