He wants them but he's not carrying either until he knows how to use them safely. He can use them under direct supervision until he's competent with them.

He's got a little LED keychain light that he added to his lanyard today, just like the one he wears when he's in the wilderness.

Sidebar: One of our kids thought he was lost when we were playing manhunt in the bush in the fall and followed Hug-a-tree to a tee. Was it an emergency? No, but he thought it was and hug-a-tree worked brilliantly.

I think, looking at his list, that he is the one who should be on this forum.

And, speaking for myself, I can name several 8 year olds whom are much more responsable than some adults that I could name.

Oh and +1 on the duty of care bit. But then any decent, responsable Adult should be in state Orange anyway...

Would a little toy or puzzle or something along those lines be appropriate? Something he can sit and do for a while to keep him occupied while he's "hugging a tree"?

That's a great idea Paul. He had it first and already has a hotwheels car in there!

I debated on adding a toy to DS's kit (and recommending one for the other scouts to add). Is it possible that a toy might be too distracting for the kids? I can imagine a News story headline/story along the lines of "Searchers came within 1000 yards of little Johnny's location, but he was playing with a small toy instead of blowing his whistle." I dunno, maybe I am just being paranoid.

Ken has a point. We discussed this in an earlier thread .

mpb has an important point too.

I believe that when we're dealing with youngsters, we should be introducing them to new experiences, following their lead, and helping them pursue the ones they find interesting. My son loves hiking, camping, canoeing and survival stuff but if he’d rather go to a friend’s birthday party next weekend instead of Cub Camp, that’s ok. He’s also learning that we all have responsibilities that we have to live up to. I can’t take him to the birthday party next weekend because I have to go to camp. I’m a leader and committed to being there for the safety and enjoyment of all the other kids in our group. Likewise, he can’t just bail on his soccer team because he’d rather ride his bike. He made a commitment to his team and it isn’t fair to them not to live up to that commitment.

Kids aren’t little adults. They do need to be kids and have fun. (In fact, I’d argue that a lot of us adults need to try to have a little more fun like they do!) Too much responsibility before they're ready for it isn't healthy and, frankly, is an exercise in frustration for everyone. I’m lucky to be blessed with a kid that has to be dragged inside not the other way around. He lives to explore his world and it’s our job to make sure he gets lots of opportunity to do that, and also to make sure he does it safely. Following their lead doesn’t mean an absence of parental responsibility, authority or expectations. I don’t expect him to remember much in the face of fun. I pack “just in case” supplies for him and if he wants to help pack or carry them – great! If not, it’s no biggie. I also make him wear a hat and sunscreen in the sun, wear a life jacket in the canoe, wear his lanyard in the bush, put his snow pants on in the winter, etc. Hopefully someday, those parental reminders will turn into healthy habits in him.

That said, fear can easily become the driving force behind being prepared and that's not healthy for kids. We need to be careful not to thrust our fears on our children. If they're preparing because they're worried, we need to address that, reassure them, and not let that fear grow. We should be empowering them not making them fearful. When my son started building his own survival kits, we had to be certain it wasn’t because he was scared, and if it was, reassure and teach him. Turns out he usually just wanted to be like Les Stroud!

My son really wants to carry a knife and matches, and do a survivorman overnight, but he's simply too impulsive and too uninformed. We need to provide guidance and teaching so that he learns to do things safely and with forethought. Again, we need to be mindful of his maturity and level of understanding and not overload him. We’ll help him get there but it’s going to take time and patience to learn and understand what he needs to before he can do some of the things he wants to. Much like building a house, you have to build the foundation first and then do the framing, then the electrical and plumbing, then the…. You don’t just snap your fingers and move in.

He loves taking responsibility for packing and carrying his own gear and helping out with things like building campfires, doing minor first aid (read: bandaids, afterbite), setting up camp, taking care of dishes garbage/feed, etc., and he’s constantly fiddling with his PSK. He makes lots of mistakes and is learning about consequences, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let him get hypothermia sleeping in a soaking wet sleeping bag because he forgot to close his waterbottle. That's my job.

It’s all still fun for him and that’s as it should be. When that changes, then it’s time to stop and rethink things.

Mark, that's one of my favorite threads!

I totally agree with Ken, that there's plenty of time for kids to do Scouting in Scouting. Outdoors and wilderness are but a portion of the program. There's lots of time for other stuff too! That's one of the great things about the Cub Scouts program - variety. My son's already been exposed to cooking, sewing, pet care, handicrafts, collecting and the space. We built model rockets a few weeks ago and launched them this past week.

Even though we design our meetings and events around opportunies for badge work, as well as learning team work and responsibilty, the youth are free to work on whatever badges they want to. Even though we encourage them to try to earn a badge every two months, we test them based on their own abilities, not some inflexible criteria. We have some kids with a full sash and their Six Star Award and some with almost no badges. They keep coming back because we let them explore and have fun. That's what it should be all about!

BPJ, I like the way you think.