Essential Outdoor skills for kids

M

mark_r

Joined
Oct 6, 2010
Messages
60
What do you think the essential outdoor skills for kids are? (Ages 8-10) What order would you teach them in?

I teach my cubs the follow over a couple of years:

1. How to dress for the weather. (layers, footwear, keeping dry)
2. What to do if they are lost.
3. How to cope in the winter. (frostbite, ice, hypothermia, snow blindness)
4. How to make a fire.
5. How to purify / get clean drinking water.
6. How to build a tarp / garbage bag shelter.
7. Basics on how to use a pocket knife.
8. Minor first aid.

Is there any thing else that I am missing? Most of these kids are real city kids with limited outdoor experience.
 
That's very good- trust me must cubs don't get that much until scouts usually, if you get them to know all that stuff well they'll Just breeze through the ranks in scouts
 
Mark, I would say you have most of the basics covered. One thing I remember from a very, very long time ago in the scouts was our scoutmaster made everything "fun" to learn & a lot of "hands on" stuff, no matter how bad we messed it up . . . :)
A pat on the back & a thank you for taking your time to teach & pass along some great times and skills to the next generation . . .
Be safe.
 
basic compass use and comprehension focusing on proper use of backbearing technique simplified for kids. Everyone in our troop was required to carry a silva(official boy scout) on butchers string around our necks when we went outdoors. still have that compass in my tackle box.

not just make a fire, have them boil water and make ramen and hotdogs on sticks

make logcabin style birdhouse`s with foraged sticks from a hike, lots of city kids have no woodwork or carpentry experience. Google for proper width of hole to encourage bluebirds and native songbird species not starlings,

this is stuff my old man had us do in cubs, he gave 17 years to the baden powell system getting all 3 of us boys through beavers, cubs and scouts
 
Don't forget how to signal! Signal mirror use, using a whistle or flashlight (three blows/flashes).

I know it's hard enough with my boy, but field sanitation is important; how to "poop in the woods"; washing hands, cleaning pots, etc.

Along with hypothermia, don't forget how to recognize signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

I would also add a couple basic knots.

ROCK6
 
baldtaco-II said:
Swimming
Click to expand...

This. It boggles my mind everytime I hear that someone doesn't know how to swim. When I go to the beach with friends I can't believe it when some of them won't go into the water past their waist/chest level. Swimming lessons should be a part of the K-12 school system.
 
A VERY good thread! Lot's of potentially good info, especially for the safety-minded.
 
We do some basic knots (reef, sheepshank, locking bowline, clovehitch), lots of outdoor cooking, a very little compass work, we swim a couple times a year (but I really can't dedicate huge amount of time to it) All of the outdoor skills are hands on practical with some "classroom" backup. We like to cook a little game meat at camps when available. (I think llama is on the menu this weekend.) We try to do a lot of hiking and just being outdoors. (We can always do better/more) Next fall we are renting some houseboats and going "camping" on the Trent-Severen waterway.

We're trying to put together a 3 year plan for outdoor skills that we need to teach. The most important ones every year and the lesser ones less.

If you had to put a top 3 skill list together for younger kids what would they be.

Thanks for the feed back.
 
In addition to fire making, most kids need to learn how to identify and collect appropriate fire wood and kindling. When you send them out to do some gathering, they often times come back with green or rotted wood.
 
I'd like to help them develop the sense of danger.
To guess and estimate what consists the risk of life.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top