Bridge the Winter Solstice Challenge Sleep Over

The Cubs were up at a reasonable hour.  It was not long before they had their gear packed up and set aside.

 

They were certainly looking forward to breakfast, especially once they found that pancakes were on the menu.  It was definitely the most eaten item and they didn’t touch the cereal at all! In fact, they went through all the pancake mix at the hall. Thankfully, they didn’t want more than that though.

 

A final check of the tent and sweeping it out, and getting it pulled down, as a light rain started and we needed to get the tent away before it became wet and needed drying.  We then moved onto cleaning up the hall and packing equipment away.  

Timing is everything sometimes and it was in this case.

 

Before we knew it, parents were arriving to pick up their youth members and it was over until we plan the next one.  

 

Bridge the Winter Solstice Challenge SleepOver Joint with Joey Unit

Today, we were back at the Scout Hall for a Sleepover. The theme was “Bridge the Winter Solstice”. The basic idea was that the Cubs and Joeys in attendance at the Sleepover would build a bridge.

Scouting person was not sure how well the youth would do. For some, it was the 1^st activity away from a regular meeting night and are still really new to Scouting. So, while the ideal was to build a bridge, if the youth members learnt how to do some knotting, and build something, then it would be a bonus.

 

The afternoon started with the youth arriving at 1:30pm, everyone went over what was happening.

 

 It was time to do the first activity, which was putting up a tent. Not all were keen to sleep in a tent, so there was only the need to put up the one tent for the Cubs. Only 5 Cubs put up their hands to sleep in the tent overnight.

 

Once the tents were up, and a snack was had, it was time to do some pioneering work. The Cubs and Joeys built a bridge themed structure, which allowed them to practice their knotting. It also fit into the Winter Solstice Challenge, which was a challenge set by the South Australian Branch Commissioner – Outdoor Area Skills.

 

From here, it was time to set up the campfire, to demonstrate that they could collect wood, set the fire appropriate, as well as being able to strike a match. The Cubs were also able to demonstrate that they were able to help prepare food for cooking.

 

Once the food was cooked, and everyone had eaten, and had washed their own dishes (we think for a few of the youth members, it was the 1^st time they had done dishes from start to finish), we were able to put a movie on and relax for a while before gong to bed. It really didn’t take the youth that long to fall asleep. The adult spent some time chatting in the kitchen, before heading to bed themselves.