What do the scouts actually do now?

[Wilderbeast]

Like many when I was young I romantacised about joining the scouts. I was about 9 and the idea of getting outdoors, lighting fires, sleeping out and carving sounded simply top notch. However when I applied I was told I wasn't allowed to join scouts because of my age, and instead had to join cubs or beavers, I can't remember which. Anyway what I do remember is that I want to 3 sessions;

1st session: colouring in pictures of beavers

2nd session: making a card for my parents :togo:

3rd session: visiting a police station


although I still appreciate the effort the leader must have gone to , it's not exactly jaw dropping stuff, and so I quit never to join again.

Howver I really enjoy teaching bushcraft to my mates, and to the Royal Marine cadets I command, this has got me thinking in later life I might like to be a scout leader, but what do they actually get up to now, it must be better than my experience otherwise there wouldn't be such a big following!!

Thanks
Will

 

[spamel]

Unfortunately, your experience sounds exactly like mine. You stuck it out for one more visit than me though, and your activities would have been amazing compared to what I did. The first week was bus time tables. I went with it, it was boring but you like to try and fit in. Week 2, bus time tables again! I'm outta here!

It was so disappointing, not really mind blowing stuff at all and not something I wanted to do ever again. I'm glad my Mum didn't buy the uniform up front! You didn't go to Cubs in Portsmouth did you?

 

[Wallenstein]

Depends on the leaders unfortunately.

This week we took 26 Cubs (8-10 y./olds) to Rough Close for wide games. Two hours hooning about in the woods with no parents in sight... what more does the average 9 /old want? They climbed trees and fell out of them, got their trousers covered in mud and ended up with grubby hands and faces.

Perfect evening really.

Seach on youtube for "raftquest" - some of our older scouts (17 y/olds) built their own rafts from wood, rope and barrels and spent three days paddling down the Tamar, wild camping along the way. No support apart from a leader on the end of a phone in case of emergencies.

The last indoor session we had the cubs had to design something to allow an egg to be dropped from a second-floor window intact... all they had as a newspaper and some sellotape. Then we filled balloons with sweets, suspended them from the rafters of the hall, and got the cubs to lash poles together with a pin on the end to pop the balloons.

But those skills (lashing) then got taken outside to build a bridge from 15ft poles.

Sometimes if we've had a busy week at work we'll wing it with some boring stuff, but in general we try to offer "cool" activities.

But that's because we have a leadership team who are into that kind of thing - other packs have different outlooks so it can be a bit hit and miss.

 

[addo]

I never bothered, cause all the beavers, cubs and scouts stayed in the scout hut every evening while I was up the fields and woods building dens and cooking over a fire, from around 6 years old.

Seeing Duncan Dares and lofty wiseman set me off with all the bushcraft/survival lark.

But now i've been thinking about helping out at my local scouts, as there keen to learn this kind of thing apparently.

 

[Wallenstein]

Just to add... part of the reason we try to get back to "outdoor" scouting is 'cos I remember being stuck inside playing yet another game of football at Cubs when I'd rather be outside having fun.

So that's what we're trying to give to the kids... with all the skills and knowledge on this site it would be a shame not to share it with the next generation.

Scouts is far from the only way though, but it would reach a lot of kids.

 

[stovie]

Not much, but this will give you some idea...

 

[gunslinger]

Looks like some of you do some interesting stuff.

I remember camping overnight with the cubs and frying oranges over an open fire.
Beachcombing
Walking over the downs as a troop and identifying wild plants etc.
No health and safety
But then that was back in the sixties.

As an aside is it just me who thinks this blanking out of faces on pics is just a tad ridiculous?

ATB
GS

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Great stuff in those photos. Well done for giving up your free time for young people. Looks like the same stuff I did, makes me thank all those leaders from the past too.

Nick

 

[DavidJT]

Great stuff in those photos. Well done for giving up your free time for young people. Looks like the same stuff I did, makes me thank all those leaders from the past too.

Nick

I agree, well done Stovie, looks like the sort of organised, outdoors fun we'd all like our kids to have.

 

[stovie]

As an aside is it just me who thinks this blanking out of faces on pics is just a tad ridiculous?

ATB
GS

in the early days some images were blocked out...but the kids got upset, so i stopped doing it.

point is, you can get out there and do it...it's all too easy to get bogged down with excuses and red tape. common sense and a bit of adventure = happy safe and educated scouts...

can't say i've ever used a bus timetable..not much point, there are only two buses a day in our village...

