Bobby's Sunday Summary (Actually Just Day Camp)

I know it has been a while, and I need to get back into doing this regularly, but last time to took a lot of rewards to build up a habit so don't hold your breath.

About a week ago one of the leaders that was going to take kids to day camp had to cancel for a very good reason.  I ended up having the day free enough that I could do it.  Robert had a blast, which made the sun, noise, humidity, bugs, and everything else almost worth it.  Sadly I could tell that Susan had had a long day too.  Well lets get on to the activities.

First up was instructions in the "Friendship Circle" we got the usual stuff, but then they divided up us and split the troop.  I was a bit confused by this, but it turned out to be really good.  I had been dreading a bit having just two leaders to take 9 boys around.  Mostly because the boys tend to feed off of each other and try to one up each other.  But by splitting them up I ended up with 4 of our boys and another leader with 2 boys joined.  The other group mostly stayed together and got another leader to help out too.

For my group we started with "Scout Crafts"

Which really means basket weaving.  One of the leaders from a group that went with us is an art teacher and he thought it was a bit beyond the skills of the younger cubs to do this, as he tries to do it with older kids and it takes 3 days not 45 mins to get a good result.  But S.  (Robert's Friend) really took to it, which inspired Robert to compete with him for who could make the best basket.  More on this later.

Next up was slingshots, bb-guns, and archery.  It was really well done for the safety instructions and helping the kids out on this.  But it also was taking a long time to get everyone through, so we did the slingshots first.

And BB-guns

But ran out of time for archery.  This ended up fine.  The pool had two pumps fail on it, so the last hour of the day which was supposed to be swimming we canceled, and we could come back at the end and make it up.

Robert and S ended up getting a little confused and were aiming for the same target.  One of them hit the cloths pin that was holding up the target and if fell down.  S claimed it, but then they had to both get shifted over to deal with a new target.

Next we crossed a small creek with a foot bridge over it to get to "Scout Skills"

Which let the boys set up an A-frame tent, tied several knots, and lit a fire.  Sorry this was the one place I didn't really get any pictures.

Next we had lunch.  I don't think the lunch was something I really want to spend a lot of energy remembering.  It wasn't bad, it just was...  Robert liked it because they had chips and cookies, and when everyone had gotten some they could have "seconds".  But we did get a few good pictures anyways.





Next came "Weird Science" with Alka-seltzer lava lamps;

Elephant Tooth Paste, but a toned down version so it didn't hit the ceiling; baking soda and vinegar rocket;

and mentos in coke.  The kids loved it all.

Next came "Sports", which really was an obstacle course where they asked you science questions as you went through it and made an impromptu dunk tank at the end where if you hit the target you could dump a bucket of water on one of the "leaders" heads.  By leaders they had a lot of regular scouts helping out so this leader looked only a few years older than the boys that were dunking him.

They also had peddle car go carts.

and bottle rockets.

If you couldn't tell Robert really liked the rockets.  While the other kids in the group spent nearly half an hour trying to soak the "leader" Robert shot off rockets as frequently as he could.

After that we went back to archery.  Then we went back to hang out with the rest of our group until 4 when many of their rides would arrive.  Robert and S ended up being able to finish their baskets and they turned out really good.  Some of the leaders were praising the boys and wanted to take their picture to possibly put on a calendar or post on Facebook.  The boys were so proud.

Although it was the leader that helped them to make the weave tight and finished tucking in the loose ends, but even so.