Spending time outdoors doing stuff like hiking and camping are what boys are really looking forward to when they join Cub Scouts. Make sure that hiking, camping, and other outdoor activities are a central part of your program.
If your Pack does not have regular Cub Scout hikes, I would encourage you to start. A good article on this subject is “Let’s Hit the Trail” from the October 2007 Scouting. It discusses how regular hikes can create a lot of excitement for a Cub Scout Pack. In my Pack, hikes are a big hit with the boys and parents. Link
Of course, any outdoor Cub Scout activities need to be done in accordance with the Guide to Safe Scouting including the Age-Appropriate Guidelines for Scouting Activities.
Be sure your Pack promotes your Council-organized Cub family camps and day camps. Boys who get to camp are the ones who are most excited about Cub Scouting.
Unfortunately, we live in a day and age when most kids are not getting to spend much time outside at all. Whether it’s due to playing video games and watching TV or concerns about possible child abductors, kids today are spending a lot less time outdoors than kids did a generation ago. The May 2006 Scouting magazine article “Wonder of the Woods” has a very good discussion of this subject with Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. Link
Doing outdoor hikes, games, and other activities with your Cub Scouts is not only what your boys would like to do, it’s also what’s good for them.
(Photo: Scouting magazine.)
Michael J. Vandeman, Ph.D.
In this eloquent and comprehensive work, Louv makes a convincing case for ensuring that children (and adults) maintain access to pristine natural areas, and even, when those are not available, any bit of nature that we can preserve, such as vacant lots. I agree with him 100%. [...]Just as we never really outgrow our need for our parents (and grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.), humanity has never outgrown, and can never outgrow, our need for the companionship and mutual benefits of other species.
But what strikes me most about this book is how Louv is able, in spite of 310 pages of text, to completely ignore the two most obvious problems with his thesis: (1) We want and need to have contact with other species, but neither we nor Louv bother to ask whether they want to have contact with us! In fact, most species of wildlife obviously do not like having humans around, and can thrive only if we leave them alone! Or they are able tolerate our presence, but only within certain limits. (2) We and Louv never ask what type of contact is appropriate! [...]