Competency Challenges for Kids

Bow-drill Teamwork

What made my day on Friday? Giving 11 kids (ages 10-12) the challenge of working together to build a fire (gathering all the wood from the forest) and then lighting it with a bowdrill fire-by-friction kit. We gave them 20 minutes, they did it in 18. Every one of them worked fast and focused, they wanted it bad. We had 2 bowdrill kits each with 2 kids on it working together. There were many leaders but no one demanded from or tried to control the others. They lead by doing and by trusting in the competency of others. When fire was lit we put a pot of Walnut sap over it to boil down into syrup and we celebrated our accomplishments. What a great day!

I should also note that we've been mentoring this group of kids in nature-connection, teamwork, resilience, and survival skills all winter and many of the kids since they were 7 or 8 years old. While schools test the ability to remember facts, we "test" the ability to use their bodies, think quickly and critically, work together as a team, interact respectfully with their environment, and to bring out their individual creativity, personality, and strengths... and the kids love the tests! But they're more like "personal competency challenges" than tests, and at this age the kids live for these kinds of things!

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