Help! How do I decide between rainbows, beavers and badgers for my HE'd little girl?

[Lindenlass]

She's 5.5yo, with three younger sisters so doesn't spend a huge amount of time with boys so I'm leaning towards badgers or beavers - but even then can't decide between the two.

DD1 has no opinion either way, annoyingly! - just knows she wants to do a group like this. No woodcraft folk near us sadly.

We have family nights such as Play Your Cards Right/ Race nights/ quiz nights. We are having an Abba night in a few weeks. Day trips for all the family. Parents are invited to the campfire on one of the evenings at camp. We are also having a gang show in March, guides have been invited to take part but the leaders don't seem that interested and told dd and her friends that they couldn't do an act "because people are paying and don't want to see rubbish "
Our scouts district have swim galas, football, sports days,art competitions
The lady who runs beavers is an absolute dynamo and has a family evening on beaver night on a regular basis, sometimes to help with the gardening at the scout hut or to cook something together.

Ds loves Badgers. You don't pay for the uniform - at least not round here, but they also have a promise and a purpose. Ds can put you in the recovery position whether you want to be there or not...! But it is a lot more than that, it's a great social activity and includes family events and activities too.

I have two dd's. We've been through Rainbows, Brownies, Beavers and Cubs. I could present a phd thesis on all this we've tried so many I've not heard of Badgers but if it was on round here, you can bet we'd have belonged to that too by now.

Anyway, the consensus seems to be that Rainbows was ok-ish but a bit girly.

Older dd went on into Brownies and then really started to dislike it because it was so tame. All singing and doing good deeds at the local old folks home. Not her thing. She joined Cubs and loves it.

Dd2 started at Rainbows then tried Beavers when her brother joined and renounced Rainbows on the spot and jumped ship to Beavers which she likes.

I had forgotten that her name was also down for Brownies too at this point and she was invited to join.

In a crazy moment of dithering I stupidly let her convince me she could do both Beavers and Brownies (are you following all this cos it confuses the hell out of me) which she does atm too.

I hope fervently dont think it's going to last long though, as like dd1, she's finding it a bit wishy washy.

Belonging to two things is too much anyway and means you don't know what you want to dress up as whenever there is a parade. She needs one of those Tommy Cooper half and half uniforms, I think. Also it means I'm rrunning about like some crazy loon during the week stressing about uniforms and badges.(also have ds in the mix doing his thing too)

Anyway the upshot here is that Beavers and Cubs are the tops and Rainbows and Brownies is too girly for my dd's.

It depends on the girl though and also on who is running the groups as some are better than others.

Phew! I need a lie down.

In my experience the scouting side of things is just a little bit more adventurous and less scared of red tape. Guiding is much more cautious and tie themselves in knots filling out forms. I am not saying Scout/ Beaver leaders don't worry about doing it right but they seem to be a bit more sensible about it all, Guiders seem to get a bit hysterical. Sorry I know this will vary widely from area to area and even pack to pack.

I help out with the brownies and it is a lot more girly, the beavers just seemed to get on with more things. They used to visit the section camps for the day and do stuff like crate climbing etc. I am helping at the Brownie camp and I am not going to dare suggesting anything like that, I will have to stick to making keyrings and playing games for fear of Brown owl having a heart attack.

my DS's go to the local scouting group and DD's go or went to the Guiding groups.

I think it depends on the leaders and how they want to organise their packs.
We have a Cub group who all they do it walk, anywhere and in all weathers, through woods, towns etc. We have a beaver pack who play the same games every week and make a lot of noise. Our scouts have their own building.

our Brownie pack (I am a leader) try to do a variety of things to suit all the girls. We do crafts (mothers day, easter, Xmas) we play game and make noise and we try to encourage the girls to be interested in events locally and wider. We play games and
We dont do camping because I dont want to and becuase I think it is nice to ahve something special to save for when they go to Guides. We do guiding in a church room. Which can limit us sometimes but we do go out alot in the summer.

I would suggest try all(if you can) and then decide!