We did our Shavings and Chips exercise last week. It went well. Here's what I did:

1. Covered two tables with newspaper and sat all kids down and did safety briefing. Johnny (Den Chief) helped with this. The primary things on this are:
- Blood Circle - with knife closed, hold the knife in your hand and outstretch your arm as far as you can. Turn/rotate 360 degrees slowly. This is your blood circle. Do not use a pocketknife if anyone is in your blood circle. At this point we had the boys sit in every other seat around the table so that they were not in each other's blood circle.
2. Reviewed theory of not cutting toward oneself. Demonstrated best practice of cutting/carving on a surface. Carving on your lap is not a good idea because of the damage you can cause...Shared true stories about stiches, missing ends of fingers, and half severed tendons.
3. Demonstrated opening pocket knife and closing with palm of hand. Had each scout do this. This is where parental supervision is good. Some boys will place the sharp side of the knife towards their palms and push. I'm not sure why they do this, but Darwin probably has an explanation for this.
4. Reviewed all the safety point in the Bear book and in the link referenced below. One by one. For example, a good one is not to use the knife blade to pry something, like to remove a nail. You could break off a piece.
5. I provided an overview of how to sharpen a knife and had each scout do this with my and/or parent supervision. I had three shapening stones so that three could sharpen at the same time.
6. I discussed cleaning the knife, especially after making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - the same way you clean any utensils - even the dishwasher; however, you need to oil the knife after cleaning. Demonstrated using light oil to lightly lubricate and clean using a few qtips.
7. We finished up by carving something using a bar of soap. I lucked out and Safeway had Ivory soap 12 pack on sale. This required parent supervision - again, using the wrong side of the blade, cutting toward self, and other boy types of behavior prevail. We carved hearts, ducks, footballs, initials, smily faces, rockets, etc. Stick to the easy. Wash hands when done.
8. I brought a first aid kit, but we didn't use it. I highly recommend it though.
9. With this training and their Whittling Chip oath, which the scouts repeated out loud, they earn their Whittlin Chip patch and card. It's a very cool patch for Cub Scouts - a pocket flap patch. I explained that the Whittling Chip card entitles scouts to use a pocket knife under adult supervision, if approved by parents. It does not allow them to carry a pocket knife on their own. Also, they cannot bring pocket knives to campouts or to Goshen. Once they are Boy Scouts they will earn their Totin Chip, which will entitle them to carry a pocket knife and, probably the most time honored tradition of scout camp, purchase a pocket knife at the camp trading post.

Useful links:

http://www.geocities.com/~pack215/whittlin-chip.html
http://usscouts.org/advance/cubscout/whittlingchip.asp
http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/award/award-434.asp

Good luck. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Yesterday, I received the new Parktakes magazine in the mail. Parktakes is the catalog for classes/events at Fairfax County parks and recreation centers. In it, there are some great scouting programs. Please take a moment to check it out (you can find a copy at most libraries and I believe it is on-line).

Here are some events that I can recommend:

For 2nd Year Webelos and 1st Year Boy Scouts: Orienteering at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park.

Weblos – Forester, Naturalist and Geology badge activities; Wildlife Conservation belt loop. For those scouts unable to attend Goshen, aquanaut badge is offered, too.

There are also activities for Wolves and Bears.

If you have interest, I advise registering soon, as activities fill up pretty quickly. There is a small fee that must be paid up-front, so I usually get a commitment from families first.

Tiger Scouts: Ideas for den activities in the DC area

Local town and county Nature Centers and Parks. Check out Fairfax County Parktakes Magazine for Tiger Scout activities. We visited Frying Pan park in Fairfax County. The staff provided a wonderful historical presentation in the school house, the farm house, and then on the farm itself. The farm animals were a big hit, in particular the pigs. We visited in the winter when there were many young pigs. Of course, the boys enjoyed the gift shop as well and then hung out at the small playground and had a bagged lunch – after washing their hands!

Our pack holds some type of fire safety meeting each October, which is fire prevention month. This is a great way to satisfy the ‘visit a fire station or police station’ activity. More on this under pack activities.

We did a great guided hike and nature center visit with a rowdy bunch of tigers at Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington. The staff was very experienced with children and very patient. They had hands-on activities for the boys which is always good. They have some live animals in the nature center and also a creek that the staffed help us to explore. I’ve heard that a great activity at this location is watching the flying squirrels. I believe the activity is at night and can involve sleeping over in the nature center on the floor, but you should check with the nature center staff. This park also has historical significance since it was one of the cash drop sites for $50,000 for Robert Hanssen, the disgraced FBI agent who was a spy for the Russians.

We did a hike at Roosevelt Island. We hiked the loop around the island stopping to see the monument to Teddy Roosevelt in the middle. This was a very fun hike with an opportunity for many nature lessons - poison ivy can be seen, as well as many birds – and also history lessons.

A grandfather of one of our scouts was a retired US Navy Admiral. He provided us with a tour of the Washington Navy Yard, mostly of a retired ship that is docked there, the WWII era destroyer, the USS Barry. The insight provided by the tour was great with both historical and technical information. For example, the tour guide demonstrated how sailors of the World War II era navigated, communicated, and controlled the ship.

For our sporting event, we attended an eighth grade basketball game. One of the scouts had an older brother on the team, so there was an instant connection for the boys. During half time, one of the dads arranged for the scouts to go out and take shots on the court.

The Newseum is a great place for the communications achievement. Since it was closed for moving/renovating at the time, we found that WJLA does tours of their studios.

I have been active as a Cub Scout and Boy Scout adult leader for about seven years and have some great experiences to share with other leaders - especially those who are new to scouting - about scouting activities in the Washington, DC area. I plan to write about those experiences in this blog. More to come in the near future...