Half-Term Hike

Instead of an evening meeting, during half-term week we took advantage of the dry weather by getting outside for just over a couple of hours in the afternoon. The Cubs were joined by Beavers and some Mums (and two enthusiastic dogs) and did a circular walk around the west side fields of Wilmcote. This ticked-off quite a bit of badge work, got us some great fresh air and even allowed for a discussion about safe crossing at designated railway points, as we crossed the mainline twice.

"The Year of the Pig" - Chinese New Year

We celebrated the start of the Chinese New Year ("Year of the Pig") on 5th February. The Cubs' had a particularly busy meeting, during which they cooked a stir fry (to their own recipe), made cookies, decorated a Card to send someone and put together a red envelope in which they placed some "money" as a gift for someone. Red is the luckiest colour in China.
One or two Cubs were doubtful about doing a stir fry, but in the end (apart from William), each plate was quickly eaten up. The cookies didn't last long either!

January's badge work - a quick summary

We started the month off with a night of tin-can cooking, which is possibly the Cubs' favourite activity. They all cooked lots of pancakes on their tins. This was towards the Skills Challenge Award:

Following that, we worked on modules from the Teamwork Challenge Award, which included working out different types of roles within a team:

Finally - as well as the odd module from the Skills Challenge Award, we completed the Air Activities (stage 1) badge, so that the Cubs can look at completing stage 2 in the summer. This involved a number of requirements, including making paper planes and building model aircraft:

January - Plough Sunday 2019

Background

The observance of Plough Sunday on the First Sunday of Epiphany goes back to Victorian times, but behind it there is a much older observance, associated with the first working day after the twelve days of Christmas (hence ‘Plough Monday’ in some places). In medieval times, many ploughs were kept in the parish church, and some churches kept a ‘plough-light’. In days when work was scarce in winter, the observance looked forward to the time of sowing with the promise of a harvest to come. The blessing of the plough was very important, as the village was primarily dependent on a good harvest later that year.

In Wilmcote, Plough Sunday is celebrated on the third Sunday in January and again this year, our Cubs (and Beavers) went along to Mary Arden's Farm in Wilmcote and paraded behind the plough as it was carried aloft by the farm hands.

Skills for Life - Could You Help?

We are always looking for Adult support to build on what we can already offer our young people. Our Group is not the biggest, the wealthiest or rich with assets just waiting to be used. However, we do strive to be the best that we can be and so many people currently not involved could potentially add to what we do, enrich young people's lives and give themselves a lot of reward for helping others. We have roles that involve direct contact with the Beavers & Cubs, and those that don't; whatever skills you have, we'd be grateful as we endeavour to, collectively, give our young people skills for life.

Finally for 2018 - Four, yes four, more Chief Scout Awards

Its been a really strong year for our older, longer serving, Cub Scouts to complete their Chief Scout's Silver Award. As a reminder, that's the highest a Cub can achieve, and it requires all seven Challenge Awards to be awarded plus at least 6 Activity badges (that bit is pretty straight forward!). So, many congratulations to William and Sam who were presented their badges and Award certificates at a Pack night by the ADC Cubs for West Warwickshire. Meanwhile, just before Christmas, Christopher & Matthew were presented theirs by Sub Lieutenant James Sanders RNR who leads the   Redditch & Bromsgrove Sea Cadet Unit. The Cubs were there to collect the RN100 badges that the Scout Association have produced to recognise the 100 year association between the our organisation and the Royal Navy.

Blackwell Activity Centre Day in October 2018.

The Cubs (and one older Beaver) spent a full day at the Blackwell Activity Centre, near Bromsgrove in October. We did this last year and we may well make it an annual event. During the day, they raced go-karts, did crate-stacking (they just love that activity), zip-wired, climbed trees and worked as a team on the Assault Course. A brilliant day!