A Cub Dad's Account of the 10 year old's First Aid Course

I accompanied the Cubs to their First Aid course last Saturday. It’s part of the advancement for their Leaping Wolf badge, I believe. I never did get that badge! It was probably because I started quite late with Scouts. I missed the whole Cub vibe completely. If only my school buddies had nagged me before I was too old to attend, but I reckon I enjoyed my time at Scouts just as much as I would have at Cubs.

The day started off well with some outdoor activities to get rid of the children’s Saturday excitement. Matt seemed to know how to keep the Cubs interested and by providing lots of interaction and feedback. He gave them all a chance to speak when they had questions or stories to tell. Oh, and the stories… If we didn’t eventually set a new rule of “only questions and no more stories”, I reckon we would still be there today!

I think that the kids enjoyed themselves and were able to take in everything that Matt covered that day. He did a good job of covering all that he needed to while still keeping it interesting and relevant for the Cubs. We even watched a great slideshow. I think that the burns were the most memorable, not because of the images themselves, but rather from the reactionsof the kids. You could see the stories were bubbling to the surface again and that the poor Cubs were longing to regale us with “when it happened to them”. I have to give it to Matt, for his patience.

I really loved the fact that Matt had also arranged for CPR Annie’s/ mannequins for the kids to practice on, considering how costly those mannequins can be. He had mentioned earlier that there would be a CPR relay with the mannequins at the end. I couldn’t wait. He said he had especially kept it for last so as to get rid of the remaining energy of the kids. I’m sure those Cubs slept well that night!

The course was very well organised and implemented. Many thanks to all those who had a hand in making it happen. Looking forward to the next one.