Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts?

[planet]

Can those of you with scouting experience, either yourselves or your kids, talk a little (or a lot) about your thoughts on scouting? What are/were the main benefits? What parts of it were your kids' favorites? Would you do it again? What do your kids say to you about it?

Thanks. (Despite the title, I mean girl scouts too)

[PrincessFiona]

Two of my sons are in scouting. My youngest is a cub scout and my oldest just had his blue/gold ceremony and became a boy scout. We have been really impressed with the program here as it has evolved. The boys learn teamwork, work on badges and goalsetting and have formed really great friendships with each other over the last 4 years.

Our girlscout experience here has been disappointing for the last 2 years and we're planning on starting our own troop in the Fall with another mom/daughter. Though initially the girls worked on tryits etc, our particular group has done no badgework and meetings have consisted of many things like going to the high school girls bascketball game to 'support the team'.

My experience as a girlscout though was really great....all of our meetings were about teamwork, and learning new things and we did a lot of independent work getting badges.

The cookies and popcorn are pretty good too.

[planet]

Right Kris, I remember the posts about meetings. Thanks for more input. I didn't know you had two boys scouting as well. How young do the cub scouts start?

[Rapunzel]

Scouts isn't really strong out here (probably because of the current social climate in Massachusetts ). But, when we get back to Texas we're hopefully jumping into scouting like crazy! My husband was an Eagle scout and loved the program.

I'm fairly certain Cubs is for boys as young as six, although my church (which has something like 40% of the troops in the country - I *think*) doesn't start them in Cubs until the age of 8. Boy Scouts in the church begins at 12. I'm not sure how non-LDS troops are handled, though.

DH is an Eagle Scout and he is also a member of Order of the Arrow (the Boy Scout honor society.) He has such fond memories from his scouting days. Scouting played a HUGE role in his character development and also taught him valuable leadership (and sewing ) skills...and he also made many lifelong friends. And I truly believe that being an Eagle Scout helped him get into med school...and I know that it was a big factor in helping him land his current job.

Anyways, I can't say enough good things about the Boy Scouts. We definitely plan on starting our little guy in Cub Scouts when the time comes.

I have my dad's boy scout membership card, circa 1924 8)

[Auspicious]

My husband got some benefit out of being in scouts (in Massachusetts) including a lifelong love of backpacking/hiking/camping. We've agreed that if our kids are interested in joining we'd be amenable to that, as long as we're either involved in the adult leadership aspect of it ourselves or know well and trust those who are (i.e., we're not just sending our kids off on overnights with strangers).

Way cool, Tracy!

DH mentioned that boys can start out in Tiger Cubs when they are in the 1st grade. Parents are required to participate in the program with them since it is such a young age. Cub Scouts is for ages 8-10 and Boy Scouts is for 10+.

[Gwendolyn]

My husband was an Eagle scout and loved the program.

Like Erica said...DH always reminds me that he is an Eagle Scout. Somehing he is and will be. He had a great experience. I had a good Brownie experience, but couldn't find a girlscout troop (we lived in the hood).

Being the flaming liberals that we are, the climate of the troop is important. The bones of an excellent program are there, but in the hands of the "wrong" troop leader, we could run into some ethical concerns. We will give it a try when the kiddos are old enough.