What are Scouts/Guides like these days?

My DD has been in guides.... finished a few months ago. It was a fantastic experience....helped her with friendships and gave her lots of great opportunities... camping, trips, crafts, all sorts. Id totally recommend it

We love Scouts. Have a son and daughter in two different groups. My daughter tried Brownies for a while but, in her own words ‘mummy there is too much colouring at Brownies and not enough axe throwing’.

My DD and SIL run Beavers, Scouts and Explorers locally and I admire their energy and all the wonderful things they do.

I do think that groups vary depending on the personality and energy of the volunteer leaders.

If your children do join in it is worth thinking about volunteering to help in some way. Without volunteers these organisations would fade away.

I would say it is a mix. We're generally phone free in our scouts. We use ours to take the register and take pictures to post for parents in our group but that's it and the scouts are expected too keep phones in pockets and if they are seen then they have to hand them in to us to collect at the end of the meeting. On camp they can bring them to user to take photos but we have rules, they are too be used in free time only and just be handed in at night.

We do crafty things, knots and pioneering, cooking, fires, knives and axes, hikes, nav and fussy aid.

But we also do other things. My cubs did airfix with some discounted kits and Warhammer do a collaboration with scouts which is great.

Tech has a place too and there are skills too be learned there eg coding. We recently did a sleepover based around the digital maker badge. We used a local school will let us use their iPads and it was great, it was a weekend of the kids just learning to code, creating useful things that they could apply to games and activities (eg a simple leaf identifying app or a game based on compass directions). I didn't really have a clue but they worked out their problems and helped each other. It was a great way of learning and really brought out teamwork and collaboration and teaching skills.

Our Brownies and Guides are generally low or zero tech - especially for Sleepovers, Holidays and Camps - no phones or smart watches etc allowed for Brownies or Guides, and we usually avoid watching films.
We don't generally use tech in our weekly meetings - occasional 'Leader googles something they don't know the answer to' or checks the email account to check whether a girl is coming on a trip, and music for a party, but nothing the Brownies will use. Meetings involve physical games, practical activities, learning, hands-on crafts and
There is some use of tech to do the badges at home, but this is supplementary generally (eg, a girl might make a powerpoint with photos of show what she's done for a badge she's completed at home, or do research for a badge by visiting a virtual collection on a museum website), and isn't required, and generally does require doing something beforehand.

Most of our comms is tech based - we email everything, and have a closed facebook group for parents. But this is more with parents, rather than the girls themselves. During COVID lockdowns we also ran on zoom, and managed to include tech, whilst keeping the ethos of Guiding generally, so we're not behind the times, just keeping things fun and generally low-tech!

I’d say guides / scouts ( I’ve got dc in both) are quite traditional in terms of activities. Astronomy, crystal growing, cooking, den building, camp fires, camps type stuff. I don’t think they’ve looked at a screen in the last year whilst there!

I am a guide leader. We don't use any technology at our meetings.
Girls don't bring phones, smartwatches etc to camps.

I am transferring to a Scandinavian group in a few months. They had the same approach then I visited them to say hallo.

Live abroad so possibly a different experience, but the Scouts that my son does is great.

He's done it for 4 years, absolutely zero tech allowed. Lots of tent building, géocaching, sleepaway camps etc.

Very well run and organised, inclusive too.

Can't praise it enough

My experience too. I'm a Scout leader (50/50 F/M ratio group. No phones used usually (might be the odd occasion when we are doing a goosechase thing), big waiting lists.

I'm as Scout leader. The Scout's put their phone in a box at the start of the meeting and pick them up at the end. Sometimes we have meetings where they use them - making stop motion videos for example. But they know the rules and are good at dropping them in. No phones on camp - we don't want to be responsible for them, don't want them taking unwanted photos or videos, and don't usually have places they can charge them.

My boys loved their time in Scouting. They've been on so many fantastic camps, and have loads of wonderful memories. I put my oldest on the waiting list when he was 3 or 4. Mainly because I was such a Tom boy as a child and very miffed i couldn't join Scout's rather than (in my mind) horrible girly brownies/guides. 😂

Be prepared to help out when they start, lots of the younger sections do parents rotas, especially if they are short on volunteers.

Guides let boys in too. The ones who think they are girls though, not the ones who know they are boys. So both are mixed sex, just Scouts is open about this.

DS was a scout right from Beavers to Adventurers. Still tasks, camping, hikes, fires, all the things scouts has always been. We are big fans.

