Winter Camping for Kids

Happy New Year, fellow ETSers!

I'm currently planning a winter camp for our Scout group. Our theme is "Winter Fun!" We've got leaders taking care of the older kids, who will be practicing their survival skills, building and sleeping in quinzees, etc. My assignment is the younger youth, 5-8 years old.

Each of my kids will have a parent or guardian with them, and except for the leaders and our kids, none are really outdoors people. For many it will be their first winter "camping" experience. Our goal is to get both the kids and their parents to love it! We had a wood stove barracks-style cabin at our fall camp, but some were turned off, particularly by the outhouses, which was pretty chilly. This time we'll be in a more modern cabin with indoor plumming, so we've got the "ick" and "brrr" factors covered.

We're planning campfires and a hike and the trailer is already loaded with GT Snowracers and snowshoes. The little ones aways help pile snow on the mounds for the quinzees too. They love hanging out with the big kids but they aren't blessed with stamina, patience or attention to make a weekend of that.

I need some ideas about activities and crafts we can do to keep everyone's enthusiasm high, and maybe even teach a lesson or two along the way. Ideas? Suggestions? Warnings?

In terms of the fun activities -

- Ice fishing (assuming safe ice)

- Ice golf (half drilled holes in the ice, we used tennis balls at our last cub event)

- Curling / ice bowling - used frozen water bottles for pins. One year frozen turkeys were used as the stone / ball.

- Sledding

- Snow shoeing

- Cross country (nordic) skiing

- Snow snakes (http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/activity/activity-810.asp)

- Broom ball - hockey like game with brooms as sticks and a smallish ball as the puck. Play on ice, packed snow, or ground.


We also planned activities for in the cabin, so that there was fun and distractions for those who needed to warm up.
- Storytelling
- indoor 'putt-putt' course

I recommend lots of food - energy to burn to keep warm. Hot coffee and hot chocolate... We usually used soup / stew / chili for the lunch, it is easy to cook, easy to keep warm and serve and was usually a hit with both the cubs and their parents.

Lots of good suggestions right there!

As long as the snow is not ice hard I would add ski jumping or sledge jumping to that list. It takes less than 5 minutes to make a small jump and arrange a competition.

And of course downhill skiing (using nordic skiis). But that may be beyond their skill set. If they can plow (or learn to plow right there) then they can do an easy slalom piste.


With snow shoes, make a competition out of balancing a tennis ball on a spoon. Harder than it sounds (you wiggle a lot with each step) - in particular if you have two teams racing each other.

Snowball throwing target practice / competition.


Make a snow castle. Bring an old saw, it makes construction a lot easier.


Make snow lamps that they light up when it's dark. Stack snow balls together around an empty space and put a candle in there. The effect is really cozy in the dark.


Most kids love to just play and muck about in the snow. If the parking lot is plowed you may have huge stacks of snow just waiting to be invaded by the hordes of cubs... Of course, some kids needs to "get started" and it is by no means guaranteed that a whole bunch of kids that really don't know each other that well will spontaneously engage in physically active play with each other.


There are some physical challenges, however: The main challenge is that most of these kids won't have clothing or shoes that work reliably and consistently. The weakest spot is between the shoes and the pants. The shoes are probably OK, the pants/suit/bib is probably OK, but the overlap between those two is hard to seal. Actually, it would be a great idea to bring gaiters for the whole lot, but that is probably beyond your job description.

Second weakest spot is water proofness: The kids will get wet. In particular on the knees and their bum, kneeling or sitting in the snow, as well as their hands.

Hot drinks and hot food and lots of it is an excellent way to keep them warm and active. And having an indoors location to warm them and dry them is excellent.

Lots of good ideas here! Add frisby on snowshoes after they learn to walk on them.

The best,

Jerry

I suggest following the traditional Navajo practice - have them rise at dawn and run for a couple of miles, barefoot, in the snow.

Toughens them up....

LOL @ hikermor. thanks everyone! these are all great ideas. the kids are going to have a blast for sure! let's hope we can convert some of the parents so we can get them camping again! i can't imagine not wanting to camp with my kids but i'm in the minority in our group.

plsander, you're spot on. we needs lots of inside stuff to do too. it's a tricky age. my 7 year old would stay outside all day every day BUT:

-kids get cold and dehydrated quickly and need forced water and warm-ups
-my son is in the minority in this group of video, tv and junk food junkies

We've planned lots of songs and stories, and I'm working now on crafts and games.

Thank you everyone! Our Winter Camp was a success!!

The kids were mostly interested in taking the GT Snow Racers down the old ski hill so we let them loose on that as much as possible. When they weren't sledding they were mostly happy to just play in the snow. We had to drag most of them inside to warm up. We did take the younger ones out for a hike, and did a little track and plant identifying along the way. The trail that's usually frequented by snowmobiles wasn't, so we didn't go to far with the little legs. The Scouts took a pretty long hike, made Quinzees and worked on their fire skills, while we pulled out the old rescue sled and snow shoes and had some relay races with the younger ones. We also spent some time inside doing some leather craft, making new woggles for their neckars, (Neckars are the bandanas they wear around their necks, for the unitiated) and reviewing the Cub Scouts First Aid Kits and PSKs, which the Beaver Scouts found very interesting.

We had a campfire on Saturday night too. The Scouts enjoyed it, the Beaver Scouts were too pooped to stay up very long, and the Cub Scouts learned an important lesson about listening to your leaders and wearing your snowpants even if you have your campfire blanket.

Sorry Hikermor, the other leaders vetoed letting run barefoot through the snow.

Sounds like you run a group a lot more active and interesting than the on I was in (way back in the Pleistocene).....

LOL@hikermor! We do have a lot of fun. My son and I were fortunate to join a great group, with a wealth of experience and who hold dear the ideals of Scouting!

A few learnings to share:

1. We forgot the two-way radios on our short hike. Not a big deal because we didn't go far and stuck to the basics: stay together and on the trail. Nobody in the cabin knew what trail we were on because we changed routes after we left. We weren't far though, had cel phones with signals, lots of adults, and could have easily sent someone back for help. We did remind the Scouts to take it on their trek.

2. Kids are impatient and will fib to get what they want sooner. Always physically double-check that they are properly prepared. A Beaver forgot to wear extra socks and another to change gloves, 2 Cubs went to campfire without snowpants and one of the Scouts didn't change into fresh dry clothes before sleeping in the quinzee. No frostbite or hypothermia though because we kept a close eye once we were outside.

3. Adults are impulsive. We lasped on monitoring the sled launching a few times. A couple of crashes and a couple of near-misses resulted. GT Snow Racers are fun but before the grown-up starting gate takes a ride, they need to wait for their replacement to arrive or they will get run over when they stop.