Reef Knot
One of the problems I find with teaching knots in the
traditional way is that the Scouts find it dull.
Also the PLC said that they find it hard to teach the
six basic Scout Knots since they are unrelated.
So the PLC and Leaders put their heads together and came
up with a different way to teach. Instead of teaching the reef knot along
with the unrelated clove hitch and the not-very-similar timber hitch and
the round turn and two half hitches and bowline and sheet bend, we have
put together a way of building the knots upon simple basics.
The Scouts start with a simple knot as the base for a series and then build upon the initial success by adding a little extra bit and so, by building one knot from another, it becomes easy.
We tried it one Scout night and found that it worked. In an exercise based on the thumb knot, fisherman's, double fisherman's and reef knot even the cubs who were linking up with the troop managed to repeatedly tie all four after a fifteen minute instruction session.
We have, so far, come up with the base knots listed below but the list is increasing. Click on the links and see what we have come up with.
Reef Knot
STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Clove Hitch
STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION