Rainbows

[HelloGoodbye92]

Can anyone give me more info on the Rainbows groups? I’ve no experience at all but DH keen for our 4 year old to join our local group. What do they do? Any reason to not send her?

Mine have been going for about a year and a half,and really enjoy it. From what I can tell, mostly they spend the time doing crafts, with the odd bit of baking, story telling, gardening thrown in. They also do the odd outing (beach, movies, outdoor centre) about once every 2 months.

not sure it adds massively (we do all of the above at home),but they enjoy it, get to meet new girls, and it is relatively cheap. Not sure we are in it for the long haul (brownies, scouts), but for now it is great.

only downside - the number of @#£*ing badges I have to hand sew onto their uniforms.

It's really cheap, about a tenner a month. The leaders are really eccentric at our group, so.show thr girls a different perspective on things I guess.
No downsides I can see.

Completely detailing here but why brownies then scouts? Why not brownies then guides, then rangers etc?

@imnotthatkindofmum I am American, where the next level is ‘girl scouts’ not ‘guides’, so just using the terms I am familiar with. My larger point is I don’t expect this to be a long term thing for my dds (especially as level of commitment increases), but for right now it is a fun, inexpensive club that they enjoy.

Oh I see. I was just wondering as it sounded odd but makes sense now. Sorry I'm just a bit nosy!

If she is already four it isn't very likely she will get a place until a good year or so. It's best to go in the waiting list at age 2 and definitely by age 3.

Girlguiding have lots of info on the website. But generally the programme is based around 6 themes covering things like outdoor activities, community action, health and well-being and others.

In the meetings most of the programme is covered by play style activities. They don't exclusively do the programme so for example might have an outing or a themed evening.

Many rainbow groups also do sleepovers or join with events run by county or region.

It's usually one of the cheaper hobbies! Bear in mind that each member has a subscription to pay in January, check to see if that's covered by subs or if you will need to pay it separately.

Depends on the area, some have huge waiting lists, some don't.

@Labraradabrador skip sewing the badges on uniform go straight to camp blanket.
My DD joined a Rainbows group and she didn't know anyone, couldn't get into the group her school friends went to, but I think it's good to broaden friends. She's now a young leader for her old Rainbows group.

We started rainbows/brownies...

But scouts has been SO much better and despite me wanting to recreate my guiding years I wish we'd started with scouts tbh.

Thanks everyone!

Again this depends on the area. Sadly a lot of brownie and rainbow groups have gone a bit stale in my town.

My 4 year old got a place straight away, no waiting list. She started going 2 weeks after her 4th birthday, at which time she was still attending nursery. I was anxious she was too young but she was actually completely fine.

They're not the most dynamic group and don't seem to do much! Mostly chat, colour, play games or visit the playground on site, but my daughter really enjoys it and I think it's nice for her to have a separate social group from school. It seems to come into its own with their annual overnight camp, which I have heard a great deal about, not experienced that yet though.

There is now squirrels if you want "little cubs" which may be an option.

It really is worth knowing rhe local area as unfortunately its very much the case in our area that scouts do more.

The quality of what they do depends on the local leaders. For us, they only really were interested in the girls who would colour in quietly and we were essentially managed out by a leader who took a massive dislike to DD1. We moved across to Beavers and now we're at Scouts age and both kids love it. If we'd had gone to the group in a different church hall I think our experience would have been different with the benefit of hindsight and knowing the leaders there.

Definitely contact your group soon, there's almost always a waiting list.

Also check for a Squirrels group on your area (4 - 6 year old scouts), although not all scout groups have them, or join the waiting list for beavers ready for when she's 6.

In my experience, beavers is generally better than rainbows (although I appreciate that it can depend on the leaders). My DD went to Rainbows, liked it well enough, but all they seemed to do was craft/colouring and playing in a small park. She joined cubs when she left rainbows, and had such a great time, she's followed it all the way to the end of Explorers, and has just become a cub leader.

It's a good idea to ask around, if you know any parents whose kids do these clubs, and they'll be able to let you know what sort of things they do.

If you can't get into Rainbows, look of there's Squirrels - basically the Scout equivalent. It's mixed sex obv with a stronger leaning to lads but I don't see that's an issue. We have 2 girls in Beavers and they all get on great