Bushcraft for Scouts, help please.

[brian533]

Hi all, I am new to this forum so please forgive me if this post is in the wrong place or not relevent to the forum.

I have just started helping out at a local Scout group that my son does to. We are going on a group camp in a couple of weeks and I was after some Bushcraft ideas that I could do with the kids.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Hello and welcome to the forum matey! there a lot of chaps on here involved in Scouting, have a look here for a whole sub forum, You wont be able to send PM messages until you have 10 posts, so have a look around and bang them out then you could do a lot worse than messeging Stovie, Brancho, Man Of Tanith to name but three

Have fun chap!

Southey

 

[udamiano]

Welcome to BCUK Brian, ask around, loads of really talented people here, and very helpful

 

[craig]

Just come back from camp myself. You'll find bushcraft and scouting share a lot in common. I've done fire by friction, tracking, plant/tree id and shelter building including knot work. Most bushcraft activities can be easily adapted to do with scouts. Are you doing any backwoods activities? Such as cooking without pots and utensils?
Good Look.
Craig.

 

[ged]

Knowing where you are and where you're going, planning how and what you'll need to get there, preparation and precautions for when it all goes pear-shaped (some of the best shapes are pear-shaped)...

 

[PeterH]

Welcome to the forum Brian. There are lots of ideas you can use to build into a programme for the camp and they will be guided by where you are, what you have and how many / previous experience of the participants. I would suggest that you are not too ambitious to start with, unless you are slick at doing the task with a group it will take longer than you think. Also "stuff" never works first (second or third) time when you are showing a big group and remember the attention span of the participnats, mostly they want to do not watch.

Ask one of the leaders to lend you this month's Scouting magazine and have a browse at scouts.org.uk but try searching for things like backwoods, campcraft, scouting skills rather than Bushcraft as that is a more recent "fashion label" there.

Good luck

 

[udamiano]

(some of the best shapes are pear-shaped)...

hmmmm.....Perry....very tasty

 

[Stew]

A lot will depend on the particular group of kids you have, plus the strength of the other leaders.

if you don't know the capability of the kids I would suggest something relatively basic. Camp is an ideal place to do some firelighting, in my opinion.

Do you know what, if any, bushcrafty stuff they've done before?

 

[Snowfire]

Light a fire and cook something, even if it's only marshmallows. You'll be amazed how many kids have never even struck a match never mind lit a fire. Explain to them where to look for dry wood, how to sort the wood by size, building the fire up. Plus what wood not to take (off a live tree for example or something almost rotten on the ground) and why. Strike-a-lights and setting fire to cotton wool are always popular if you're not allowed a proper fire.

If you're good on trees teach them to identify a few. Make it a game - 5 points to the first patrol to bring me an ash leaf. If they've been winding you up all weekend make one of the things to bring a nettle

Teach them what to put in their pack for a day out, then hopefully when you're a mile or two away from camp and it starts raining at least a few of them will have brought a waterproof jacket along. Again you can make it a game - big piles of kit for each team (waterproof jacket, hat, sunscreen etc plus some red herrings, they have to run and collect something and put it in the pack. Once all the stuff is gone get them to explain their choices.

Think back to when you were there age - what did you enjoy doing? Keep it simple and make it fun for both them and you.

Let us know how you get on

 

[silentbob]

Building camp gadgets is useful (simple bootscrapers, tripods to hold lanterns or washbowls, full kitchen work areas including sink, draining board, pot and plate rack) and allows you to show them some knots that actually have an immediate practical use.
Firelighting will keep Scouts occupied for ages.
Tracking, shelter building, different methods of water collection, if you are blessed with some clear nights show them a couple of constellations, especially those that can help with navigation, knife work (we started out carving blocks of cheap soap with "knives" made from wooden lollipop sticks and have now progressed to real knives), first aid might be useful too!
What are your own particular interests in bushcraft - teach them what you are already good at.
Most Scout Leaders on here also hang out at the escouts forum which is also good for ideas.

 

[Winston]

Welcome to the forum and to scouting brian, I hope you find both worthwhile...

In teh past ive done all sorts of basics with my cubs, tracking, firelighting, shelter building (both full sized and mini hedgehog shelters, which can be good for shorter time frames, navigation, backwoods cooking (cooking without using utensils), knots, tree/plant recognition, camp gadgets.

What to pack for camp is good for a night in the run up, we use a short skirt with a leader acting as a cub, complete with a huge wheely case, cup hanging of it on a piece of string, Akela goes through the kit list and it turns out the cub has nothing on it, when the case is iopened theres a huge teddy bear in it... that raiseis another importnat point, particularly with cubs, if you use a teddy at home then feel free to take it, i have a tiny one thats always in my rucksack so if anyone laughs at a child for haing a teddy i can show them ive got mine too.. this takes 5 minutes but leads into a talk and gme on what to pac and how to pack it..

enjoy yr time with the kids, its when you see them as adults years later you realise how important what you do now is.

