5 Cub Scout Activities for Your Weekend
Remember the days of summer when your parents would tell you to go outside, and basically wouldn’t let you back in except for lunch and dinner? You drank water out of the hose, but only after it ran a little so that you weren’t drinking boiling water? Those were the days!
While that may still happen, I have come up with a list of 5 activities to either do with your Cub Scouts this summer or to have on-deck for a rainy day!
1. Make homemade ice cream! I know, I know, this one has been around for forever. But there is a reason why it is still around! Who doesn’t love a sweet treat, especially if you made it from scratch?! This is the perfect activity for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon so it can be ready as an after-dinner treat. There are a couple of options for this one… the first is going at it the old-fashioned way – using rock salt, ice, and getting a fun arm workout in. The second way is by making use of the modern and handy contraption called a freezer. Instructions for both are below, because #options.
- For a classic, no gadgets ice cream, try this out!
- Fill a gallon-sized Ziploc bag halfway with ice cubes and sprinkle a ½ cup of Kosher salt over the ice.
- Combine 1 cup of half and half, 2 tablespoons of sugar and a ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract into a pint-sized sandwich bag. Make sure to seal it tightly!
- Put the small bag in with the ice and seal them both together (if you notice anything leaking, feel free to double bag!).
- Shake it all together (insert fun song about shaking things up, haha). It takes about 5-10 minutes for the consistency to start to firm up. Shake longer as necessary to reach the thickness that you want!
- For a modern twist on the classic above, check out this freezer version:
- Freeze a stainless-steel pan first to prep.
- In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1 cup of half and half, a ½ cup of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract until the sugar is dissolved (a mixer works well for this!).
- Pour the mixture into the frozen pan and then put it in the freezer for 25 minutes (or until the edges start to freeze). Mix it again (again, for a creamier consistency, use a hand mixer!).
- Repeat this process 4 or 5 times (until it is the desired thickness)!
2. Research family history and make a family tree! I am obsessed with this one. This has the potential not only to open up communication with different family members but also would make a great tie-in to researching other cultures! This could be as simple as drawing up a tree on a piece of computer paper or as elaborate as getting a roll of butcher paper so you can make a large-scale mural. Also, understand that this is not the best activity option for everyone. Please be sensitive to your own needs as a family around this. A different option could be to choose a culture to research and explore, whether through food, language, or daily lifestyle!
3. Make a cool flower pot. This one is a win-win. You get a new pot to display on your front porch or back deck, AND they get to stretch their creativity! There are so many options here as well. If you have older Cub Scouts, you can actually have them make their pot with clay that they make themselves. If you have younger Cub Scouts, grab a few inexpensive clay pots from your local home improvement store, and they can decorate those! Get creative here and create a “decoration bar” of sorts – you can lay out an assortment of paints and objects to either press into the wet clay (see below) or glue onto the pot ceramic pot (I LOVE E6000 glue. It is hands down one of the best, most permanent glues I have ever used).
- To make the little flower pot, use a ratio of 2-to-1 of baking soda and cornstarch, and 1 ¼ cups of cold water per cup of cornstarch. I suggest using a total of 2 cups of baking soda, 1 cup of cornstarch, and 1 ¼ cups of water.
- Mix it all over medium heat until it is thick, like Thanksgiving mashed potatoes (5-ish minutes).
- Take the mixture off of the heat and let it cool on a plate, covered by a damp towel.
- Once cool, and this is the fun part, you can mold it to whatever shape you want! Just make sure you use some sort of nonstick spray first so that the clay slides off of the form easily! I was aiming for about 1 inch of thickness all the way around.
- Take the molded shape off of whatever you used to form it and lay on a foil-lined plate or baking sheet.
- Here you can push objects into the outside of the clay pot for a mosaic look!
- Punch drainage holes in the bottom (a pencil works great for this).
- Once fully dry, you can paint it with acrylic paint, and then spray with shellac/polyurethane spray!
4. Hand-stamp leather bracelets. I love the full line up of leather tools and kits, and especially love the leather wristbands – they are wide enough to be able to add some cool designs, AND something that you can wear every day!
5. Go on a backyard scavenger hunt. This can be as big of an adventure or small of an experience as you need to create. I also love this idea because it can be adapted for any environment! FOR SAFETY REASONS, don’t have the kids pick any of these items up. They can either do this with you (ideal, because quality time!), use the honor system and check them off once they have spotted the items, or use a camera and snag a photo of each item. For the smaller objects on the list (like ant and spider), having a magnifying glass is really handy! That way kids can set up to watch a section of ground, without actually having to dig around for insects that don’t want to be dug for <insert smiley>. A few of my favorite items to have on the list include:
- Pinecone or tree seed
- 3 different types of flowers
- Ant
- Caterpillar
- Butterfly
- Bird (you could get specific about a couple of different types, depending on your area, AND use this as an opportunity to study up on different kinds!)
- Animal track
- 3 different types of trees
- Spider
- Lizard
The best part of all of these activities is that you can do them with a broad age range! If all else fails, find a local produce farm and head out to pick your own produce - the perfect opportunity to get outside and get teach Scouts about agriculture. As you try out these activities, be sure to share your pictures with us and use #ScoutShopBSA for a chance to be featured on our social channels!