What are Scouts/Guides like these days?

[FTMHS]

Hi all!

I have always known I’ve wanted to put my children in scouts or guides after having such a positive experience as a child/teenager

I am thinking much too early about this as I am pregnant with my first, but I was just wondering if things have changed to how they were in the 2000s/2010s? We’re particularly worried about overuse of technology, I don’t want my kids to be reliant on technology and we plan to keep them away from iPads and phones for as long as possible

I’m hoping that guides/scouts (we’re keeping baby’s sex a surprise 😁) will give my children friends who share the same values as us, I want them to learn to be good people, love the outdoors, loves adventure but my partner is worried incase it’s now technology centric rather than how it used to be when technology wasn’t such a big thing. Just a general idea of what kind of stuff kids do now in scouts/guides would be great ❤️

thank you!!

My eldest is a scout leader now and I wouldn’t say it was technology centric. They seem to do a lot of the same activities they did in the old days, camps, campfires etc.

I was a beaver leader until recently. Leaders use an app for the register and to record badges etc. No other tech used

Scouts, at all sections from Squirrels (4-6) Beavers (6-8) Cubs (8-10) Scouts (10-14) and Explorers (14-18) all have boys and girls so whether your child is a boy or girl they’d be very welcome in the Scouting family. All sections do hikes (long walks for the little ones), fires, cooking, pioneering - building models. The older sections do axe work and proper hikes. All sections do camping, although Squirrels and Beavers can be indoors or outdoors.
No tech used in any of our meetings or camps. I’m sure your child will have fun whichever she/he joins, Scouts or Guides!

Rainbow leader here; we are making apple crumble (with 24 five year olds 😱) this week. Last week, the local girls' rugby team visited to teach us simple tag rugby. Apart from my phone/Bluetooth speaker when we need music for a game, tech doesn't make an appearance.

Our local Guides all have to put their phones in a basket on arrival at their sessions (and have expressed how much they generally enjoy 1.5 hours away from the demands of their group chats/notifications).

My DD1 is a scout and DD2 is a cub. Both started at beavers. I think it’s absolutely fantastic. They have so much fun. Loads of outdoor activities and skills and a real change from the academic at school and their other interests (singing dancing etc).

My daughter has been a rainbow for almost two years and absolutely loves it. She'll join Brownies after Christmas.

They do a wide range of activities - her group has taken part in robotics, fruit tasting, physics experiments, making bath bombs, cinema trips, nature trails, wide games, and scavenger hunts in the local park.

Some of the interest badge are technically based (in the older sections) but they are a choice rather than a necessity.

Thank you all for your comments, I’ve always always wanted my kids to be a part of either scouts or guides (even more interesting that girls can be scouts now as well!!)

very excited for the future 😃

I’m a Guide leader. Occasionally my Guides ask if they can use their phones to take a photo but other than that, we don’t use any technology at all. We’re a very outdoorsy group so we spend a lot of evenings at our local campsite doing fire based activities and playing wide games.

Can’t speak for guides but both my son and daughter have loved being in scouts.

its very outdoorsy and our group ban phones.

they camp loads, hikes, watersports, light and cook over fires etc

scouts starts at age 4 with squirrels and there can be long waiting lists so look to join a list by age 3

guides - we don’t use tech,
get the girls to put phones away so they can be fully into the games / activities / chatting with friends / involved in the trips / events etc

we definitely don’t want them on their phones at guides 🤩

Ours use phones at explorers sometimes for “manhunt” type games where they need to track their location. And they have a lot of instruction on how NOT to rely on phones for navigation in the wilds!

Find out about different groups closer to the time though. All groups are somewhat different because they reflect the volunteers who are leading those groups. It’s not the same everywhere.

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!

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!)

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.

Scouts has been co-ed since about 1990

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.

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

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.

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 🙃

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.