Pack Family Camp

[Woodward]

(Man how things have changed..I was sleeping in Tents alone at 7

No wonder so many people consider scouts sissies..make sure to pack night lights)

 

Not helpful.

 

 

With our CO, local council and even national demanding strict adherence to YP and safety, how can you justify letting a 7 year old sleep alone in a tent next to a rolling river, a busy road in a public park.

 

This was family camp, not invite you boyfriend for a roll in the sack and stick your kid in a separate tent camp. All other Scouts were sleeping with parents or in a tent with older sibs next to the parents tent.

 

(Our pack is going to invest in some larger tents specifically for WEB use so that they and their parents start to get the idea that boys should tent with boys.)

 

I agree as Webelos, during Webelos camping events, definitely.

 

I volunteer and was trained with a search and rescue team through a fire department. To often we get called out on a search, to pull a child out of a river, lost in the woods or issue an abduction alert. Just for the lack of parental common sense.

 

[Austinole]

We have 3 to 4 Pack camp outs a year. We change up the locations each year. Most are state parks (Florida and Georgia) and have a fire pit that we utilize. I'd check with your C.O about a suitable location for a permanent fire pit. If there's not a good place for one bring a portable fire pit. Florida State Parks has a great tool call "One Tank Adventures." It lists all parks within a average tank of gas. At all our Pack Camp outs Families and siblings are encouraged to come. If you fill out your tour plan should help you stay in compliant with BSA regs. Doing it online is easiest because it keeps leader info. We're lucky to have 4 leaders with BALOO training so we've always got somebody trained.

 

A typical camp out:

1st day - Friday: Arrival and setup - food is on your own

2nd day - Saturday: Breakfast on your own, lunch on your own, Pack Dinner. We usually have a pack event to do (hike, fishing), a service project then breakout in to den activities. Of course, we allow for the kids to have plenty of free time to play.

3rd day - Sunday: breakfast on your own. Tear down and leave.

 

I think the key to a successful camp out is to have a plan and make sure everyone knows what they are responsible for. Delegate and get people involved. If you're going to have fishing; find your parent that has that skill and put them in charge of it. I like to have a theme for the event. It might be cave exploration, or fishing, forestry, historic tour, map and compass or Native American history/crafts.

[5yearscouter]

A worry with 7 year olds (or other young kids up to and including young boy scouts) tenting alone, is the buddy system in not in effect--they have to go out of their tent, wander around in the dark to find another tent, wake someone up in order to go to the bathroom.

But a bigger worry is the young ones get scared camping, esp in the middle of the night when all the lights go out and the coyotes howl or the elk bugle, etc. And if they get too scared they are apt to decide they hate camping. If pack campouts are to give the boys a safe intro to how fun camping is, tenting alone may have that fun become terrifying for a little one. We've lost boys over that when their parents put them in a tent alone and they got scared and then decided they wanted to never do that again. young ones are impressionable and we want good impressions.

 

As for Webelos tenting with other Webelos, I really believe that is important for the boys to help them grow, with the adult tent close by. But I've known a handful of young webelos who were just not quite ready for that yet. One in particular I know just got over that fear at boy scout camp this summer, as a first year scout. I don't think he slept in the tent with his brother either, but I know it was the first campout he wasn't in the tent with his mom. It takes a while for some of the boys, and we need to be understanding of that too.

[ScoutNut]

>>"This was family camp, not invite you boyfriend for a roll in the sack and stick your kid in a separate tent camp. All other Scouts were sleeping with parents or in a tent with older sibs next to the parents tent.">"With our CO, local council and even national demanding strict adherence to YP and safety, how can you justify letting a 7 year old sleep alone in a tent next to a rolling river, a busy road in a public park."

[5yearscouter]

A worry with 7 year olds (or other young kids up to and including young boy scouts) tenting alone, is the buddy system in not in effect--they have to go out of their tent, wander around in the dark to find another tent, wake someone up in order to go to the bathroom.

But a bigger worry is the young ones get scared camping, esp in the middle of the night when all the lights go out and the coyotes howl or the elk bugle, etc. And if they get too scared they are apt to decide they hate camping. If pack campouts are to give the boys a safe intro to how fun camping is, tenting alone may have that fun become terrifying for a little one. We've lost boys over that when their parents put them in a tent alone and they got scared and then decided they wanted to never do that again. young ones are impressionable and we want good impressions.

 

As for Webelos tenting with other Webelos, I really believe that is important for the boys to help them grow, with the adult tent close by. But I've known a handful of young webelos who were just not quite ready for that yet. One in particular I know just got over that fear at boy scout camp this summer, as a first year scout. I don't think he slept in the tent with his brother either, but I know it was the first campout he wasn't in the tent with his mom. It takes a while for some of the boys, and we need to be understanding of that too.

[Jeffrey H]

We keep the planning for our Pack Campouts simple. We apply the same KISMIF logic to our Pack campouts that we do for our Den and Pack Meetings: Keep It Simple, Make It Fun.

 

Everyone provides their own food and drinks for their own meals for the duration of their stay. We have one group meal together on Saturday evening where the Pack provides the essentials (hot dogs, burgers, buns, etc) for a cookout. Everyone is encouraged to bring a little extra to share with others.

 

We avoid doing "group reservations" to avoid the burden of money collecting and frequent reminders to parents to meet group reservation deadlines. Everyone makes their own campsite reservations. Our families show up at different times during the weekend and we discovered that letting everyone take care of own reservations was much easier and more efficient.

 

Keeping it simple also give us better flexibility to re-schedule a campout due to severe weather.