Gimmie some notions...

[Great Pebble]

Going on a trip of about 5 days next week and will have 3 kids in tow, 2 boys, 6 & 10 and a 14 year old girl!

They're all relatively easy going and easily entertained but have had no particular "outdoor" experience before. We'll be staying on the public campsite at a forest park, but day-long and overnight trips into the woods are definite possibilities.

Their mother has warned me against anything involving trapping/shooting or hunting animals (my usual forte) although fishing is apparently okay.

Given that my skills (such as they are) lean more toward the "survival" end of the outdoor spectrum, generally rough & ready, perhaps a tad dangerous at times, can anyone give me some suggestions for suitable activities?

The broad age range might be a problem, but one possible plus point is that the teenager has an interest in Wicca.... Unfortunately I don't, never weaved a basket in my life :nana:

Any help appreciated.....

[Keith_Beef]

Going on a trip of about 5 days next week and will have 3 kids in tow, 2 boys, 6 & 10 and a 14 year old girl!

They're all relatively easy going and easily entertained but have had no particular "outdoor" experience before. We'll be staying on the public campsite at a forest park, but day-long and overnight trips into the woods are definite possibilities.

Their mother has warned me against anything involving trapping/shooting or hunting animals (my usual forte) although fishing is apparently okay.

Given that my skills (such as they are) lean more toward the "survival" end of the outdoor spectrum, generally rough & ready, perhaps a tad dangerous at times, can anyone give me some suggestions for suitable activities?

The broad age range might be a problem, but one possible plus point is that the teenager has an interest in Wicca.... Unfortunately I don't, never weaved a basket in my life :nana:

Any help appreciated.....

Take along a piece of rope, and show the boys how to tie knots. Especially the magic knot that disappears when you pull it tight (simple slip knot). My boy loves that (he's four).

Square lashings and diagonal lashings are useful for building a shelter.

Fires are always interesting. If they're not allowed on the site, maybe you could build a small fire to light the barbecue charcoal, to grill sausages and black pudding.

And for a 14 year old girl with an iterest in wicca? What about corn dollies? A bit smaller than a whicker man. Easier to make and upsets the other campers a bit less.


Keith.

[Tony]

Spoon carving, or prepare some literature that you can give them so that they can identify some of the more common plants and trees. Water purification, tracking (you can set up tracks for them to follow if none are available) navigation, drawing their own maps and making mud maps (little models of the local area made of mud) Kids love boat building, you could make a brush boat out of a tarp or a poncho....

I'll have more of a think :wink:

[Womble]

tracking games and observation skills (disguised as games)?

[tenbears10]

tracking games and observation skills (disguised as games)?

Something like the game where you have a pile of stuff and you cover it up, uncover for a minute and then they try and remember as much of the stuff once it's covered again after the minute runs out. I think scouts call it Kims game. The age thing will be a problem but you could have three levels with different amounts of items to remember and do scores by %.

You can impress them by remembering a list they create for you. The trick is to add all the items into a story for yourself then retell the story and remember all the items you can do this several hours later. Example being; get up in the morning and put on your shoes, put your knife in your pocket, have a cup of tea in a mug etc allowing you to remember shoes, knife, mug etc. It's a good trick when the list is 30 items long.

Bill

[Great Pebble]

Great stuff folks, thanks.... Oh and don't stop :-P

Tony, see my profile..... I don't do spoons! :nana:

[leon-1]

Something like the game where you have a pile of stuff and you cover it up, uncover for a minute and then they try and remember as much of the stuff once it's covered again after the minute runs out. I think scouts call it Kims game. The age thing will be a problem but you could have three levels with different amounts of items to remember and do scores by %.

You can impress them by remembering a list they create for you. The trick is to add all the items into a story for yourself then retell the story and remember all the items you can do this several hours later. Example being; get up in the morning and put on your shoes, put your knife in your pocket, have a cup of tea in a mug etc allowing you to remember shoes, knife, mug etc. It's a good trick when the list is 30 items long.

Bill

Bill yep that is kims games, but the way they grade a kims game is not just on objects found it is on attention to detail, you get more points for attention to detail than you do for nameing the object (generally name the object and three points about it) you only get a quarter of a point for nameing the object itself.

