Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Letters from camp

My Boy Scout does not send letters home from camp. I would like him to, but I know it's not going to happen; he is not a writer. Years ago, pre-Scouts, he did send something home from his very first overnight camp. I'd given him a few stamped, addressed post cards so he could keep in touch. I received one card from him; it said:

I'm havving fun!

This year I didn't even bother to mention the possibility of writing to me. But I wish I had. He was nervous going to camp this year because he was just given responsibility as a patrol leader, replacing a boy who either stepped down from leadership or was pushed down. The former leader remains in the patrol. I wonder how that is working out.

Last night I had one of those too-late brain flashes: I should have sent him with a survey to complete and mail back to me! No writing, just fill in the bubble. And it could count as schooltime: standardized test practice!

Maybe I'll do this next year. Here's what I've got so far:

I am
0 having a great time
0 having an OK time
0 having a terrible time
0 can't wait to get home
0 am quitting Scouts forever

My patrol
0 is doing great
0 is cooperating with me
0 ignores me
0 hides from me
0 hates me
0 dumps pond water on me while I sleep*

The other patrol leaders
0 accepted me as one of them
0 mock me
0 despise me
0 collect the pond water for my patrol to dump on me while I sleep

In the firestarting contest we
0 won first place
0 won 2nd place
0 came in dead last
0 couldn't get a fire started at all
0 did not collect any wood because my patrol hid from me

In the sports tournament we
0 won some events
0 won one event
0 won zero events
0 did not do any events because my patrol hid from me

*credit to the seminarian for this one.

I think this could work. It's easily adaptable year to year. And surely there are other Scouts who don't like to write home - I bet I could market this thing.

What would your survey say?

3 comments:

Sandy said...

I love it! So funny. I wonder if moms could send those along to basic training.

Jamie {See Jamie blog} said...

Love it! You could probably sell those to other moms-of-boys-at-camp!

Leslie said...

This is a great idea! A friend did this recently...her family made a survey for their oldest brother who just went to westpoint (beast barracks or something like that similar to boot camp). It is a great idea and they got theirs back with answers.