Looking for more ideas for Family Camp

[K1986]

Now that our pack has reorganized and gotten some new members and had six weeks since our June activity it is time to do our annual family camp event. Everyone is very excited especially our new scouts! We have decided to hold our camp at the local cub camp since it is unoccupied by day and resident camps that weekend and we have the whole place to ourselves!

The only thing we are running into is that because our family camp is an annual event we are running out of new great ideas for activties and don't want too many repeats. It is a Friday night thru Sundady at eleven event. Activities already planned are:

-Nature Scavenger hunt/hike

-Soccer Belt Loop

-Astronomy Belt loop

-Making camp t-shirts

-Flag retirement ceremony (at Saturday evening fire)

-Annual scouts(and siblings) vs. parents water balloon war

 

With record breaking temps. even here in Michigan we are looking for water related activites but do not have a lake (the truely sad and lacking part of this scout owned property) So we are looking for water related games/fun. Large group games, crafts or other scout skill building activities for Tiger thru Webelos II's plus their parents and siblings. What does your pack do for these kind of outtings? Any ideas are appreciated, Thanks

[Tampa Turtle]

We have done Carnivals where each den ran a game or an Obstacle Course likewise. We have had dessert contest.

 

If the group is not large a night hike is good; kids loved it. Biggest problem is getting the parents to be quiet, turn off phones, and no lights! Opps, I guess you are doing day only.

 

We have had nature hikes that were scavenger hunts (no picking) or history hikes.

 

Human chess was good.

 

Did sponge throwing game, like dodge ball with big sponges and 5 gallon buckets.

 

Once made a catapult (larger PVC pipes with 1/2 a 1/2 gallon jug as a basket). Did a post hole bend it back and fling water balloons. Kids will fight to catch them. Hardest part is filling up all the water balloons. Not to big as they get heavy. Actually flinging anything with the catapult was popular.

 

At one day camp they set up a wall of boxes. Boy Scouts on one side had super splasher "guns" and the other side a row of catapults and water balloons. It was pretty cool.

[kari_cardi]

A water obstacle course is fun. Have each family bring something to contribute like buckets, sponges, hoses, sprinklers, etc. Let the boys set it up and time each other running races.

 

Also, scouts like cooking their own food. There are several good threads about easy meals that cub scouts can help with or do on their own, with supervision of course.

[Scouting4Ever]

-Geocaching

-Dutch oven desserts

-Water Rockets

-Scouts Own Service

-Night Hike!!

-Flag Football

 

[ScoutNut]

Water balloon toss - a GREAT way to get wet.

 

Raingutter race - Make it simple and fun for everyone, make boats out of donated foam meat trays, or even juice boxes.

 

Check out any interesting activities there might be in the surrounding area, and do a field trip.

[resqman]

We always ran a series of classes/stations and the dens moved through the various stations. 45min - 1hr per station. Had Parents run the various stations. Usually I would gather all the supplies, develop a basic outline for the parent/sibiling to run the station and then set up the stations. Then I would run back and lead my den through the stations. Too much work for 1 person. Make sure that camping committee is involved and assign each station to a den to setup and have one parent/family member run. Parents can swap out during the day so they are not stuck running the station and can share in the fun. Alternately ask Boy Scouts out for the day to help with stations. Cubs Looooove to see Boy Scouts in action.

 

First Aid: Activities include bandage tying and stretcher making.

2 poles and blanket folded per the handbook makes a stretcher. Couple triangle bandages and go over the common bandage tying.

 

Box Oven: A few boxes, some coat hangers, pair of pliers, and foil. We used staplers to secure the foil to the box. Parents may have to help cut the coat hangers with the pliers. Lots of instructions on the web.