My daughter is in Rainbows (will go up to Brownies soon. She’s been there since she was old enough to start). She absolutely loves it. I’m training to become a leader and we never use technology. We’re working on leadership at the moment. In the last couple of weeks we’ve made marble runs out of cardboard (taking it in turns to lead), had a board game evening, went out to the local park to have a look at things we could find that were good for the environment/not good for the environment.

The unit has never used technology in the whole time we’ve been there. We’re going on a cinema trip in December. That’s probably the closest we’ll get to a screen 😂.

My nephew has been in scouts since he was old enough to join too and as far as I know they don’t use technology there either.

It's hugely variable as run by volunteers but my children have had experiences they would never have had otherwise through scouting. It seems that there's a bit of an arts and crafts = guides and fires and evil brew = scouts divide depending on what your child prefers.

The only technology I've seen was a district photography day to get their photography badge. That was device focused understandably and they all had to bring one.

My husband is an explorer leader. The kids in his group go hiking, mountain walking , camping, go karting, golf, lazertag. He has taken them skiing in Switzerland, volunteering in kenya with homeless kids ( helping to build a shelter for them to live in. He’s organised a mocktail evening, a ready steady cook evening, street dance workshop and yoga.

Dh is a scout leader, and both my dc are in the scouts section. They don't use phones/technology during the sessions. They are too busy having fun. They go on hikes, build camp fires, camp, build things, take part in lots of outdoor stuff, play games. It's a great organisation.

Guide groups vary widely and now girls can join Scouts, my experience is that Guides has gone in a very "girlie" direction, even the main website talks about making perfume and mocktails now. It was very different to what it was.
Guides (10-14) | Girlguiding share.google/h6vraZMeBwYS65wFr

Massively dependent on the leaders. DDs have done Beavers and Cubs which was basically exactly the same as it was in the 1980s and now DD1 does Sea Scouts which is brilliant - loads of time on the lake, camps, hikes, various outdoor skills.

No screens / technology either way. And my two went on the waiting list at birth 🙃

Scout leader here - we have a phone ban during meetings unless they're doing a specific activity which needs them. And absolutely no phones or other tech allowed on camp! I also run our waiting list and unless they're on there by the age of 3 there's little chance of us being able to offer a place in Beavers when they reach 6.

Both my daughters are Brownies and love it. No tech, they do a lot of crafts, outdoor things. There was a trip to a local zoo yesterday. Their group is run by a mixed age of ladies

I came back to mention the long waiting lists! My daughter went on the list for rainbows just after her 4th birthday and started just before she turned 5. A friend put her daughter on the list for Brownies aged 8 and she was never able to join - I think she aged out as priority is given to those moving up from Rainbows - and went straight to Guides.

Scouts has been co-ed since about 1990

I'm a Guide leader. Phones get put away at the start of the meeting and they can lift them at home time. Sometimes they can take a photo of something they've made etc and occasionally my Rangers (older section) would use them to look stuff up for whatever activity they're doing. We also have a no phones at camp rule. As a leader I do need to use my phone during meeting Ng as most of our resources are online/downloads so it saves me printing 😂
We do games, traditional guide stuff like campfires, navigation, we have visited the local lifeboat station. Activities on all sorts of things like the environment, space, nature, health, car maintenance, life skills, cooking, baking, craft. We do things based on internet safety etc, they are usually games to illustrate situations.

I run a squirrel scout drey (4-6) and the nearest we get to tech is using a star projector when we have a disco.

We go to the park, learn about food and space and animals etc. practice little life skills like putting on socks, laying the table, buttering bread and washing hands. We craft, sing, read & play a lot. They make friends from different schools, different cultures and different backgrounds, and they meet new adults who aren't teachers but who still ask them to occasionally listen and follow some routines.

It sounds like overkill but I recommend getting your child on the list around 3yo - parents get very surprised when we can't accommodate their 5yo because we're full, with a significant waiting list.
I feel they benefit most of they can experience the full 2 years (and get their Chief Scout's acorn!)

Erm, it is a bit early to be thinking about that, see what your child is interested in...! Also different children have different capacity for extra curriculars - one of mine seems to have endless energy and the other cant cope with too much organized activity on top of school. I have two boys and much to my surprise I have ended up as a dance mum to a keen dance/musical theatre 11 year old boy... Would not have predicted that when I was pregnant...
Having said that they have both had a great time in scouting. I have seen the scouts on their phones during down time but they aren't allowed to take them on camp. On the other hand a friend who is very outdoorsy and anti technology couldn't persuade her child to continue with scouts/guides despite parent's best efforts. So keep an open mind!