family reunion highland games

[piperdbh]

Last year I had the pleasure of 'piping for a local church's Kirkin'. After the service some folks had "miniature" games for the kids to play. They used a 6-foot 2X2 for a caber, Styrofoam balls on the ends of dowels for the hammer toss, a tug-of-war, and lemonade. I want to do something similar this year at my family reunion. There are always lots of little kids looking for something to do, and I want to introduce them to our Scottish heritage. Here's the question: what events are essential to a Highland Games? Which ones do you have to have for it to be a "real" Games? I'll take your suggestions and modify them for children, and hopefully post some pics back here after the reunion, which is at the end of July.
Thanks for your help.

[Squeaky McMurdo]

That sounds fun!

There were only 3 athletic events at the Yellowstone Highland Games. The caber toss, the one with the rock, and the one where they throw bales of hay over a bar with a pitchfork.

The rest was piping competition (big surprise, it was put on by the local pipe band. lol)

Maybe you could have a little dance competition for the kids? Nothing really fancy, just let them make up their own dances to a pipe song they're assigned. In groups.

[McMurdo]

I'd say a caber toss needs to be one of them, tug of war is good too. Dancing could be lots of fun for the kids.

[thescot]

Get a ball or something round and have a "stone" throw as well.

I would stay away from pitch forks, weights which are slung in the air around crowds, and hammers.

[Alan H]

Caber: lots of hardware stores sell round, 6 foot long fence posts. These weigh about 15 - 18 pounds and most kids over the age of 10 can chuck 'em. Round off the bottom so that there's no sharp edge for the kids to get splinters on, and you have a caber. I would STRONGLY recommend painting the bottom 18 inches of the stick, thickly. Problem is a lot of these posts are soaked in wood preservative, and you DON"T want to get a splinter off of a stick like that.

The stone put...go down to the river or the local garden supply and get a really smooth rock that weighs about 5-6 pounds. If you have 5-6 yo's then get a 3-4 pounder. MOST important thing....judge your kids. Most kids can't grok the difference between "throwing" a stone and "putting" a stone, so get a rock that's small enough that they won't rip their rotator cuff out, when they heave it like a softball.

For the weights for distance and over-the-bar, I would make a pud. Here's how.... get a dumbell weight, a 5 pounder ( or two-three 2.5 pounder) for 10-12 yo's, a single 2.5 pounder for little kids. Take a piece of rope about 2-2.5 feet long and thread it through the dumbell. Now thread it through a 5-6 inch piece of old garden hose, or a piece of PVC plumbing hose. Tie a knot so that the rope makes a loop. You can also knot it so that the weight doesn't slip back and bonk the kids hands, but that's kind of unlikely.

For the "bar" that the kids chuck the weight over, get an old broomstick or closet pole and use an 8 - 10 foot ladder to hold the stick at different heights.

For hammer, for little kids, go down to the hardware store and get a 3 foot long piece of "threaded on both ends" 3/4 inch ABS pipe. Buy a white PVC thread-on end cap. You can drop dumbell weights over this and the kids have a hammer. Little ones can use a 2-foot piece of ABS with a 2.5 pound dumbell weight. Bigger kids use the 3 foot piece with a 5 pound and a 2.5 pound weight. Remember that kids can huck a hammer a surprisingly long way and hammer handle do break, so keep the area clear.

tossing the sheaf requires a hay fork, which only comes in adult sizes, so I'd bale on that. ( wrote that on purpose, you know!)

What you could do instead is a "farmers walk" which is a strongman contest thing. Pick some heavy objects that have handles. This has to be sized to the kids. You can use 10 pound dumbells for little kids, load up a pair of dumbells with 35 pounds, each for pre-teens. Mark off a course with little flats or something, put the flags 30 - 50 feet apart. The contest is to start walking with one weight in each hand and just keep on going back and forth between the flags until you have to drop the weights. Winner is the person who walks the farthest.

[Alan H]

You know, I'd love to have a local High School Highland Games day, where the local kids could come out and toss stuff. Hmmm.......

[JolyStNicholas]

Bravo Alan, those are grand ideas, the children will have a wonderful time at
their "Highland Games".