 

[firecrest]

Them photos look great.
A guy just started work at my place, who is in his mid 40`s. He said the building I work in used to be their old scout house. he couldnt believe how much it had changed. I remembered seeing a load of scout posters and drawings made by children of them all dressed as scouts in the storing cupboard of the sportshall. He asked if he could go in and have a look and he came out beaming at all the old scout things from his childhood. he said they used to keep the tents in there and spent most of the time either playing football or camping. He seemed to have very fond memories of being a scout anyway.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

I'm off canoeing all day to Lomond or Ard, with my pupils, will do an island and crannog etc. Hopefully windy enough for a sail back. Much better than my class going to Alton Towers !

Nick

 

[Dave Budd]

definately down to the leaders.

I took over my local scout group (sort of anyway) earlier this year. Before the kids had dona few greenfield camps, community things and a lot of indoor games.

We've now done some fine carving, played with a range of bows, got to grips with axes and we are nearly finshed making our very own knives! Just wait til they get to come out to my woods for a proper backwoods camp

The more people are willing ot put in, the more the kids get out of it. A few of our local cub groups also get me in to take them out foraging and shootin amongst various other activities, so there is plenty of scope for it


to those adults that think scouts (and associated groups) do namby pamby things, to them I say " GET OFF YER BUM AND DO SOMETHING POSITIVE!"

 

[addo]

in the early days some images were blocked out...but the kids got upset, so i stopped doing it.

point is, you can get out there and do it...it's all too easy to get bogged down with excuses and red tape. common sense and a bit of adventure = happy safe and educated scouts...

Good on you. Very few folks like yourself around our way when younger. I did enjoy a few outward bound trips organised though the youth club, and started the duke of Ed, when near to leaving school which were fun.
Do most of the kids seem positive straight off when teaching in scouts, or do they need a lot of encouragement?

 

[stovie]

Do most of the kids seem positive straight off when teaching in scouts, or do they need a lot of encouragement?

By the time they have reached 10yrs of age theyare itching to get out of cubs and into the more adventurous aspects of scouting. It's not so much encouragement (but some need it more than others) it's getting them to understand the realism of what I'm trying to get across...the obvious example is where food really comes from, whether that be animal or vegetable, and the world of opportunity around them that doesn't involve modern trappings.

Most of all I encourage a respect for whatever they make use of, a respect for safety (without being pedantic) and assure them it's okay to have fun.

 

[spamel]

i think you do a great job Stovie, I've always enjoyed your posts whether it is your Troop shooting arras and skinning bunny or you and Wellsy doing a Last of the Summer Wine job! They always make me smile!

 

[Tye Possum]

I was in beavers and did stay till the end of that but then I decided not to go into cubs because I wasn't having much fun and cubs seemed pretty similar to beavers so I quit. Beavers was kinda lame... We met at a church and sat around doing boring stuff. I remember I painted a little plaster plaque with a beaver on it once and made a little wooden car but all I had to do there was nail on some bottle caps to a car shaped piece of wood that had already been cut out and then we raced them but I got disqualified because I pushed mine too early:sad6:. We only went camping... maybe once, maybe twice, I'm not sure but it wasn't all the time that's for sure! It wasn't even regular camping, it was in a field, next to a building and I don't even remember what we did there, I do remember that some of us walked on a short path into the woods once and that's it. I had a friend that stayed in and went all the way through to scouts and although he did some stuff that was outdoorsy, he seemed to just hang around with his friends and I never heard much about the activities they did. Of course I live in Canada so it could be different, though beavers sounds similar there.

 

[Tengu]

I managed to get kicked out of Brownies.

I dont remember what we did, certainly did recall we was promised a load of adventure and got none.

 

[xylaria]

I was in the brownies. The brown owls were really old women, so we did quite sedate girlie activities that were mostly craft based. I really liked it, the dancing around the toadstool thing every week, and painting pictures of elfves and fairies, and then making models of fairies from flowers. It was the middle of london so there wasn't much scope for stuff out doors, but there was the hunt for fairies in bottom of the vicar garden. We had church parade every month, but it was mostly about elves and pixies and three old woman acting like little girls again.

After the link was posted up here, I have been in contact with my local branch and children start cubs and scouts tonight. I will proberly volunteer as well as I did when my daughter was in rainbows.

 

[John Fenna]

I was a Cub for about 3 weeks before I got bored of playing "British Bulldogs" and quit...
I joined again as an Adult and in the 15 years I was in ASL, AVSL and VSL I ran many "Survival Weekends", Canoe training courses etc, took the lads and lasses on a trip through Europe to Hungary to meet Scouts in various countries, hosted Scouts from various countries, taught many "backwoods" skills sessions and loads of camping trips...I was never into the computer skills badge work....
I have just agreed to join the training team...so hopefully I will be enthusing new leaders to do more of the Outdoor stuff with the local units in the future!