To make them more difficult increase the amount of time between covering up the items and actually naming them (I have done bits like a 2hour gym session or a complete days work before coming back and completing a kims game) as much as being a memory game it is there to teach fine attention to detail.

[Adi007]

Great stuff folks, thanks.... Oh and don't stop :-P

Tony, see my profile..... I don't do spoons! :nana:
:rolmao:

[Tony]

Great stuff folks, thanks.... Oh and don't stop :-P

Tony, see my profile..... I don't do spoons! :nana:


Ahhh, maybe a knife and fork then!
:o):

[Adi007]

Ahhh, maybe a knife and fork then!
:o):
Chopsticks? :o):

[tenbears10]

Bill yep that is kims games, but the way they grade a kims game is not just on objects found it is on attention to detail, you get more points for attention to detail than you do for nameing the object (generally name the object and three points about it) you only get a quarter of a point for nameing the object itself.

To make them more difficult increase the amount of time between covering up the items and actually naming them (I have done bits like a 2hour gym session or a complete days work before coming back and completing a kims game) as much as being a memory game it is there to teach fine attention to detail.

Thats the idea Leon I was forgetting the whole game, thanks. The army is a lot like scouts only with more swearing isn't it, at least they play the same games. :wink:

Bill

[leon-1]

You could always teach them the safe handling of edged tools, whilst showing them how to carve pot hangers or what were the things that Schwert and Kath talked about, was it hoowee sticks.


The army is a lot like scouts only with more swearing isn't it, at least they play the same games. :wink: Bill

And yes Bill the army do play the same games as scouts and you are quite right there is far more swearing in the scouts :o):

[tenbears10]

And yes Bill the army do play the same games as scouts and you are quite right there is far more swearing in the scouts :o):

Only from the Brownies
:wink:

Bill

[Roving Rich]

Simple Bows and arrows are a good one that kids like, and throwing sticks are also fun, set up some sticks as targets, balanced branches etc as deer and bunnies... then use em for target practice.
It would be nice if you could set up a fire with a "cauldron" over it for the teenager and cook a nettle soup broth or using forraged herbs and greens. Remember the Elder is "the whitches tree" so point that one out, and Besom - whitches brooms are made from birch twigs around a hazel handle.
If she is really into Wicca then she will be wanting to learn the wild herbs and plants.

Hope that helps
Rich

[RovingArcher]

Some good ideas for the boys with the knot tying, stick throwing, proper knife care, etc. and you can improvise firestarting, shelter building and chop sticks are good for picking lumpy stuff like meat and flies out of your soup. :o):

Roving Rich hit the nail on the head with wicca and if the teen is indeed into wicca, do a little research so you can discuss it with her, or at least be able to ask an intellegent question or two. Learn some of the herbs and other plants used for their incantations and either gather some in the bush or take a few with you. She may even have her own "kit" that she would like to bring along.

[EdS]

Wicca is very formalise - generally split into Gardainian and Alexandrian (excuse spelling) if I remember right - few years since I had owt to do with any - the ex was one. They are named after the Victorian's/Edwardian's who set these styles of Paganism up. So there isn't that much she could learn without some one how know about rituals.

However, the more solitary/ naural etc style -"hegde witch" type stuff should be of intrest. It covers the old use of plants - magic(k)al, medical and ritual. A well as been alot less struckered - basically its the old "folk" stuff.

Have a look for hedge witch on the net and you should find some stuff for her.

[Keith_Beef]

Simple Bows and arrows are a good one that kids like, and throwing sticks are also fun, set up some sticks as targets, balanced branches etc as deer and bunnies... then use em for target practice.
It would be nice if you could set up a fire with a "cauldron" over it for the teenager and cook a nettle soup broth or using forraged herbs and greens. Remember the Elder is "the whitches tree" so point that one out, and Besom - whitches brooms are made from birch twigs around a hazel handle.
If she is really into Wicca then she will be wanting to learn the wild herbs and plants.

Hope that helps
Rich

Instead of birch twigs, you can use broom to make a broom. I don't know if the plant is named after the tool, or the other way around.

In French, the tool is called "balai", from the Breton word for the broom plant ("balain", which the French call "genêt", from the latin "genista").

I was looking at Culpeper's "herbal" the other day (full title is "The English physitian; or an astrologo- physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation"). Plenty of entertaining stuff in there.

