Brownies & Cubs

[MarillionFan]

<Mumsnet>
I was never a member of the cubs(or the brownies for that) do they still exist?

I was thinking of maybe enrolling the kids? What age can they start and does it still exist or has that threat of dodgy paedos, insurance and health & safety killed this off?

Anyone have kids that do or have done these?
</Mumsnet>

[eek]

<Mumsnet>
I was never a member of the cubs(or the brownies for that) do they still exist?

I was thinking of maybe enrolling the kids? What age can they start and does it still exist or has that threat of dodgy paedos, insurance and health & safety killed this off?

Anyone have kids that do or have done these?
</Mumsnet>

My wife runs a Brownie pack and until last Tuesday two Rainbow packs. Rainbows start at age 5 and go to 7 brownies start at 7 go to 10, guides from 10 plus.

Scouts start everything later (6 for beavers, 8 for cubs and 10.5 for Scouts). One reason why the guides start earlier is to grab hold of girls before Scouts become an option as now Scouts take girls its a more popular choice for the girls (but less popular with boys for the same reason).

They will exist around you way but will be desperately short of volunteers and probably have massive waiting lists. The appropriate websites will however allow you to enter your details and eventually (via intermediate stages) forward them to the leader of an appropriate local pack. Just don't show any weakness when dropping your children off as you will be roped in.

[mudskipper]

Eldest son did scouts - finished about 10 years ago, so things may have changed.

He loved it - it definitely wasn't spoilt by health and safety - in fact I was a bit concerned by the lacksidasical approach sometimes. They had a fantastic time - night hikes and camping in the woods building shelters with just what they found around them. I guess a lot depends on the attitude of the leader. He was an 'air scout' so they helped out at airshows and such like, and also had the opportunity to do gliding on a couple of occasions - got a fantastic photo of my sons face when the scout leader asked the pilot to 'scare' my son - so he did a loop the loop.

Daughter did guides - much less adventurous, although they still did some fun activities. Don't know if my kids experiences are typical, but if so I can see why the girls would rather go to scouts.

[PinkPoshRat]

Pah! Aren't they just a dumbed-down version of the hitler youth?

[MarillionFan]

Pah! Aren't they just a dumbed-down version of the hitler youth?

Bugger. Rumbled. Sieg Heil!

[PinkPoshRat]

Bugger. Rumbled. Sieg Heil!

That's brilliant! That's super!

[eek]

Pah! Aren't they just a dumbed-down version of the hitler youth?

No. Hitler youth was a copy of Scouts that Lord Baden Powell wanted nothing to do with and refused to support in any way.

I bought my wife How the Girl Guides Won the War: Amazon.co.uk: Janie Hampton: Books for christmas and read it last month. Its very interesting seeing what the youth did then compared to now.

[VectraMan]

There's a complex of old-people flats near me built a couple of years ago, and they've put a scout "hut" on the end. I guess that's some kind of community-price the developers had to pay to get the go-ahead. So they definitely still exist.

Do they have Girl Scouts here now? I thought that was a US thing.

There was a guy at my last contract who was really into Scouts in his spare time.

[minestrone]

Get the kids, get a boat, take them out 200 meters from shore, drop them in, sail away.

They will learn more from that than years of boredom working towards a diversity badge.

[eek]

There's a complex of old-people flats near me built a couple of years ago, and they've put a scout "hut" on the end. I guess that's some kind of community-price the developers had to pay to get the go-ahead. So they definitely still exist.

Do they have Girl Scouts here now? I thought that was a US thing.

There was a guy at my last contract who was really into Scouts in his spare time.

Girl Guides are the equivalent / sister group to Girl Scouts. Its a different name for historical reasons.