"Tying it all up"

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We had planned to complete achievement 22 in one week, however, February and March brought with it, seven new members to our Den. We went from four boys to eleven in a very short period of time. We only got through half of the knots and two of the four requirements to complete this achievement. We decided that we would turn our one week of knot tying, into two, in order to better accommodate the boys, giving them each an opportunity to complete all of the requirements during our den meetings.

The first week each boy was given a piece of rope. Sister Slade and Sister Lewis showed the boys how to whip the ends of their rope to prevent the ends from fraying. Brother Slade taught each boy how to tie a square knot, used in first aid to tie bandages, a sheet bend knot, used to join ropes of different sizes together, and then the two half hitche knot, used to tie a rope to a post, a tree, or a ring. Sister Lewis learned these knots along with the boys and was then able assist Brother Slade in teaching them. Sister Slade taught the boys a magic rope trick, by holding the rope while folding their arms and then tying a knot as they unfolded their arms, with out letting go of the rope.

The second week of "Tying It All Up" was spent learning two more knots, the bowline knot used as a rescue knot when tied around the waist, and a slip knot. The boys then learned how to keep a rope from tangling and finally the boys had to coil a rope then throwing it, hitting a 2 foot-square target from approximately 20 feet away. Everyone seemed to have a good time tying knots, learning magic rope tricks and matering hitting the target with their new found rope throwing skills. Good job boys, keep working on those knots, you never know when you may need them.