Boys Winter 2016 - Art of Play 1; Lake Padden; 1/16/16

I imagine most of us have felt it…the event starts 10 am tomorrow. You’re excited and you’re pretty sure it’ll go well. It’ll be fun….won’t it?

But the weather is right on the edge. The rain could subside to showers mid-morning as forecast or they could be guessing wrong and these 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders, their mentors and volunteer mentor could get dumped on. The wind could remain below 25 miles per hour as forecast or we could get a sudden gust that threatened to rattle branches out of the many big-leaf maples in the park, sending us scrambling to the relative safety of the open field near the dog park. 

We could have eleven gregarious, funny, well behaved boys who regale us with insightful tales of good clean adventure or half of them might be anxious and withdrawn in the presence of kids they don’t know. Several of them might be unnerved by a cold rain and mud in their boots (I’ve witnessed an explorer empty about a cup and a half of water out of his boot at the end of an outing!), leading to five hours of discomfort and grumbling.

Boys have also been known to express their unease in a new situation by squirreling out or locking on to the one boy they already know and excluding all others.

No guarantees. It makes the work challenging and rewarding at the same time. 

By start time, the signs were good. The morning’s rain stopped a short time before we gathered and almost all of the boys knew a few in the group from other activities. The wind worried Tim and Brian some, but a triple check of the forecast promised more goodness, so we bid the parents fare-thee-well and splashed into the field to be true to the outing’s promise by playing our first game - Fire in the Forest. A chasing game, Fire in the Forest calls for accelerating, stopping short and cutting back and forth to evade capture, actions made much more difficult on the muddy, puddle-y field. More than one explorer slid to a stop like a Mariner stealing second. Of course, limbs encased in mud could lead to difficulty staying warm, but we were feeling more relaxed about the weather (and we were committed now) so we transitioned to the trail in search of a good location for games of stealth such as Eagle Eye, Hide!, and Spider’s Web. 

Play was the order of the day, so we played Cougar Stalks Deer as we moved up the trail. Volunteer

Jared was pressed into service as the deer and soon learned that these boys are capable hunters. After getting captured twice, he upped his game through evasive maneuvers and a sharp eye to call out the “cougars” who were unable to stop in time to avoid detection.

When we located a spot to go over the plan for the day and key individual and group behaviors (e.g., when you hear a “crow call”, return immediately to the source of the call), the mentors realized our concerns about the boys were unfounded. These explorers got along well, learned the games quickly and went with the flow when issues arose. A good example happened in the Fire in the Forest game. One of the pursuers called out that he tagged one of the “animals” running through the forest; the fleeing animal, wearing a thick coat against the promised cold rain, objected that he hadn’t been tagged. A quick conversation about how in Explorers Club we play with honor and, “after all, it’s just a game” and the pursuer shrugged and conceded the point. Even the wind had subsided, and the rain….what rain?

After several games of Hide! and some lunch, which we fortunately were able to avoid sharing with several four-legged friends in the dog-off-leash area, we set about teaching the boys how to play Spider’s Web. Spider’s Web rewards patience and stealth, qualities that aren’t often used to describe young boys. The “Spider” needs to guard his food source and try to send all the “flies” back to the web. The flies try to capture the food source and return it to the web undetected. Quick movement tends to draw the eye, so running to the food source will get a fly sent to the web most every time. In our first game, there was a fair amount of running and getting called out. But these boys are quick learners; after reviewing the first game with mentor Tim (our Spider), we saw much more crawling through the ferns in game two!

Time flies, as they say, and a quick time check confirmed it. We had just enough time for our time-honored closing circle of thanks (scroll down through this list of EC mottoes for "Attitude of Gratitude") before heading back down the trail.

The weather held and the boys were resilient, willing and flexible. What could’ve been a long, slow, cold slog turned into a fun, relaxed walk in the park with 11 great kids.

Click here for the rest of the photos (Jan. 16 gallery) from our outing.