I did letterboxing with my son's Cub Scout den. I bored everyone here with
it as it happened, so I'll try not to be too wordy here and now.

They're 5th graders, and I let them use carving tools. We only had one kid
jab his hand--naturally it had to be the one with hemophilia!

They cut out the wood backing and glued the rubber to it, which made the
project meet a requirement for their craftsman badge.

I hid three boxes for our campout for them to find. I made the clues
scout-oriented. They had to answer questions about scouting requirements to figure
out how many paces to go, which way to turn, etc.

There was one "real" box in the same park where we camped. I decided to
leave it alone for security reasons. Good choice. As it turned out, my son,
who'd found the real one with us the week before and had been sworn to secrecy,
tried to lead one of our accompanying Boy Scouts to it. Trouble was, he
couldn't find it! His excuse was, we'd told him not to take any of the Cub
Scouts to the box, but he thought it was okay, since this boy wasn't a Cub Scout
anymore but had moved on to Boy Scouts!

That first trip, we sent them out in small groups of two or three kids, with
a leader to go along and help if need be. On our NEXT campout, we took them
to find another "real" box (too far away from home for them to go after it on
their own later on). That time, the whole group went together, and it didn't
work nearly as well. One kid kind of influenced them all into believing it
wasn't cool, so they all soured on it.

DebBee


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi,

I just learned about letterboxing at a class taught this past weekend by
Silent Doug. I came home so excited, that I couldn't wait to tell my family
about it! My 12 year old son is a lot like me, and this intrigued him as
much as it did me. He couldn't wait to make his own stamp - he immediately
got a sketchpad out and started drawing his own. I let him use the exacto
knife that I received at the class and he did fine. I had to help him a
little with the fine details, but other than that, he did it himself. He was
thrilled!

Melinda in Maryland
-----Original Message-----
From: Lori Doobie [mailto:dragonladytcb@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 12:53 PM
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] thx teachers, and all


I love your suggestions, please keep them coming. I never thought about
how to work it in to french or math classes that was great. How would you
work it in to summer bible school or Sunday school class. How old do you
think they should be before they are allowed carving tools? I was thinking
14-15....depending upon the child.
All Teachers, Counselors, Scout leaders, and Parents,
> I am trying to find out how to present letterboxing to all
students. I would like to see how you worked it in your planners,
what age groups you worked with, what you would have done
differently, what tools did you allow them to use for carving, did
you use store bought stamps, were there troubles taking the kids out
ot plant and how close to school or church did you go, who wrote up
the clues, I am looking for detail, I love details. I need the whole
scoop!! The more the better.
> Please e-mail me at ohwiseone 56 at hotmail dot com
>
> I am so excited about this.
> Thanks to all in advance,
> Dragon Lady of The Columbian Bugs



---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT





----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Yahoo! Groups Links

a.. To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/letterbox-usa/

b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
letterbox-usa-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I like the idea of hiding special stmaps for the group and encouraging those
interested to pursue it with you later. I bet that reallyhelps weedout the
budding vandals! I hope to do this with my duaghter's PTO and with her AHG
troop. As someoen who discovered letterboxing thanks to mass media, I want
to share it with others who may bring a lot to the hobby but might not
otherwise learn of it.

Workign it into a biblestudy/sunday school class could be fun; have clues
related to scripture quotes and biblical references. ("Take one pace for
each hippopotomus, elephant and giraffe Noah took on the ark") or relate ti
to the theme of the camp

My almost 7 yo is able to use the speedball tools with supervision--one
slight jab was all it took to reinforce the idea of carvign AWAY from
herself. I would hesitate to turn a group loose with them tho.

Mama Stork
aka Pam in Cinci


How would you work it in to summer bible
> school or Sunday school class. How old do you think they
> should be before they are allowed carving tools? I was
> thinking 14-15....depending upon the child.
> >

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Mark and Melinda Griffee"
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just learned about letterboxing at a class taught this past weekend by
> Silent Doug. I came home so excited, that I couldn't wait to tell my family
> about it! My 12 year old son is a lot like me, and this intrigued him as
> much as it did me. He couldn't wait to make his own stamp - he immediately
> got a sketchpad out and started drawing his own. I let him use the exacto
> knife that I received at the class and he did fine. I had to help him a
> little with the fine details, but other than that, he did it himself. He was
> thrilled!
>
> Melinda in Maryland



WAITAMINIT!

There's a CLASS??? in MARYLAND??? Why don't I know about this?

Tell me more,
Howls,
Werewulf (in Maryland!)

Okay, here's the scoop...

I was at a Girl Scout Leader Weekend in Pennsylvania, where 600 Girl Scout
Leaders congregate each year at one Hotel & Conference Center for the
weekend to take workshops, laugh, goof off, and generally act like the kids
we are usually in charge of! We have the opportunity to sign up for 5
workshops (out of literally hundreds offered!) and one of the workshops was
on letterboxing. The original instructor was unable to make it, so Silent
Doug graciously stepped in and taught the class for us. He was spectacular
and the class was AWESOME! It was called "Letterboxing 101", but Doug
renamed it "Adventures in Letterboxing". He taught us how it all started,
how to get started, and basic Letterboxing etiquette. He also came prepared
with "starter boxes" for each of us, complete with inkpads, erasers and
knives to carve with. He taught us how to carve our own stamps, and how to
make our own journals. Then we went to work, carved our stamps, and
exchanged stamps with each other. The whole thing was a blast and I left
feeling like a kid with a new toy!

BTW, where are you in Md? I'm in northern Frederick County...

