Great ideas and sources … thanks everyone.

Les, with regards to the betadine wipe usage, I am going to have to agree with Haertig about that being outside the kids skill set.

Mike_H, I am hoping we don’t have the same problem with getting our scouts to carry their gear. My solution, if the scoutmaster will agree to it, is if they don’t bring the gear then they stay behind. Your assessment of the whistles is correct. They were “borrowed” from my office – they were an item intended as a giveaway for trade shows and the company that produced them has since changed it’s coloring and logos so we can no longer use them. They are not the greatest quality but they are not the worst I have seen or heard about either (in fact they appear similar to the current survival whistle being offered by TOPS knives) and will definitely be first on the list for an upgrade (I already have a source for better pealess type whistles from another recent thread, I just have to talk DW into freeing up more of our budget to buy them).

Dave, I don’t know if it is unique to our area but it seems the boys here take to outdoor life pretty quickly (one of the boys DS plays football with took his first deer at age 7 with his dad’s help of course). The whittling chip presented no problems but we did have to correct some of the boys on some minor safety issues. All in all, though, it went fairly well.

Perhaps I am missing something else about some of the comments about the kit being too sophisticated? I mean, I don’t know too many kids this age (i.e. bears and webelos, 9, 10 and 11) that can’t use a band-aid, duct tape, or cordage. Just looking over the items in the kit again, and noticing that perhaps the wound closure strips are a bit much, and maybe some of the other items (like the wire) may not be used exactly as intended at first. However, I would point out that we will be dedicating future meetings and outdoor activities to discussing the kit contents and their potential uses, as well as how to use them correctly (i.e. the purification tablets, mirror, etc). FWIW, the webelos and bears are already well versed in their ten essentials. I brought lots of different items and had each group of three boys gather what they thought would be essential. I had one perfect score, and 3 groups that only missed 1 of the items. Of course we will have to modify the kits a bit to match the skill set of the younger cubs (I noticed on the scoutermom site that the map and compass are eliminated from their essentials list but a pocket knife is not - interesting).