Boys Should Be Boys

As new parents, we are inundated with advice. Do this, don't do that, etc, etc. Now, don't get me wrong, it is great to get advice, especially from people who have been there before. But we do find that we have to sift through a lot of the suggestions to decide what to follow and what isn't right for us. All of this has really made me think about what kind of a dad I want to be and what it is that is important to teach Daniel as he grows. For some reason, one piece of advice that has been sticking with me is that "boys should be boys." (We actually received a book by that title from a friend at camp.)

Boys should be boys. They should be allowed, even encouraged, to explore the world around them. To dive into things with the excitement that only a little boy can muster. To get dirty! To go a week without changing their underwear. Ok, maybe we shouldn't encourage that, but we should at least understand that it happens sometimes when your a boy. But boys need the freedom to find the ugliest, slimiest, creepiest critters they can and figure out why God made them that way.

This last week I got to teach the outdoor class for Boys Camp again. It was exhausting, but refreshing at the same time. The theme for camp this year was "Search, Explore, Discover" with a generally nautical emphasis. In arts and crafts, they build sail boats out of 20oz. pop bottles, and for outdoors class, I tried to pick topics that had to do with water in some way. In the mornings before breakfast, explored the tide pools at the Three Graces.

On Monday, I taught a class on canoeing (As a side note, there is a fine line between order and chaos when you put thirty or so 4th-6th graders in boats all at the same time. I gave a little paddle stroke lesson first and then let them practice in real boats for a while. It worked, but was pretty crazy.). On Tuesday, I had a set of touch tanks set up and the boys were able to see some creatures that they didn't see at the tide pools (Joel and I had taken another trip out to Netarts Bay to collect sand dollars, cockles, clams and sea stars). I also gave them a feeding demonstration in the big aquarium that Joel has bee keeping in the front office area, which is cool no matter what age you are. Wednesday we did knot tying, culminating in a relay race to see what team could tie boat cleat hitches the fastest. Thursday didn't get much of a water theme to it, but we learned fire building, and in the evening the boys got to go out to the beach and build there own "buddy fires" (Again, a moment of controlled chaos. 114 campers in pairs = 57 fires on the beach at the same time! Pretty cool.) And on Friday I wrapped up with a nature hike along the Watseco Creek trail. The boys love learning about all the berries along the way. I think there's something exciting about being told that you can eat something that is just growing along the side of the trail in the woods. It's also a little bit empowering to learn about the things that you can't eat as well.

I think my favorite part of the week was that for free time, I had a "nature center" open where the boys could come and learn about all kinds of things. Joel taught outdoor class the week before at Tween camp, so were were able to use the same classroom setup for both groups. In there we had bug nets, a microscope, rubber animal droppings, a little fish tank, the touch pools, and a scavenger hunt list of bugs and feathers and critters for the boys to try and find. It was great at the end of the week to see all the thing that kids had brought in just because they thought they were cool.

On Friday, the campers' parents are invited to come and spend some time seeing what the boys did throughout the week. It was great to see how many of them wanted to show their parents the nature center and show them what they learned about sand dollars and the knots that they learned how to tie and point out the exact newt that they caught (even knowing its name) among 10 others.

How encouraging it is to know that in the age of video games, cell phones, myspace, and tv, boys can still be boys. And that there are lots of people that are willing to take the time to encourage them to get messy and discover the wonderful creation that God has given to us to explore.