Cub Scout Family Camp Ideas

International Adventures
This kind of family camp can help scouts fulfill some or all requirements for the Heritages Belt Loop and Pin and the Language and Culture Belt Loop and Pin. Ask each family, or a group of two to three families, to research a foreign country before the event and present their information at the family camp. They can pick the country of their own heritage or another one that interests them. Families may share a typical meal or snack from the country, teach everyone a few common phrases in the country's language, lead the pack in a typical song, show a display of stamps, postcards or pictures, teach a folk craft or lead everyone in a popular game or sport from the country. They also can share information about that country's scouting program, if applicable.
Pirate Weekend
Ask scouts to come to camp dressed as buccaneers, complete with pirate hats, billowy shirts, bandannas or other clothing items they can find at home.

For crafts, they can decorate foam swords (purchased from a craft store) with gems and glitter glue or use glow-in-the-dark paint to draw skeletons or other designs on black bandannas.

For games, include a "peg leg race." Two boys stand next to each other and tie their adjoining legs together with a bandanna. They then race other "peg legged pirates" by walking as quickly as they can to a finish line that is about 200 feet from the starting area.

They can also play Musical Islands, a game similar to musical chairs, except that scouts walk on cardboard island shapes instead of walking around chairs. Play the "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme song during the game, instructing the scouts that they must hurry to an island when the music stops. The boy without an island leaves the game. One island is taken away after each round. The scout who stands on the last island wins the game.

The highlight of this swashbuckling weekend could be a hunt for treasure "buried by pirates." Ask dens to use a compass and map to find a series of clues that eventually lead them to a treasure chest of goodies. This helps them fulfill requirements for the Map and Compass Belt Loop and Pin. Alternatively, you could create a geocache and teach the boys how to use hand-held GPS units to find the treasure.
Lost in Space
Boys who attend this camp can meet some or all requirements for the Astronomy belt loop and pin. In addition, they may also earn Tiger, Wolf and Bear achievements or electives, or Webelos activity badges related to space exploration or science.

Ask a local astronomy club to give an evening presentation on stargazing; some may bring telescopes that scouts can use to locate stars and planets.

Scouts also could make a pinhole planetarium, build a model space shuttle or create a solar system mobile. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) website gives detailed instructions for these and other simple astronomy projects.

End the weekend by building rockets and launching them, offering prizes for the most creative rocket, the rocket that flies the highest and the rocket that never gets off the ground.