The Future, 22/07/11

Games: indoor parachute, obstacle course (giant feet, cones, frisbee, ladders)

Drawing the future

Badge requirements achieved:

Fitness - part in co-operative games (parachute games), Take part in a team game (obstacle course)

Imagination - Draw or paint a picture imagining what life might be like in the future

Quote of the month, July 2011

'Get to know your kids better. Send them away.'

Fun and friendship

These are the reasons people join Scouting – without it they leave.

Pirate Camp, Blackwell Court, 16/07/11

Joint camp with the Cub Scouts

Camp activities included orienteering, night line, water fight, rounders, grass sledging, backwoods cooking and two treasure hunts! It even included inflatable palm trees!

Badge requirements achieved:

Adventure - Treasure hunt, Grass sledging

Fitness - Take part in a team game (rounders, water fight), take part in co-operative game (nightline)

Nights Away - one night away as part of a recognised Scouting activity (in tents)

Outdoor - Visit a Cub Scout Pack camp, Help put up a tent, Follow a laid out trail, Take part in an outdoor activity (grass sledging, treasure hunt)

Pirate T-Shirts, 08/07/11

Games: played "Pirates" footsteps, head or catch, dodgeball

Designed pirate t-shirts

Pirate Flags, 01/07/11

Games: Pirate balloons - last one to burst won! Memory & jigsaw game

Then we designed pirate flags to put on our tents for Pirate Camp at Blackwell Court

Pirate Party, 28/06/11

Joint event with the Cub Scouts

Games: Rounders in the park, pass the parcel and musical statues. Sweets handed out as prizes

Badge requirements achieved:

Fitness - Take part in a team game (rounders)

Tents, 24/06/11

Three teams racing against each other and the clock to erect tents inside the scout hut.

Learnt about tent etiquette

Games: Beavers & water-rats, pirate keys

Badge requirements achieved:

Outdoor - Help put up a tent

Trim Your Sail

One merit badge that I really enjoyed earning as a Scout was Small-Boat Sailing. And the thing that most impressed me was learning how to tack. In a sailboat, you can’t get upwind by steering straight into the wind. You have to move into it at an angle, with the mainsail close-hauled, and the centreboard down. By putting together a series of tacks, which looks like a big zigzag pattern as you go through the water, you can actually get yourself upwind of your starting point.

Sailors have a saying for this: They’ll tell you to “trim your sail so as to gain an advantage, even in an adverse wind.” A good sailor knows how to take the very wind that is trying to blow him backward from his intended course, and use it instead to move his boat forward. His forward progress might not be fast with all those tacks, but it’s steady.

There’ll be times in your life—there’ll be times in your Scouting career—when you’ll encounter an “adverse wind.” Everything seems to be moving against your intended course. Well, maybe you can’t steer straight into the opposing “wind,” but by trying a different “tack,” you can find a way to move forward. That’s one of the secrets of success in Small-Boat Sailing, and it works in real life, too.

Quote of the month, June 2011

'Take the first step into the future.'

Fun and friendship

These are the reasons people join Scouting – without it they leave.

Snibston Discovery Museum, 18/06/11

Saw interactive and moving exhibits and fascinating displays about fashion, design, technology, science and industry at Snibston Discovery Museum, Leicestershire with Beaver Scouts from all groups within Rea Valley District

Badge requirements achieved:

Adventure - Adventure walk around a park

Creative - Learn what a magnet does

Fitness - Go for an accompanied walk

Friendship - Join in activities with another Colony

Outdoor - Visit to a place of interest