What Are Your Habits?

[Julia Szmidt]

Hi! I'm a scout from Poland and I am organizing a weekend camp. I would like to make it as a journey around the world that is why I need to know something about you and your troops. I am intrested in your customs e.g. what game do you play during meetings, what songs do you usually sing together etc.

Thank you in advance, Julia

[LeCastor]

Cześć, Julia, and welcome to the forum! 

 

My Boy SCout Troop is from Wisconsin (USA) and our Scouts enjoy knot-tying relays right now.  They are also fond of playing games of "hide-and-go-seek".  As for singing, though, they are pretty shy and tend to keep silent--unless they think I'm listening and then they sing a lot!  But it's mostly songs from the radio.

[Stosh]

Welcome to the forum!

 

My boys love to cook, the are always looking for new things to make while out camping.  Our boys don't sing either.  It used to be really popular for groups to sing, but that seems to have waned in the past 20 years. 

 

My former troops were heavy into water sports like canoeing and kayaking.

 

One has to have S'mores.  A graham cracker square on the bottom, a layer of a chocolate bar like Hershey's, then a campfire roasted marshmallow, with another square of graham cracker on top.  I hope that makes sense.  What we do here doesn't often translate into other country's traditions.  

 

My niece lived in Australia for a while after getting married and her mom had to send her all kinds of things she couldn't get there.

 

Sausages cooked on a stick over the fire served on a bread roll is also poplar.  They are garnished with ketchup, mustard, ground sweet pickles, sauerkraut, onions, mayonnaise or whatever to suit one's preferences. 

[KenD500]

Small Troop in Texas - most recent game:  Beach Ball Elbow Relay - each Patrol has a beach ball. 

The game is played in 3 rounds.

1st round:  Pairs of Scouts from the Patrol hold the beach ball with only their elbows (one elbow each) and then race to the other side of the gym and back.  There they pass the beach ball to the next pair.  If the ball is dropped, the pair starts over.

 

2nd round: individual Scouts from the Patrol hold the ball with only their elbows and hop on 1 foot to the other end of the gym and back.  The ball is then passed off to the next individual.

 

3rd round:  entire Patrol carries beach ball with all of their elbows touching.  Race to the other side of the gym and back.

 

The Scouts loved the game and have put it on the "try again" list.

[MattR]

Julia, a fun activity is a repeat-after-me song that gets harder and harder. The leader starts with a simple phrase, the scouts repeat it, the leader adds something to make it longer, scouts repeat, and this goes until it's a huge long tongue twister. It's not really a song but it is fun. Here's one example.

 

http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activity/one-fat-hen-a-couple-of-ducks.html

Edited May 20, 2015 by MattR

[qwazse]

Our boys are older, and use their meetings to plan campouts and other weekend activities. Many of us from Pittsburgh have family who came from Poland, so Polish food is popular, and our boys will often put it on their menu.

 

While camping this winter, the boys in my troop realized that they didn't purchase the peirogi, so they modified their schedule and made a 5K hike plan up a frozen stream to the nearest store while the scoutmaster and I hiked in the opposite direction to the nearest coffee shop.

 

The boys called us with a request to modify their return trip so as to avoid the stream. (They forgot to bring a pack to carry the peirogi and had to improvise one with the shopping bag and some rope ... so they were afraid of their dinner being lost if they slipped on the ice.) We provided them an alternate hike plan on paths that they never knew about, and we met them to make sure they (and our dinner ) found their way.