Ramblings...

I’ve talked before that we do Spiral Scouts as an alternative to Boys Scouts since we don’t agree with their policies, but we see value in scouting. This school year I wanted to establish some sort of plan of action when it comes to our Spiral Scouts activities. So I’ve decided to focus on not just certain badges/patches/awards, but an overall theme for each school year. We would then work on the badges/patches/awards that would qualify under that theme.

For this year our theme is camping and hiking *since I figure they both go hand in hand*. We will start with learning about compasses, the parts of them, how they work, when they may not work, and other things that will meet the badge requirements. After that we will learn how to make various knots, what their uses are for, and when they would use certain knots while outdoors. From there we will tackle hiking safety and what one needs to take with them on a hike. Finally we will spend time learning about the ins and outs of camping, camping safety, and then we will put all of our knowledge to use.

We school year round with us acknowledging a new year in July, so I’m planning to tackle each piece over the course of a school quarter.

July-September: Compass Knowledge

October-December: Knot Knowledge

January-March: Hiking Knowledge

April-June: Camping Knowledge and Camping Trip

This should allow us to spend plenty of time working on each piece of the puzzle, that way when we embark on our camping trip we will be fully prepared. I’m aiming for our camping trip to be in early May to beat out a lot of the heat that we encounter here and hopefully not get hit by a lot of rain either.

I’m still in the resource gathering stage but so far I have found the following:

Camp Out!: The Ultimate Kids' Guide

Let’s Go Hiking

If you have resources to share that would help us with our theme please share.