Scavenger Hunt
The scavenger hunt portion of the meeting was a wild success. Parents loved the team building aspect. Should consider more active team building activities for future meetings.
Knot tying race
The knot tying race, while not thought out beforehand, and was done on the spot, was great. Here's what I came up with:
2 sets of 3 bags placed on the ground, with strings laying near them, spaced apart. The kids started at a bag, tied the Miller's knot then raced to the next bag to do the same. They raced each other to get it done. Someone (we had a knot expert dad there doing this) came behind and checked each knot after they finished it. He either decided it was a good knot, or declared it no good, and the child had to go back & redo their knot until they got it right. I was surprised by:
1. it took much longer to do this race than I thought. There were many "do overs"
2. even with this, the kids loved it. Meant the fastest did NOT always win, as their knot was often not quite right. Slow & steady wins the race!
How do firefighters get equipment quickly when they are one or more stories up in a building?
Our knot expert dad ended up showing the kids how firefighters bring equipment up stories of buildings quickly with rope and a couple of different knots - a clove hitch and a half hitch. We used a fallen branch as the equipment stand-in and pulled it up high using the crook of a tree as the example. It went very well.
The pot luck was great - one parent brought chili and others brought things to go with that, or other more substantial offerings. The last couple of months had seen a decline in our potlucks, so it was nice to see a return to something better.
Next month's meeting idea: Perhaps set up stations at 2-3 different trees where the kids can learn the clove hitch and half hitch and then hoist their object into the air.
(Starflight - Trail to Family and Community, Helping Others, Our Community. Adventure - Trail to Family and Community, generic)
