Cubpthskout Camp

We went to Cubpthskout Camp last week. That's the phonetic spelling of Cub Scout Camp and the way many of the attending campers pronounced the name of the weeklong event. In addition to hordes of tween boys, there were lots of tongue thrusts present at camp. Speech therapists would have had a field day at camp. I personally thought it all very cute. What's not cute about an eight year old having a grand old time at...where are you again?...

Cubpthskout camp!

The theme of camp week was Medieval Adventures and it was a perfect theme for the eight year olds I was assigned to. They got right into the spirit of dragons, King Arthur and Camelot. The boys got to test their skills in archery, BB gun shooting, fishing and various sports. There were plenty of arts and crafts, woodworking and nature lessons just like a good summer camp should offer.

On the last day of camp there was a jousting demonstration. This jousting was one-sided in that the jousters were not jousting others but rather attempting to hit targets. This jouster speared a ring the size of a Life Saver candy.

Apparently jousting is a big deal in Maryland. The state boasts the oldest jousting society in America and jousting has been the official state sport since 1962. Who knew?

Anyway, back to those cute Cupthskouts. After the jousting demo, they each got to try their own jousting skills.

Sticking your tongue out really helps your aim.

Straight to the heart!

After jousting came a Castle Storm raid in the form of a wet sponge battle, just the thing to cool off overheated, overstimulated knights.

The cool sponges only served to ignite the fires of fierce competition and old-fashioned medieval rage in some.

Good thing they weren't armed with maces or lances.

Or were they? They next moved to sword fighting which thankfully utilized inflatable swords. No worries. It's just a flesh wound.

To counterbalance the primal killer instincts spawned by the water and sword battles, the boys were offered an opportunity to display their humane traits of teamwork. The agility training required good communication, patience, listening skills...things that all eight year old boys have mastered.

Back in the medieval day, they would have made good oarsmen.

Camp ended with King Arthur's feast complete with roasted turkey legs (really) and the traditional camp skit performances by all camp units. The tradition of such camp performances requires that the audience not be able to hear the performers' dialogue and the skits typically don't make sense even if the dialogue could be heard.

Not sure what was going on here but my son is the one who just performed a face plant. I assure you it was all very Shakespearean.

In the end, Cubpthskout Camp was a huge hit with my little knight. He can't wait to go again next summer.