Seasoned scouting parents (or similar!) - help a novice out

[NoviceScoutMum]

Please help me 😆

We are not one of those multi-generational scouting families. My husband lasted about 3 months in the early 90s and was finished off by a single jamboree. However, our 7 year old is a Beaver scout and is loving it, and his independence and social skills have developed so much as a result.

He's been off on all sorts of district days and trips and camps and stuff and has a growing collection of blanket badges - but I'm getting total blanket confusion when looking for one to buy to sew them on to. What do you recommend?

Do they actually use them on camps or is it more a decorative memento type affair?

I can't imagine blankets fair too well on camps with a bunch of 6-8 year olds and camp fires and things. Every trip he's been on (and most normal evening meetings to be fair) he has come back delightfully filthy, sweaty, stinking of smoke and caked in grime. In my mind an actual blanket to use on camp needs to be something that can withstand biohazard industrial level cleaning afterwards, rather than a lovely blanket full of badges.

Help a novice out please!

I probably have 92,683 other questions, but will start with this one for now!

Thank you 🙃

The blanket is for "fun badges" (unofficial ones, Scouts care more about whether badges are official on uniform), and badges from previous sections - the Beaver ones for Cubs, etc.

They go on the uniform when current, but when they move sections or an occasion badge becomes out of date, they get added to the blanket. Any 'fun'/camp badges they receive (that don't ever belong on the uniform) go straight onto the blanket.
What are you doing with eg Beavers-specific badges when they move to Cubs?

My DCs have fleece blankets with a slit in the middle with a hood from an old hoodie sewn into it.
They liked being able to put the hood up when overstimulated, and it meant no annoying seam on the neck.
They did scouting all the way from Beavers to Leading, and several expeditions so they got a lot of badges over the years.

I’ve always thought their first badge should be a sewing on badges badge.

DH’a family are well into their scouting. FIL was a district commissioner, DH got Queen’s Scout, all three of our boys have done it. Ds1 is a Cub leader and ds3 is a young leader. My MIL made them each a fleece camp poncho for me to sew their badges onto. I sew onto uniform but I use a dab of badge glue to stick them in place on the blanket before catching the badge down at a few points around the outside.

I bought one of the official Beaver blankets from the Scouting website but in hindsight I didn't need to as it's quite large and I'd have probably been better just buying a plain fleece blanket elsewhere. It's mainly a memory thing. DC1 has now left Scouting but still has the blanket with badges. I agree with others, it's a good place to put old badges e.g when they move from Beavers to Cubs or when you need to swap out the occasion badges.

Ah ok. Some badges need to be transferred from eg beavers to cubs etc so they just move onto the next jumper. Then we keep the old jumper with the badges on in the loft. We still have DHs cub jumper from 40+ years ago 😂

There's a Facebook group for guiding and scouting called My Camp Blanket Rocks I think. Loads of inspiration on there!

Agree with everything that @LostMySocks says on wool vs fleece but also to add that im in the process of having to resew my whole camp blanket as a moth got to it and has left a big hole 😫 It still hasn't convinced me to switch to fleece, but I will make sure my blanket is aired properly and then stored in a vac bag next time.

I think it really depends on how into camping / residentials the unit is. When I was a guide, we didn't really go on camps due to the health of our leader so I didnt bother with a camp blanket. It was only when I became a leader and started taking my own unit away every year that it became worthwhile. Also, I had my badges on a sash, which I then sewed onto the blanket. Nowadays, girls are much less likely to have a sash and sew onto their uniforms instead so badges tend not to make it onto blankets. You can do some fun things like turning uniform into cushions though. (Not my etsy shop, just an example of what I have seen - https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/499097850/beaver-cubs-rainbow-brownies-memory?epik=dj0yJnU9RzRnVGo3TVpQR2tMbmw5cDlvWmNmUDdFYmJYZWRJSVUmcD0wJm49aXJYeVdyQmFVTEc0VFU4RXZmUlZvZyZ0PUFBQUFBR2hxSTg0)

It's a world wide, guiding and scouting tradition but as with all traditions different groups do different things. If your unit is heavily into lightweight camping then you may get less blankets as they encourage the kids to pack everything. If it's into more traditional camping then they take more kit and are more likely to be at a site with a campfire circle.

