Zombie Parent's Guide: Cub Scout Day Camp 2016

This year's Cub Scout Day Camp had "Cubstruction" as its theme, so they had a lot of Lego and other building materials throughout the camp. My son is a Bear now and he was assigned to a den that joined a few boys from our pack with boys from another pack.

Den area

Each day started with an assembly followed by the various dens moving from station to station across the Howard County Fair Grounds.

Gathering for assembly on the first morning

I was unable to volunteer this year so reports (and pictures) are not so detailed as last year.

The first day (Monday) had a lot of educational and constructional activities. At the craftsman station, my son made a free-standing book shelf.

Bookshelf

He also made a bird feeder at the science station.

Bird feeder

The geology station was provided by the Mobile Mining Experience. My son panned for rocks on Monday. He had a bucket of dirt that he scooped into a mesh box. The mesh box went into running water, which took away the dirt and left the rocks. He brought home a big bag full of rocks.

Explaining the rocks one by one

Some of the stones


A variety of rocks, minerals, and fossils!

At the health station, he learned to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR. Judging from the button he received, he only learned the chest compressions, not rescue breathing.

Congrats!

He also went to the BB guns and Archery stations but the first day was safety training--no shooting. And no take home items, either.

Tuesday was an exciting day for the camp because severe weather came through the area. A tornado was spotted several miles away. The powers that be decided to close the camp two hours early. I got the message while having lunch at Chick-fil-A, so we (the toddler and the daughter were with me) left from there. We parked at the fairgrounds just as the worst of the rain and wind hit. Small hailstones hit the car, which was very unpopular with the toddler. I tried to explain to him that it was just like the noise from popping popcorn. He wasn't convinced, mostly because we've never made popcorn with him. The power went out while we waited for the "all clear" from the tornado warning. My son was disappointed to leave early.

On Wednesday, he did one of the favorite activities at the camp--the water slide. The best hill is conveniently located right next to the assembly area. The slide is a plastic sheet with hay bales on the sides.

Location of the water slide

In the craftsman station, he made a Native American talking stick. During a big meeting, to prevent people from speaking out of turn, everyone agrees that only the person who holds the stick is allowed to speak.

Talking stick (also fun to look at)

He learned about the history of the American Flag and the Star Spangled Banner (the American national anthem) at one of the stations.

On Thursday, they finally went back to the BB rifle station where they actually shot the guns. My son enthusiastically told me about it as soon as I came to pick him up at the end of the day--one bull's eye and one in the first ring, along with two in an outer ring. Even his fifth shot hit the target. His performance was a great improvement over last year (without any practice in between!).

His target

Close up of the center

He had his second day of whittling, where he finished a bear. Whittling is not a strong skill for him, though he did make his own carving knife with a clothes pin and a tongue depressor. He had a file to sharpen the edge of the green tongue depressor. If he shows an interest, we'll practice more at home (I have no strong skills either).

Whittling equipment

They had another run at the water slide as well as having water balloon challenges. A dry time was not had by all!

Friday was the final day of camp and had a lot of physical activities--gaga ball, exercise, archery (no target to bring home from there), etc. The last cubstruction project was building a paper rocket, which had a nice result.