Year 1 Session 7 (6/11/21)

Aim Academy Parents -

What a whirlwind of a week! The story of survival is the story of the human species, and is a Hero's Journey in and of itself.

The House names the Eagles chose this session speak to the types of heroes they see themselves to be:  The Survivors and  The Survivalists.

Each Quest challenge encouraged them to explore another piece of what it would take to survive in the wilderness.  If you had no food, would you have the courage to eat a bug?  Nine out of 13 Eagles showed they would by eating a dehydrated cricket, sago worm or beetle. One Eagle even ate all THREE!  (Hope you saw the videos & pics in the Bloomz post!)  They then foraged for edible plants and bugs and some discovered it took perseverance to find and catch them. Others realized it also took courage to touch them.

With knot-tying, came the team challenge of overcoming knots as obstacles, then individually learning to tie knots as useful tools.  Building traps invited creativity and exploration.

Each challenge this week has brought out a different leader and different leadership traits.  Some demonstrated how to tie a knot to another Eagle, another gave advice on building a fire, someone showed how to do the roof of an igloo to help a friend finish theirs, and all worked in partnerships to move through the water cycle.

For some, starting a fire looked and sounded easy and they came to it with confidence, only to be frustrated when they couldn't get it past a few sparks and small tender flames.  Many cheers were heard as the youngest Eagle started the first fire of the session!

Another key piece to surviving in the wilderness is the ability to make a shelter.  Next week, they will face the challenge of making an actual shelter in nature when we go on our field trip up Little Cottonwood Canyon.  This week. they created a display of at least 3 different mini shelters.  Making a sugar cube igloo was a favorite choice. :-)

Weaving in and out of the challenges this week was our weekly question:

What makes for a better hero: the right genetic makeup, the right mentor or the right experience?  The answers would often change when they considered this question in the context of being a survivor and facing the various challenges.

May you each see the growth that comes with gaining confidence in the skills needed for surviving in the wilderness.

Kind Regards,

Aim Guides