 

[silentbob]

its when you see them as adults years later you realise how important what you do now is.

Kind of off thread but this is such an important point and partly why I got involved as a Scout Leader - not been doing it long enough to see any of my lot as adults yet but I still remember my own childhood Cub/Scout Leaders as inspirational characters.

"100 years from now it won't matter what kind of house you lived in, what kind of car you drove or how much money you had in the bank but the world may be a better place because you were important in the life of a child."

 

[Dogoak]

I can recommend this book................'I Love My World' by Chris Holland, it describes its self as 'The Playful, Hands-On, Nature Connection Guidebook'. Seems to be a great book for anyone involved with childeren in the natural environment and would be a great teaching aid.

 

[Winston]

@silentBob

Love that qoute, its from the scout leaders prayer, I have the full text of it on my desk at work to remind me what its all about. Makes me shiver everytime i read it.

Im not overly religous but that prayer gets me everytime and reminds me what its all about. Its also what i was hinting at in my earlier post, I am at the stage now where i see the boys and girls i had in my cubs up to 18 years ago, they have families, kids and jobs of their own and whatever they are and whatever they are doing, I am in some way part of that person. Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it, but thats what keeps me going through the bad times nowadays!!

 

[stovie]

Hi all, I am new to this forum so please forgive me if this post is in the wrong place or not relevent to the forum.

I have just started helping out at a local Scout group that my son does to. We are going on a group camp in a couple of weeks and I was after some Bushcraft ideas that I could do with the kids.

Keep it simple to start with. There are good suggestions above. Fire steels and birch bark always offers a challenge; dough twists are a perenial favourite; shelter building (what we oldies called camps in our childhood) and the chance to sleep in them overnight; Dutch Arrows are simple to make and offer hours of fun afterwards....and so the list can go on...

Most importantly, have fun

 

[brian533]

Thanks to everyone for all the excellent sugestions.

The campsite we are going to is a proper wooded scout site with lots of areas to do all sorts of activities. I will be doing a base for about 10 kids at a time for around 45 minutes at a time. So plenty of good ideas here to keep them occupied.

Thanks again.

 

[silentbob]

The campsite we are going to is a proper wooded scout site with lots of areas to do all sorts of activities. I will be doing a base for about 10 kids at a time for around 45 minutes at a time. So plenty of good ideas here to keep them occupied.

Good luck, let us know how it went when you get back.

Winston, I only knew that quote in its own right, didn't realise it was part of something else. I've googled Scout Leader's prayer and got lots of stuff up but not that particular one, any chance you can post the whole thing or provide a link?

 

[eel28]

Welcome to the forum and to scouting brian, I hope you find both worthwhile...

In teh past ive done all sorts of basics with my cubs, tracking, firelighting, shelter building (both full sized and mini hedgehog shelters, which can be good for shorter time frames, navigation, backwoods cooking (cooking without using utensils), knots, tree/plant recognition, camp gadgets.

What to pack for camp is good for a night in the run up, we use a short skirt with a leader acting as a cub, complete with a huge wheely case, cup hanging of it on a piece of string, Akela goes through the kit list and it turns out the cub has nothing on it, when the case is iopened theres a huge teddy bear in it... that raiseis another importnat point, particularly with cubs, if you use a teddy at home then feel free to take it, i have a tiny one thats always in my rucksack so if anyone laughs at a child for haing a teddy i can show them ive got mine too.. this takes 5 minutes but leads into a talk and gme on what to pac and how to pack it..

enjoy yr time with the kids, its when you see them as adults years later you realise how important what you do now is.

So glad I wasn't in the scouts

 

[SimonM]

Feedback from Scouts, from across the County, after a recent camp showed that they really enjoyed:

Fire - how to light them (spark, friction and matches) and cook over them, with and without utensils.

Sharps - Knife
How to safely cut a notch & make a usable point (tent peg making)
Battoning to make kindling

Sharps - Axe
How to split small rounds for firewood

HTH.

Simon

 

[Winston]

@silentBob

Heres the text i use

Lord,
I am not an important man as importance is commonly rated, I do not have great wealth, control a big business or occupy a position of great honour or authority. Yet, Lord, I may someday mould destiny; for it is within my power to become the most important man in the world in the life of a young person. All about me are young people my lord, They are the makers of history, the builders of tomorrow. If I, by being faithful to the aims of scouting, can become their true leader, I may prove to be the most important man in their lives. Lord a hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But, the world could be different because I was important in the life of a young person.

The original had bits about young adolf and young joe and how thigns may have been different for them, btu they have been dropped nowadays..


@eel..

Of course i meant skit, but given theres girls and women in scouting in these modern days it could have been right as it was...