Melinda in Maryland
-----Original Message-----
From: Grey [mailto:werewulfmom@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 5:54 PM
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [LbNA] thx teachers, and all


--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Mark and Melinda Griffee"

wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just learned about letterboxing at a class taught this past weekend by
> Silent Doug. I came home so excited, that I couldn't wait to tell my
family
> about it! My 12 year old son is a lot like me, and this intrigued him as
> much as it did me. He couldn't wait to make his own stamp - he
immediately
> got a sketchpad out and started drawing his own. I let him use the
exacto
> knife that I received at the class and he did fine. I had to help him a
> little with the fine details, but other than that, he did it himself. He
was
> thrilled!
>
> Melinda in Maryland



WAITAMINIT!

There's a CLASS??? in MARYLAND??? Why don't I know about this?

Tell me more,
Howls,
Werewulf (in Maryland!)



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Yahoo! Groups Links

a.. To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/letterbox-usa/

b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
letterbox-usa-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mark and Melinda Griffee wrote:
>Silent Doug graciously stepped in and taught the class for us. He was
>spectacular
>and the class was AWESOME! It was called "Letterboxing 101", but Doug
>renamed it "Adventures in Letterboxing". He taught us how it all started,
>how to get started, and basic Letterboxing etiquette. He also came prepared
>with "starter boxes" for each of us, complete with inkpads, erasers and
>knives to carve with. He taught us how to carve our own stamps, and how to
>make our own journals. Then we went to work, carved our stamps, and
>exchanged stamps with each other. The whole thing was a blast and I left
>feeling like a kid with a new toy!

Thanks for the kudos!

BTW, if anyone is interested, here are the materials and other info I
presented at the workshop:
http://www.letterboxing.info/PLGS/




|-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-|
Silent Doug, P37 F252 E08 X40
silentdoug@letterboxing.info
http://www.letterboxing.info

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Mark and Melinda Griffee"
wrote:
> Okay, here's the scoop...
>
> I was at a Girl Scout Leader Weekend in Pennsylvania, where 600 Girl Scout
> Leaders congregate each year at one Hotel & Conference Center for the
> weekend to take workshops, laugh, goof off, and generally act like the kids
> we are usually in charge of! We have the opportunity to sign up for 5
> workshops (out of literally hundreds offered!) and one of the workshops was
> on letterboxing. The original instructor was unable to make it, so Silent
> Doug graciously stepped in and taught the class for us. He was spectacular
> and the class was AWESOME! It was called "Letterboxing 101", but Doug
> renamed it "Adventures in Letterboxing". He taught us how it all started,
> how to get started, and basic Letterboxing etiquette. He also came prepared
> with "starter boxes" for each of us, complete with inkpads, erasers and
> knives to carve with. He taught us how to carve our own stamps, and how to
> make our own journals. Then we went to work, carved our stamps, and
> exchanged stamps with each other. The whole thing was a blast and I left
> feeling like a kid with a new toy!
>
> BTW, where are you in Md? I'm in northern Frederick County...
>
> Melinda in Maryland

Very cool, and fortuitous as a friend and I (both Girl Scout Trainers in
Howard County) were just beginning to plan a workshop for October about
letterboxing. I've emailed Silent Doug offline to see how much of his
class I can canibalize!

Of course here we are planning our workshop and between us we've only
found about 25 letterboxes and have carved only one. Still by October, we
figure we'll be expert enough to get others interested *grin*

Howls,
Werewulf (GS camp name AND letterboxing trail name!)
Columbia, MD
Girl Scout Trainer for Howard County/Girl Scouts of Central Maryland
Junior GS leader

Doug, I'm having trouble opening the pdf file of the handout. If I
try to open it by clicking the link, it freezes my browser. I also
tried just saving the target file to my hard drive and then opening
it from there, but Adobe Reader insists the file is damaged and
can't be repaired.

I'm able to open other pdf files with no problem. Has anyone else
reported an error? Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks!
Zed


>
> BTW, if anyone is interested, here are the materials and other
info I
> presented at the workshop:
> http://www.letterboxing.info/PLGS/

I had no problem accessing the PDF file.

Doug - Great information!

Jeff (Sea Dove)



zed_boxing wrote:
Doug, I'm having trouble opening the pdf file of the handout. If I
try to open it by clicking the link, it freezes my browser. I also
tried just saving the target file to my hard drive and then opening
it from there, but Adobe Reader insists the file is damaged and
can't be repaired.

I'm able to open other pdf files with no problem. Has anyone else
reported an error? Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks!
Zed


>
> BTW, if anyone is interested, here are the materials and other
info I
> presented at the workshop:
> http://www.letterboxing.info/PLGS/





Yahoo! Groups Links







Sea Dove, Peacekeeper, Splish Splash, & Liberty Eagle

Birds of a Feather Family



---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I opened it OK.

----- Original Message -----
From: zed_boxing
Date: Friday, February 6, 2004 9:35 am
Subject: Re: [LbNA] thx teachers, and all

> Doug, I'm having trouble opening the pdf file of the handout. If
> I
> try to open it by clicking the link, it freezes my browser. I
> also
> tried just saving the target file to my hard drive and then
> opening
> it from there, but Adobe Reader insists the file is damaged and
> can't be repaired.
>
> I'm able to open other pdf files with no problem. Has anyone else
> reported an error? Any idea what I might be doing wrong?
>
> Thanks!
> Zed
>
>
> >
> > BTW, if anyone is interested, here are the materials and other
> info I
> > presented at the workshop:
> > http://www.letterboxing.info/PLGS/
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

I've got it now, thanks. TurtleMcQ was kind enough to email it to
me. My problem was apparently with a corrupt Adobe Reader file. Re-
installed and it's all better now.

Doug, the material is excellent!!

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, Birds of a Feather
wrote:
> I had no problem accessing the PDF file.