Category: Youth Groups

Cousin Camp – For the Strength of Cousins

Our extended family holds a biannual cousin camp that mimics church youth conferences like For the Strength of Youth and Especially for Youth. Our cousins live all over the country so this is an opportunity for them to spend quality time together strengthening their cousin bonds.

It’s really great to have over twenty teens for this event.  We invite all our cousins who are ages 12-18. Then we tell them to invite their cousins from the other side of their family and any close friends they think could be adopted cousins for the week.  Our group has varied in size from 20-38 teens.

Our event usually runs from Tuesday evening to Saturday morning.  Here are two example agendas.

Utah: For the Strength of Cousins Agenda 2020

North Carolina: For the Strength of Cousins Agenda 2023

Here are some ideas so you can organize your own Cousin Camp. We’ve divided our ideas into the fun stuff and the spiritual stuff.  This is an opportunity to strengthen faith and family unity, so we always schedule faith-promoting devotionals and speakers at our event. However, we know our audience and no one would come if it wasn’t super fun.  So, make sure you have a good balance of both and don’t forget to allow lots of free time.

-The Fun Stuff-

company competitions

Divide your group into teams of 5-10 people. Four groups is ideal.  You can use these groups for food prep and cleaning assignments, but the main purpose is for everyone to be a part of a team. Every day should include at least one company competition. Here are four fun ideas:

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Set your teams lose on a photo scavenger hunt in a mall, park, or downtown plaza. Make a list of items and activities their team can photograph and video to earn points.  Set a time limit and let them go!

Here’s our list:  Photo Scavenger Hunt- Downtown Salt Lake City

Photo Scavenger Hunt Cousin Camp
Photo Scavenger Hunt in City Creek Plaza, Salt Lake City
Obstacle Course

Create an obstacle course in a back yard or park.  We had access to an inflatable obstacle course that served as one leg of the race. Make sure there are enough obstacles that everyone on the team will be part of the competition.  We had climbing, jumping, running, and throwing events.  We also had a putting golf hole, a  trampoline challenge, and then some team challenges like a human pyramid and carrying people.   Make it up based on your space.  You’ll need a few adult judges to make sure no one cheats. Make sure the rules are laid out clearly before you start.  This is supposed to be fun, so you’ll want to avoid any arguments over the rules mid-competition.

Obstacle Course

Game Show Competition

We created a really fun game show competition that was a huge success. We needed an inside activity for a hot afternoon and this fit the bill.  Here’s the link with a full description and clues:  Epic Game Show Competition

Group Charades
Group Pictionary
Cousins Got Talent  (Skit Night)

On our last night, all the teams made up a skit and performed for the group. We had a panel of judges (uncles, aunts, older cousins) who scored the skits for the team competition.  The groups knew about this all week so they had talked about it and used some of their free time to prepare.

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Water Kickball

If you’ve never played water kickball, you’re in for a treat.  This activity costs about $100 but you can use it over and over. You will need 3 inflatable kiddie pools, four rolls of 3’ X 50’ 4 mil plastic sheeting from a home improvement store, baby liquid soap, a rubber kickball, and access to a hose/water.

Roll out the plastic in a 50′ square with kiddie pools for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bases. Sit the pools on top of the plastic at each corner of your diamond to weigh it down.  Pin down the home base corner with a couple of tent stakes. You don’t want stakes in the plastic anywhere else because someone could hurt their bare feet as they run.  Squirt baby soap on the plastic, then spray it with water and fill up your kiddie pools. Keep the water flowing and continue to spray the plastic and fill the pools as needed throughout the game.  Now, play kickball!  You’ll be slipping and sliding and laughing the whole time.

Water Kickball

Yard Games

Make sure your event has lots of free time.  Yard games should be readily available so the kids can play whenever they like. Volleyball and Four-Square were our two favorites last year.

Cousin Volleyball

Water Day

If you have access to a lake or reservoir, take advantage.  Our group had a great time floating in the Great Salt Lake.  (I’ve lived in Utah most of my life and I had never swam in the Great Salt Lake. It was a blast!)  Other years, we went to a water park or swimming pool.  Water is just fun– especially on hot summer days.  Add a little water to your event if you can.

Trip to the Great Salt Lake
Swimming at the Great Salt Lake
FSC Pool Party

Ropes Course

We really like ropes courses because they encourage teamwork, courage, and trust. We have had several good experiences with Utah’s CLAS Ropes Course in both Provo and Eden.  In addition to the aerial park, we succeeded in several team building challenges on the ground. It was a great day.

More Information on CLAS Ropes Courses in Utah: CLAS Ropes

Ropes Course

Giant's Ladder
Giant’s Ladder

Games

Check out some of our game ideas to use throughout your event.  Large Group Games

-The Spiritual Stuff-

Devotionals

Devotionals by older cousins, aunts, uncles, and  grandparents are at the heart of our cousins camp. There’s something special about learning from people who really love you.  Make sure to include as many family members as you can to help promote faith and strength in your teens.

Cousin Camp at the Cemetery
We had a devotional by an older cousin at the graveside of our cousin, Alec. It was a special night.

