TLR
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 1,568
So I got back this weekend from an extremely wet local camp acting as an instructor for their middle school adventure week. We had 27 kids ranging in ages from 11-14 or so. The kids were from around illinois and Iowa with a few from Wisconsin. A lot of these kids had never used a knife on their own before and had little experience if any at all in the woods.
A friend of mine has deaned this week of camp for years and even though it is named adventure camp it really had no wilderness aspect to it. Hes been wanting to change the way it was run for a while and talked me and another mutual friend into acting as instructors to turn it into more of a wilderness week. Ahh what we do for free for friends
All in all it was a fun week but Im freakin tired!!
Youll see my izula2 and the other instructor wearing an izula later down the thread. I mainly used a mora throughout the week as I wanted to show the kids that the knife wasnt the thing that allowed me to succeed where they might be struggling. We really stressed that knowledge and experience equal wisdom and that wisdom in any environment is the key to survival of any kind.
Failure was a major theme throughout the week as well. We wanted them to know that survival never goes as planned, that's why they call it survival. They watched me and the other instructors fail at certain tasks a few times and we used each as an opportunity to learn how to troubleshoot a situation and use failures as an opportunity to better learn how to be successful.
Hopefully next year I can take an ESEE 6 as there were several times a larger knife would have made certain tasks easier and quicker.
I hope you enjoy the photos below and I want to take the opportunity to challenge ALL of you to get out this summer with some kids and pass on all of the wisdom and experience you can to a generation who may not get it from anyone else!!
A major theme throughout the week was improvisation and adaptation. So after a brief but stern safety briefing concerning the fact that they would be using knives and would be hands on with fire (the camp was VERY reluctant to let us give them knives or handle fire, I told them if they wanted me there those two things were non-negotiable) we passed out thread, needles, old jeans and t-shirts and told them to make improvised bags that they were to use throughout the week that could hold a water bottle, psk and supplies.
They did pretty good with them and throughout the week kept modifying them as they found things that worked and didnt work.
A friend of mine has deaned this week of camp for years and even though it is named adventure camp it really had no wilderness aspect to it. Hes been wanting to change the way it was run for a while and talked me and another mutual friend into acting as instructors to turn it into more of a wilderness week. Ahh what we do for free for friends
All in all it was a fun week but Im freakin tired!!Youll see my izula2 and the other instructor wearing an izula later down the thread. I mainly used a mora throughout the week as I wanted to show the kids that the knife wasnt the thing that allowed me to succeed where they might be struggling. We really stressed that knowledge and experience equal wisdom and that wisdom in any environment is the key to survival of any kind.
Failure was a major theme throughout the week as well. We wanted them to know that survival never goes as planned, that's why they call it survival. They watched me and the other instructors fail at certain tasks a few times and we used each as an opportunity to learn how to troubleshoot a situation and use failures as an opportunity to better learn how to be successful.
Hopefully next year I can take an ESEE 6 as there were several times a larger knife would have made certain tasks easier and quicker.
I hope you enjoy the photos below and I want to take the opportunity to challenge ALL of you to get out this summer with some kids and pass on all of the wisdom and experience you can to a generation who may not get it from anyone else!!
A major theme throughout the week was improvisation and adaptation. So after a brief but stern safety briefing concerning the fact that they would be using knives and would be hands on with fire (the camp was VERY reluctant to let us give them knives or handle fire, I told them if they wanted me there those two things were non-negotiable) we passed out thread, needles, old jeans and t-shirts and told them to make improvised bags that they were to use throughout the week that could hold a water bottle, psk and supplies.
They did pretty good with them and throughout the week kept modifying them as they found things that worked and didnt work.
