Carolyn sent in this question:
Have you come up with a suggested way on how to follow the new Wolf program? It seems there is a lot of outdoor things that will need to be done before December and after March (in KY). I was looking at Running w/Pack, then Paws o/Path. I think it would be easier to cover as much of one adventure as possible and not mix them up. Any suggestions? Thank you.
You can do the achievements and electives in any order. What works best probably depends on your situation and what resources and programs are available in your area. The program year ends in May, so if you don’t do the outdoor requirements in the fall, you still have a couple of months in the spring to plan some camping and hiking.
My preferred method for scheduling Cub Scout adventures is to look at special programs available in my area and start with those. If I know my local nature center is having something in October which would help with Grow Something, I would put that adventure on the schedule. Also check with your parents. If you have a medical professional in your group and you want to ask her to help with Germs Alive!, then find out when she is available and schedule.
I always like to complete one set of requirements before starting another. It is just easier to keep everyone focused on accomplishing a few specific things which are somehow related.
Looking ahead, I suggest that for the next program year you schedule some of those outdoor requirements during the summer. Your council probably offers residential camps for Cub Scouts and those are a very fun way to complete the outdoor requirements as a den. This is especially helpful if your parents aren’t experienced campers. The camp staff will provide lots of support for you and help you have a great experience, even if you are a novice outdoorsman.
If you have experienced campers in your pack, plan a pack campout for next summer or fall. Our pack did a family campout in August and were able to help the Cub Scouts complete many of the camping, hiking, and outdoor cooking requirements then.
Readers, what are your ideas for the best way to work out a schedule for your den? Add your comments below.
The way I set up my calendar of events is to match up all the outdoor activities for fall and spring, and see if there are any correlations to our Pack trips. Then fill in the rest. I am finding with the new program that I have to pull pieces of multiple adventures into one meeting to accomplish everything. For example, at our last meeting for Wolf we did Call of the wild 3, 4, 5, Council Fire 1, and Running with the Pack 5. It is a combined Wolf/Bear den so I match up the similar events and go from there. The same goes for my Arrow of Lights (yes, I have 3 dens). I am having to put multiple, “easier” adventures together because a lot of time one adventure is the whole meeting. For example we did Scouting Adventures 3a-d and Looking Back, Looking Forward. But our next meeting will be all about Camper 6 – Geocaching. It is very challenging without having options like we did in the previous program.
For Wolf, Paws on the Path and Finding Your Way both have a hike requirement. Can we have one hike to fulfill both requirements? Or do we have to have two separate hikes?
It is my understanding that additional hikes and other repeated activities are needed to fulfill requirements.
Hikes can definitely be combined if you plan carefully so as to meet the different requirements on the same hike. It only needs to be a separate hike when the requirement states that it must be a different hike.
For the two Wolf hikes in particular, I don’t see any problem with using a compass on your one-mile hike while looking for signs of wildlife. It will just be more of a challenge to ensure that the scouts are getting everything out of the experience that is intended. Personally, I find it most challenging to get everyone together for an outing, so I will try to incorporate more than one adventure on every outing, hoping that each scout will be able to attend at least ONE. However, even that doesn’t work, so just smile and do your best!
thank you! your comment is really helpful!
I was a wolf leader last year and our council has fall fun day and winter fun day that they offer- both of them were an all day outdoor activity and had a hike and we used that as a requirement for scouts that did not attend an overnight campout or missed our hike. Also any kids that attended summer camp or our family camp met both requirements. So as a wolf leader we never did an overnight camp as a den( I have 15 kids). We did do a hike on a local trail and used that as our community service also since we cleaned the trash along the way.Since the requirement to have them present to the committee our service project is unrealistic, we had the committee members come to our den meeting while we were discussing it.- Especially since the committee met on a different night as our boys.