This is a good place to start looking for herbal and folk remedies:
http://medhist.ac.uk/browse/mesh/C0025125L0025125.html


Keith.

[EdS]

You can also use Calluna vulgaris (heather) to make a broom - hence its common name Ling which is Norse (? cann't remember) for a sweeping broom

[Great Pebble]

Yay!

Plenty of stuff here to be going on with, will also be laying out some fishing lines, so hopefully a little wild cooking can be demonstrated also.

Thanks all.

[Womble]

So, for the youngest you can be the observation man; for the 10 year-old you can be the fishing man, and for the girl you can be the...

er...

Wicca man?

[Ed]

will also be laying out some fishing lines
And don't forget to have rods with your lines and the relavant permits. Hand lines and night lines are considered poaching by authoratories and you could end up with a large fine :-( Handlines can be used on the sea/coast though. Popular for crab and makrel.

Ed

[Great Pebble]

Oh yes, of course, I would never even think of doing otherwise, not for a moment.

[bill]

and dont forget not to use bread as trout cant resist little balls of it moulded round your hook.this would be awfully bold and shouldnt be done in the late evening at all,when the rangers have gone home [in tullymore and castlewellan ] :wink:

[bushwacker bob]

Dont use worms either for the same reasons!
Also as you have a wide age range of kids try and do some adventurous stuff that the older 2 can do and you can assist the little one with.My eldest kid always liked to help her smaller siblings to achieve the harder stuff like climbing up large ish rocks. the little ones loved it and the older ones developed a good sense of responsibility.

[Great Pebble]

Wellllll....

Back, with very mixed results.
So mixed that I came home for a while on Wednesday to get my head showered.
Suffice to say that patience was lacking in the two youngest members of the party and their...ummm...volume controls were stuck at Spinal Tap levels. Irritating to one who sees the peacefulness of the outdoors as one of the more attractive features. However, nothing ventured.....

We did cover, in varying degrees, celestial navagation, knots, medicinal uses of common plants, cordage making & wild foods.

Other activities planned were set aside, for the sake of everyones sanity, the frisbee was deployed and the local family pub visited.

I know the old adage is that there are no bad pupils, only bad teachers and the boys mother seemed pleased with what they had learned, one of them was even persuaded to sip nettle soup, but can anyone suggest how one can explain that the point of a fire drill will never burst into flame and no matter where you are in the world sausage, beans and chips won't be found in the hedgerow?
I tried and failed, despite a background in facilitating primary education projects. I believe the major factor was a lack of patience, there was a seemingly genuine interest and both the lads have evidently watched a few of Mr. Mears shows. But no roaring fire in 90 seconds and my failure to produce four courses from the first hundred yards walk and we go back to beating each other with sticks and back to the tent for a blast on the game-boy.

I'm trying to take some inspiration from the positive aspects, the lads did learn a bit and the teenager loved most of it, but am a tad disheartened by the whole affair.

[alick]

Hey - hope you don't let it get you down.

Outdoors stuff is like that, it's a lot different from (most of our) usual day to day life. That the lads took in anything at all is good progress. That your daughter enjoyed a lot of it is great :biggthump . That they wanted instant results is typical and being kinda self involved and noisy is normal for their age.

Trick is, everyone remembers the good bits and forgets the dull ones. Just keep introducing them to new ideas and connecting them to the things you all did "do you remember when we ..., well..." and next time you do a bit more, and more after that.

It's like eating new food - it can take quite a while to get used to some things but over time it should all work out fine. Kids are best with little but often and making a game out of everything. I hope you gently stick with it and bet you'll be able to teach them loads.

:You_Rock_

[alick]

BTW - as an example of me spoonfeeding my kids (8 & 10) with the same ideas and stuff:
I drag mine out for only 2 or 3 hours at a time and even though we're only going on a short walk in a local wood we take a basha, a camp stove and some sort of food. Oh - and always a "possibles" bag just in case we find an interesting plant, a fungus, whatever. We're very big on "mushrooms can be dangerous so don't even touch it unless we know what it is", but they're getting an inordinate amount of practice at rigging a basha and rustling up a snack for a modest number of hours outdoors.

When we do do longer outings, it's still only full days or two days with an overnight, but it all mounts up.

Good luck

[steven andrews]

Punji stake trap?