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What should we expect when moving from Beavers to Cubs?

5 replies

Criteria16 · 08/09/2026 16:38

My DS will move up to Cubs before the end of the year and we are wondering what to expect? How is it different than Beavers?
With his local group they normally

  • do crafts or indoor activities learning new skills
  • spend time outdoors on average once or twice per term (litter picking or building dens etc)
  • go for external activities maybe twice a year (visit a police station or canoeing...)
  • go for a sleepover once a year

I wonder what Cubs do differently/more often/less often!

OP posts:
BirdLandedonmyHead · 08/09/2026 16:41

Will depend on the group, the leaders and the facilities.
Mine are outsude whenever the weather allows it... games, pionneering, cooking, natire, science, etc. In winter we do more skills, international, religion and a bit of craft based stuff.
We do however, have our own field and woodland.

Criteria16 · 08/09/2026 16:47

BirdLandedonmyHead · 08/09/2026 16:41

Will depend on the group, the leaders and the facilities.
Mine are outsude whenever the weather allows it... games, pionneering, cooking, natire, science, etc. In winter we do more skills, international, religion and a bit of craft based stuff.
We do however, have our own field and woodland.

Thanks!
Do they go for trips/experiences too and do they camp/stay away for the night?

OP posts:
BirdLandedonmyHead · 08/09/2026 16:50

We do 2 night camps and sleepovers.

I know other groups which take theirs abroad!

Ineffable23 · 08/09/2026 16:52

Yeah, this is gonna depend on the group. I reckon we used to do stuff outside probably most of the weeks in the summer, and once or twice a term in winter. Somewhere in between for Spring and autumn. We were very urban though, we didn't have room in the same way my rural group did. In the summer we would go and use the district scout site, but then we had no indoor space so we had to be fairly confident on the weather for that.

We used to make sure we covered classic Scouts stuff - knots, fire making, map reading; building things - so using a hammer, a drill, a screwdriver etc; some more "dangerous" stuff like archery, climbing, maybe air rifle shooting. As well as less exciting but still interesting things like planets and making a scale model using the whole hall, or science experiments etc etc.

We used to try and do at least 2 badges a term. Used to do at least 2 1-3 night camps a year, maybe 3 if we did one jointly with the rest of the district. We didn't do any indoor sleepovers, it was all camping.

budgiegirl · 13/09/2026 14:29

As others have said, it will depend very much on the leaders running the pack. But on the whole, it should be similar to beavers, but activities could be slightly different due to age/badge requirements.

I'm a cub leader, and we do a mix of indoor/outdoor meetings - we try to be outdoor in the summer term, and mostly indoor in the winter - a mix of sports, crafts, cooking, games, first aid, science, community work, fire lighting, hikes, trails, treasure hunts etc. We don't have outdoor space ourselves, but in summer a local football club lets us use their land as long as we don't do it too often, or we meet in the local park. We occasionally also do visits on the meeting night, such as a local museum, town hall, activity such as laser tag.

Apart from the meetings, we try to do at least one overnight per term (this year it's been a one-night indoor residential, and 2 x 2 night themed camps in tents, when the cubs get to do a whole host of different activities)

We also do quite a few optional activities at weekends - usually one or two per term - about half the cubs attend each one on average. This year we've been to wetlands, private cinema screening, water sports, local carnival fancy dress parade, agricultural show, bell boating, Houses of Parliament tour, and we've still got a dry ski slope day, pantomime, and night adventure hike to go. Some are done with just cubs, some are mixed with beavers and scouts.

Writing all that makes me realise how active we are as a pack. But I'm very lucky to have great, enthusiastic leaders who share the load, so I'm not having to organise everything.

I know some cub packs that do very little outside of their usual meetings, except perhaps a camp once a year.

Perhaps talk to your beaver leaders / cub leaders to see what your local cub pack might be like

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