We’ve started planning in August, with Brigade starting in September after Labor Day. When we’ve tried to plan earlier than that, there hasn’t been enough urgency to keep everyone sufficiently motivated.

We do like to have a “debriefing” of some sort at the end of the year, including a soft commitment for who is returning in the fall.

This would be a great idea! One of the things I’ve observed in our Battalion, both on camping trips where we had the boys cook, and in preparation for the Camporal meals, is that a lot of boys didn’t even have the basic skills for cooking at home. We were trying to teach them how to cook on a camp stove, and they didn’t know how to cook at all.

I haven’t seen the Siege Weapons unit, but our Battalion built a trebuchet a few years ago. I think we used the plans here:

http://www.stormthecastle.com/trebuchet/Fast-easy-tennis-ball-trebuchet-part-1.htm

One of the techniques that has helped us memorize longer passages (in particular, the Camporal scripture memory passages, which can be an entire chapter, or 15-25 verses from a longer chapter) has been to start at the end and work forward.

That is, memorize the last sentence. Then add the sentence before that. Then add the sentence before… Read more

With our previous Battalion, we encouraged the boys to choose their own mentors. One boy actually completed the Explorer unit from Adventure Trails. His mentor was a family friend, if I recall correctly.

With our current Battalion, we’ve been using the Adventure Trails with our Battalion as a (small) group, doing one Action Step per meeting,… Read more

When we taught the Small Engine unit (Battalion Leader’s Guide, Book 5), we were able to get 2 dead lawnmower engines from a local repair shop. While we weren’t able to see them working, it was great to let the boys take them apart while we discussed the various parts and what they did, with no worry about whether the engines would work when… Read more