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["wixlet AT gmail.com" <wixlet AT gmail.com>]

Thanks, Bev, for the welcome and reply, and James, for your thoughts.
Let me see if I can better-explain my motivation for asking my
question without getting too long-winded.

Some friends and I, all of whom have young kids (under 6) are working
together to give our kids an alternative to the established scouting
organizations.  As we discussed our ideas in detail, I realized that a
lot of the skills that were mentioned were skills that would naturally
be developed if one were homesteading.  While rural homesteading is
the ultimate goal for at least two of the families involved (mine
included), at present we're all living in an urban area.

Once we found that we were all in agreement, we decided that one of
the next steps would be to look for information on the topics or
activities that our kids already find interesting (i.e., building
forts/playhouses) and relate those things to some of the skills we
hope they'll acquire (i.e., building a lean-to or other shelter from
available materials).

I was fortunate enough to spend most of my single-digit years in the
country, and as a result I have knowledge that some of these friends
lack, but I would not want to try to pass some of that on without
refreshing my memory with the aid of books (my grandparents and
mother, who taught me, are all long dead, so going back to the source
isn't an option).

I've been reading the list for a while, as I mentioned, and haven't
really participated in the discussion because I probably have more
questions than answers.  But I thought that there might be someone out
there who knew of  existing resources that would be helpful to us as
we do our best to make our current reality meet our ideal for at least
a few days out of every month.

Thanks again to everyone who has replied so far,
wen