Annual Program Schedules

I found that a reasonable level of organisation was an essential element of a smoothly run Cub Scout program. I began organising just one evening's program at a time, but quickly moved to outlining all programs for a Term, and ultimately the year, ahead of time. That is not to say that the schedules I developed were followed religiously. Ultimately they served as a guide to the material that needed to be covered each year, and roughly in each Term of the year. Some activities, like those to do with fire, had to be scheduled outside of Total Fire Ban periods, and others when it was not likely to be raining. I tried to take advantage of the daylight hours in summer to run programs that were largely outdoors. Similarly, in winter, I tried to run programs that kept the cubs active (not a very difficult task, in practice).

In general, I tried to run games that were relevant to the program activity, although you will note that I did not adhere very strictly to this goal. Nonetheless, the evening would invariably begin with an active game to let the Cubs release a bit of energy before settling down to the main activity, perhaps via a couple of less active games. On the evenings when the main activity finished on time (it often didn't, for various reasons, most often because the Cubs were so engrossed in what they were doing), I would finish off with a quiet game, to settle the Cubs down before going home.

The submenu (Year 1 - Year 4) is the index into the annual program schedules that I ran. I didn't always run the program I planned for an evening. Sometimes I had to change completely, although the fall-back position was almost invariably a Games Night, which the Cubs always enjoyed.

On the page for each Schedule, I have provided links (Week 1, Week 2 etc.) to the individual Program sheets that I prepared for the evening in question. Within the individual programs, I have also provided links to the relevant activity resources (where any exist). Resources for the individual activities can be accessed independently through the Resources page.

While full descriptions of games for most Programs are provided on the Program sheets, the details for all the games scheduled for a games night are not necessarily included. They can, nonetheless, be found in the Games Register.