We've found girls with family tradition of Guides all have blankets. They show them to friends who then get blanket envy..
All the leaders in our group are a little behind with sewing so we haven't taken them in recently but the girls love seeing our badges

But even with that system, you will still have the staged and occasion badges that are made obsolete and removed when they get the next level/the event has passed and need somewhere to go. Say they earn Swimmer 3, you unpick Swimmer 2 and put 3 in it's place. What happens to 2? It would neither eventually move to the next uniform or be left on the old uniform any longer as it had already been switched out.

I started our DCs’ blankets when they were babies. As well as their Scouting badges, they’ve got swimming, gymnastics, random-places-visited, and a few other cute ones. Oh, and their names appliquéd in felt. I loved the blanket years. Ours were just bog-standard fleece that withstood the odd trip round the washing machine.

Thank you everyone!

This weekend I've been sewing swimming badges onto a towel. Only 5 more to go. Been a bit lax on those!

I hadn't even considered the staged badges 🫠 he's about to get the second (and third!) swimming badges. Do I take the first one off his jumper and put #3 in its place then? Then put #1&2 on his blanket?

I will have a look at the Facebook page for inspiration, thank you for the suggestion.

Yes, you only display one staged badge at a time.

They really need to produce a "scouting for dummies" guide book for clueless parents like me!

If your group uses OSM then it shows uniform placement in the badge section

Yes, as others have said,
Current badges go on uniform.

When they are no longer current they can be kept by sewing them on to a blanket.
Most (Scout) campsites will have a badge they can buy - on the blanket
Most 'special occasion' badges can only be worn for a year - eg the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, or your County have a big camp, or your Group have a 5oth Anniversary, etc etc
Staged Badges - you should only have the 'highest' awarded on your uniform and the previous ones can then be sewn onto the blanket.
When they get to go on camps with people not from their Group (in particular if they do International Camps or Jamborees) then people like to swap badges with Scouts from elsewhere, and, again, these go on their blankets.

The issue with buying the little Beaver or Cub ponchos is they very much outgrow them during Scouts / Explorers and in to adulthood.
As a rule, I'd say to keep them at home / for display during Beavers and Cubs (and possibly Scouts) as they aren't that practical for little ones at camp.

The vast majority of Beavers / Cubs / Scouts don't have (or don't maintain) blankets, but for those who do, they are great memories as Explorers / adults.

Thanks for the explanation, but I've spent so many hours of my life sewing badges on the beavers and cubs jumpers, there is no way on God's green earth I am taking them off and sewing them all over again! I think it's nice to keep the jumper with all the badges in place as a memory of your time in beavers/cubs. And I don't care about moving the staged badges, I would rather buy new ones!
Interesting to hear how others do it, you must have to enjoy sewing though!

I have kept my dcs' Beaver and Cub jumpers and Scout shirts too.

I don't particularly mind sewing badges on - something to do with my hands when watching TV.

But the point is, some badges should come off the uniform (earlier staged ones, and the 'Occasion' ones that can only be worn for one year).

If you want to - and it is a big "if" - the overwhelming majority don't, but if you want to, those are some of the badges that then go on to people's camp blankets.

If you like, you can throw them away.

Or you can collect them in a bag or box.

There is absolutely no compulsion to do anything with them once you have taken them off the uniform.

The answer was to the question about what people sew on their camp blankets if they choose to have one.
Included in the answer was the information that some badges (and I'm going to use the King's Coronation Badge as an example) are only to stay on the uniform for that year. So you have to take them off anyway.

I cheated and cut up the previous section shirt and sewed the sleeve/front onto the blanket. Also added scarves!