Speakers

We set aside one day in the middle of our week as our speaker day. We invite two guests to speak back-to-back at 10:00 and 11:00.  The speakers are followed by lunch and then one last speaker at 1:00. We invite seminary teachers and friends who we know will connect well with our teens.

FSC Speaker

Temple Trips

We always try to include a temple trip during our FSC Conference. It’s pretty special to go as cousins to perform baptisms for our ancestors.

Hike with a Speaker at the Summit

It’s fun to go on a short hike with your group and have a speaker at the summit. If you can time it at sunset, it’s even cooler. Don’t forget to bring your flashlights!

Antelope Island Hike

Service

It’s also important to add an element of service to your camp. One year, we did a bunch of yardwork.  Another, we made posters and delivered them to a nursing home to hang on the residents’ doors.

Service Project

These are posters the kids made for a local nursing home.

We hope some of these ideas inspire you to hold your own Cousin Camp! Strong families = Strong world

 

Epic Game Show Competition

You are going to love this activity!!

We created this competition for a youth activity for 36 teenagers.  It was a hit!  We have shared it with other groups who have had great success using it for both adult gatherings and large family gatherings.  All we can say is, “You’re welcome!”

We will include all of our clues and questions but you may need to adapt some of them to your own situation. Our youth were all members of the same church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) so we have some songs and trivia questions specific to their faith. It should be easy for you to swap these clues/questions to fit your own needs.

Large Group Game Show Competition

Instructions

Divide your group into teams. You’ll need about 6-9 people per team.

Spread your teams out so they are each sitting in their own semi-circle.  Make sure they are positioned so they can watch the other teams when it’s not their turn.

Divide each team into three sub-groups. Our teams had nine people so we had three groups of three people on each team. If you have less people, some individuals will need to participate in two sub-groups. Each threesome will be assigned to be Artists, Actors or Singers.  For example, my team has seven people: Roy, Joy, Kate, Tate, Jill, Phil, and Bill.  We decide that Roy, Joy and Kate will be our artists. Tate, Jill and Phil will be our actors and Bill, Joy and Tate will be our singers.  Three for each competition.

Artists: The artists receive a card with three clues.  They can look at the clues together and decide who will draw each clue.  The artists all draw on the whiteboard at the same time.  They have 40 seconds for their team to guess all three words.  They get one point for each correct word.  Then, if the guessers can solve the riddle of how their three words are connected or what they have in common, they get a bonus point.

Example Clue: Car, Tree, Elephant / Bonus: They all have trunks.

Go around from team to team, allowing each team to have a turn while the others watch. If you have time, you can have a second round.

Actors:  The three actors work together to act out four group-charades clues.  They may act the clues out in any order. Their team has 80 seconds to solve as many clues as possible.  One point per correct answer.  Have an adult (non-player) hold the clues to the side where the actors can see the clues, but their team cannot.

Example Clue Card:  Zoo, Olympics, Trick or Treating, Jonah & the Whale

Go around from team to team, allowing each team to have a turn while the others watch. If you have time, you can play a second round.

Singers:  The game is “Name That Tune”. The singers have 60 seconds to name as many songs as they can on their list.  Each singer must hum/da-de-da two songs on the list.  No words allowed.  Again, have a non-player hold the clues to the side where the singers can see the clues, but their team cannot. The songs can be sung in any order. One point for every correct answer.

Example Clue Card:

  • Amazing Grace (Hymn)
  • Piano Man (Billy Joel)
  • Let It Go (Frozen)
  • Rewrite the Stars (Greatest Showman)
  • Ring of Fire (Jonny Cash)
  • Shake It Off (Taylor Swift)

Go around from team to team, allowing each team to have a turn while the others watch.

College Bowl: The final game is a trivia showdown. Everyone stays with their team in their own semi-circle.  Everyone stands up.  The host circles the room, going from team to team asking trivia questions.  One person from the team must answer the question.  The team can discuss who will answer the question after they hear it.  (Example: Finn says he knows this one, but Kate does too.  The team decides to let Kate take this one and save Finn for another category.  Maybe no one knows the answer.  Allie volunteers to take a guess and use up her turn.)  Once an answer is given, that person must sit down.  Each person only gets to answer once.  Right or wrong, they sit down after they answer.  Right answers receive one point.  As the game progresses, each team has fewer and fewer players to answer.  The last person standing must answer the last question.   No questions is ever repeated.  You simply get it or you don’t—no stealing. A time limit is usually not necessary, but you could put a 20 second clock on each answer if it seems necessary.  It is important that every team have an equal number of players in the College Bowl. If a team has less, one of their players should be randomly chosen to answer two questions.

Note to Host:  Write/Print the clues on individual cards as shown below for the artist, actors, and singers.  Do not print the answer to the riddles on the artist cards. The College Bowl can be printed as-is for the host to give a clue in each category for each team member.  We had 9 people on four teams (36 people), so we needed 36 total questions– 4 questions from 9 categories. Adapt as needed for your group.  My list has many more questions in case your group is larger than ours.

Print our clues/questions here:   Large Group Game Show Competition