 

Pizza Making: Tortilla, jar pizza sause, grated cheese, pepperoni, charcoal, foil, box ovens. Scouts double foil and fold in sides 1/2 inch to form a cooking sheet a bit larger than the tortilla. Scout places tortilla on foil "pan". One spoon of pizza sause and spread around with back of spoon. Sprinkle cheese on sause. Spread pepperoni, mushrooms, or other toppings you supply. Place "pan" and pizza in box ovens made earilier in the day. Adults place charcoal in bottom of box oven. Wait 5 minutes. Cheese melts and everyone enjoys snack/lunch. For dessert buy the premade Chocolate chip cookie batter in breakoff chunks. Drop a few on your "pans" and bake 12 minutes. Mmmm good. Corn bread muffins made latter in the day can be saved and served with dinner. Or the Martha White 6 pack of breakfast muffins cooks in 14 minutes the following morning.

 

Leather Neckchief slides: Scout store sells leathercraft stamps with wolf, bear, webelo, and cub scout logos about $5 each. 1/4 inch alphabet stamp kit about $35. Pre-cut leather neckerchief blanks about $1 a piece in bulk packs of 25. Dampen leather, stamp rank in center, and scouts stamp den number and pack number over and under logo. Scouts stamp name along the side next to lacying holes. Scout laces up slide. Craft project, useful uniform wear, momento for life. We have Life scouts who still wear them from 6-8 years ago.

 

PVC marshmellow guns: Cut Sched 40 1/2 inch PVC pipe into about 5 inch lengths. Buy bulk 25 packs of Elbows, T's, and End Caps. Provide each scout 2 elbows, 2 T's, 2 End caps, and 7 pieces of pipe. About $2-$3 in material per scout. Scout assembles the pieces in any configuration he likes. Mini-marshmellows are the ammo. Posterboard with target is hung on tree or held by sibling. Scouts shoot marshemellows at target. Amazingly addictiing for scouts and parents. Cut all the pipe ahead of time. I used a chopsaw with a stop block for consistency. You get about 3 guns per 10 ft length of pipe. We allowed each scout a small sandwhich bag of marshmellows per weekend. Add cost of marshmellows into overall cost. Local forest animals will clean up the mess overnight.

 

Leaf tracing: Collect different leaves. Place piece of paper over leave and rub with side of crayon. Identify different leaves/trees as part of discussion while doing rubbing. Take a quick walk around station after tracing to find trees that matche tracings to learn tree/bark/leaf association. Maybe discuss different uses of particular trees, ie. Hickory good for tool handles; Oak common for flooring and furniture; Pine common for structural house framing, sap for turpentine; Maple for syrup and custom furniture; Dogwood for mallet heads and oramental trees, etc.

 

One time we had each Den make a 15 min presentation to the rest of the Pack. Tigers made poster. Older scouts did demos or presentations. We picked a theme of outdoor safety. Tigers made a poster about insects/snakes. One den presented knife safety - whittlin chit. One den presented fire safety. Webelos baked cookies in box oven and served everyone in the Pack. (They had the charcoal going before hand. They start cooking earlier and had some cookies already done. They explained how to make a box oven, loaded the oven with charcoal and cooked cookies, and distributed hot cookies during the presentation. Very well recieved.

 

Rope and Knots: Teach and tie knots, whip and fuse rope

 

Firebuilding: Teach how much and what size wood to collect, how to lay fire, fire ring safety, how to put out fire, etc. We also taught matchless firestaring using battery & 0000 steel wool, BSA Hotspark, flint & steel, use of cattails, cedar bark as tinder; making "birds nests" by deconstructing sisal rope, cotton ball and vasoline fire starters, gauze and neosporin fire starters, etc. I taught these sessions since most parents were not knowledgable. Could invite Boy Scouts to help run or teach stations.

 

Neckerchief slides: Buy multipack of matchbox style cars at Dollar store. Cut 1 inch lengths of PVC. Super Glue pipe to back of cars. Ready for Pinewood derby.

 

Get candy molds from craft store. Pour plaster of paris in molds and set bent coat hanger wire in plaster for rings before sets. If you make up a bunch before the event, scouts can paint the slides. Also have some plaster of paris and wire on hand so they can actually mold a few.

 

Lots of craft ideas for neckerchief slides on the web.