Fall Brownie (Not So) Camp Out 2012

Our camp out was rained out courtesy of a cold front that decided to move in. No campfire or walk in the woods. *sigh* BUT, even though we were stuck in the lodge the entire time we were there, the girls had a BLAST!

The girls did a great job with their respective meals, which all turned out well. The only difference is that the next time we do this, I’ll create a formal kaper chart instead of just asking various girls to wash dishes, sweep, etc…

We worked on the Home Scientist Badge, completing 3 of the 5 steps. Both the dinosaur snot and mentos geyser were huge hits. If you need a way to kill 30+ minutes, dinosaur snot is a good way to go.

The girls learned how to tie knots – square knot, bowline, clove hitch, and overhand. They used those skills to tie each other up. No-So-Fearless-Leader has a very useful blog post about knot-tying. It is worth checking out for learning how to tie knots, and activities to do once the girls have learned them.

And because we had a 22′ length of rope and a huge empty indoor space, we jumped rope. And none of the girls had ever done this before. What the heck are kids doing at recess? Jumping rope and singing the chants (Cinderella dressed in yella’… or teddy bear, teddy bear turn around…) was one of the most popular ways to kill time when I was in elementary school.

So, two parents turned the rope, and I hopped in to show the girls what to do (most of the other moms, and a couple dads had a go too). It took a good 10 minutes before the girls lost their fear of jumping into a turning rope. And even after several hours of practice throughout the weekend, only one girl was a pro at making it in, jumping, and then jumping out without hitting the rope. We will be working on this more.

And if I’m feeling really sadistic, I’ll make them learn how to double dutch.

I’m still in shock that they had never seen or done this kind of jumping rope before. It just boggles.