Our Den Scouters have been thinking hard about the Meerkat Observer Challenge badge. The requirements are simple – perform three activities scoring 5/8 with three different senses, and play a memory game. We started off with gusto, pointing out eight sights during our outing to Kirstenbosch. Then I tested each Meerkat and they could remember at least five.
For sound, we thought a broken telephone relay in Burrows (3-5 Meerkats) would work. Well, it didn’t. Even simple instructions or statements like “fish and chips” did not get through. We ticked them off for effort and moved on.
Touch was exploring a bag and then telling what they found in it. They managed that. And the memory game was the usual turn cards over till a pair is found, but with a nice Meerkat twist. My thought as a leader, though, is: are we enabling the Meerkats to actually “learn through play”? We would like Meerkats to distinguish themselves from others by being spontaneous observers. They should be able to say “Rafiki, you left you car lights on!” “Oh, Yendi has left her jacket.” and most of all to remember a phone number or an address when given to them in an emergency. Next time we do the badge we might inject some more realism into the activities and check the outcomes.
