Not as trouble-makingas the title might suggest … I spent last weekend with friends, and their kids (9, 7, and 4) and I had fun building a “fire pit” in the backyard and trying to start a fire rubbing two sticks together, It didn’t work but we did get some leaves to smoke using a magnifying glass. Anyway, I’d like to send them a book on building campfires: how to make fire with sticks, how to arrange the kindling, etc. The kids’ parents are really in to teaching them through experience.
Any ideas? It’d be ok if it had other wilderness survival techniques in it. I suppose it doesn’t HAVE to be geared towards kids, so long as it’s easy to read. The nine and seven-year-olds are both really good readers.
They’d love Conn Iggulden’s Dangerous Book for Boys. Exactly what you describe and much more. I’d link, but I’m on my iPod. Google it - it’s a wonderful gift for boys and parents.
Here’s a link. I second the Dangerous Book for Boys, it’s really fun. It does upset me that it’s for boys though I think there’s a girl’s version but it’s probably about climbing trees with showing your knickers or something.
There is indeed a girls version. It’s not entirely lame, but yes, there are many more indoor, arts-n-crafts and “girl stuff” activities. The Boys book is way better.
How To Build a Campfireis a really neat little book, and covers everything from wood selection and set up to the differences between cooking, heating and light-producing fires and special color effects. It’s also printed on coated paper, which makes it a great choice for taking with you outdoors and/or giving to children. I believe the author is/was a cubscout leader.
I used to be a substitute teacher. I remember one third-grader who told me that since Native Americans didn’t have matches or cigarette lighters, they couldn’t have made fire. (And by extension, no one else could have made it until matches were invented.)
Good lord! I remember that in 5th grade, The Anarchist’s Cookbook was already circulating. Along with Mad Magazine and other such contraband. Time for the third graders to expand their reading material, methinks!
The average person cannot actually make fire by “rubbing sticks together”.
The “easier” way to make a friction fire is with a so-called bow drill - but it is, in fact, very difficult to do properly right off the bat - takes some prepwork & knowing the right technique.
My scout troop once had a competition between the patrols, to see who could light a fire-by-friction the quickest. My patrol eventually won, but not until after we’d broken two leather thongs and a couple of shoelaces on the bow drill, and resorted to just rotating the stick by rubbing it with the palms of our hands. It would definitely not be my first choice (or second, third, fourth, or fifth) for a firestarting method, though it does have the advantage of being doable without any other fire-dependent technology.
The American Boy’s Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It, by Daniel Carter Beard, probably covers campfires. Originally published in 1888, but available in reprint. (Dan Beard was one of the first National Commissioners of the Boy Scouts of America, and also president of the Camp Fire Girls, which was started by his sister.)
I think there’s a girl’s version but it’s probably about climbing trees with showing your knickers or something.
I remember that in 5th grade, The Anarchist’s Cookbook was already circulating. Along with Mad Magazine and other such contraband. Time for the third graders to expand their reading material, methinks!
I’d lend him to the OP, but he’s not around anymore…