I’m so excited to be doing the Webelos den this year, and at the same time, a little sad as it means it’s nearing the end of the Cub journey for a few kids I’ve had since Tigers, including my son.

To get my Cubs ready for their adventures, I decided to create them a little Webelos Field Kit, the inspiration coming from some fantastic cases I found over the summer at the Target dollar spot. The contents include:

• Field notebook
• Pencil
• Zinc balm (sun protection)
• Outdoor Code card
• Rope tying practice kit
• Webelos Walkabout Matching Game
• Hard candies

The little field notebooks I got as part of one of my Thrivent Action Team packages this past spring. They are perfect for the various Webelos logs that have to be made this year (ie. bird watching as part of Into the Wild). Of course, notebooks need pencils to go with them, so I included mechanical pencils as it didn’t seem feasible to be using a pencil sharpener out on the trails (and yes, I know they could use their knives, but I went for simple solutions).

The zinc balm is homemade by my neighbor that has her own herbalist shop, The Home Herbalist. I asked her for some of these for our summer camp adventure, and since I had some left over, I included them in these kits. She also makes a wonderful lemongrass balm for bug bites, which I buy in the full size and keep at home.

My Outdoor Code cards actually came to me through our local Scout Shop. The manager was cleaning up her office of outdated items, and because I’m there almost every week, she knew this was something I would like and saved them for me. I give them out to our Cubs at our hikes so we can review it. Since the Webelos need to be able to memorize (though I don’t require memorization in our Cubs as that can be a learning disability for many), I included it in their packs for them to read regularly.

The rope tying practice kit I made after finding kits at Target but needing more than the two they had in the bins. I bought one, went home, took it apart, and figured I could make my own. I bought the paracord at the Dollar Tree, and two packages yielded enough for all eight kits I was making. I also bought carabiners there which came two to a pack. The bags I bought in the wedding section at Michael’s. My favorite though is the Passport to Knots booklets I made, thanks to a booklet created by Scouter Bob Cooper and shared on the Cub Scout Volunteers Facebook group. I took Bob’s booklet and shrunk them down to 50% size, cut them up, laminated them, cut the pages out, poked a hole in each one, and used a paperclip to put them together. My advice: don’t do it this way unless you have a LOT of free time. My Cub said the pages are readable, and they fit well in the bags, but I think it may have gone better just doing the actual book as printed and staple them. But that’s up to you.

As I was researching how to help my Cubs learn to identify plants on the Webelos Walkabout adventure, I discovered this fantastic matching game made by Scouter Erica Renfro in the Cub Scout Volunteers Facebook group. I printed them out and decided to laminate them so the cards could be used over and over again. I had the Cubs pair up and play it at the first den meeting, and when they figured they had done enough matching, we then turned it into a quiz for them to name the item from the description on the card. I put envelopes for the cards to stay in between meetings.

I also went ahead and printed out 4th grade passes for the National Parks Service. These are available to educators and leaders of youth groups, so Scouters qualify to do the mass printing. You do have to note that the NPS thinks that school years start in September (we started August 7), so if you print them this month, you’ll have to do new ones in September to be valid the rest of the school year.

And of course, I threw in some hard candies. I was not delusional enough to think that they would last longer than the first den meeting where I gave out the packs, but I used it as an opportunity to reiterate that trail snacks are part of the Cub Scout six essentials.

I hope to add some items to the kits as we go through our Webelos adventures, and as I do, I’ll update this blog with what was added.