5 Reasons Your Kids Should Join Boy/Girl Scouts

All children should have the opportunity to be able to join either boy scouts or girl scouts. Parents when you were young and remember being in scouting then you know how great of an opportunity being a scout was. Children learn valuable skills and trades for life. They are able to earn badges for camping, fire safety, animal safety, etc. They learn how to work together as a team and make lifelong friends. They also have the opportunity to work for the community and do things like have food drives for the food pantries, sponsor families that are poor for Christmas, bring them Christmas trees, raise money for their own troops in order so they go on field trips. They also go to nursing homes during the holidays and go Christmas caroling. Here are 5 reasons your kids should have the opportunity to join scouting.

Boys Scouts of America now are admitting girls into their cub scout program but not everyone agrees that coed scouting is acceptable. Girls scouts like single-sex scouting, but there has not been any research that agrees with the idea of same-sex environments that are good for kids. Instead, they feel that there is too much stereotyping because same-sex kids only are joining and socializing with their own gender.

Boys and Girl Scouts of America

The Boys and Girl Scouts of America is a very influential organization for the youth of America. There are thousands of troops across the nation and around 5 million members. These two national organizations are proud of teaching their member’s positive interaction and values, involvement in their communities, physical fitness, and personal values. There are many benefits of joining scouting but here is a list of the best 5 benefits if your child joins one of these groups.

Independence

Children that join scouting become independent because their parents are not always around so these youths in scouting will find out what their roles are in their troop and learn what independence is. Boys and girls in both programs are given tasks to complete and this helps them gain more independence. They learn to be responsible for themselves and their behavior and for giving their part to their troop. It’s great for young girls and boys to learn strong skills at a young age so they can start to build a strong foundation for their future, which will help them learn how to behave in public because they are representing a national organization.

Nature

There are summer camps for girl scouts and camping trips for boy scouts so these kids experience nature at its best. The air is much cleaner in the mountains or at a lake. Scouts learn how to appreciate nature through different outdoor activities the scouts do while camping. The clean air alone will certainly help keep your child’s respiratory health in good shape.

Physically Fit

Girl Scouts and Boy scouts do quite a bit of hiking to increase their stamina and physical fitness. This is how they are taught to appreciate their bodies by keeping them moving. Hiking keeps the blood pumping through their whole body. It’s good for their heart rate and increases more blood into the muscles. When your child walks up to the side of the mountain or across fields, their body uses energy and burns off the calories they ate. This is what will help them maintain a physically fit body and a healthy weight so they are stronger and more agile.

Support

Scouts have a great opportunity to participate in numerous activities and projects with their troop for many years and this creates a strong bond between all members of the troop and with their leaders. The friends they make in scouting may become lifelong friends and be a good source of support for your child. Some children are coming into the troop from different schools and have different backgrounds. This helps your child to find out about their new friends and will help them find themselves in an innocent way. After all, their fellow scouts will know them the best and love them unconditionally.

Teamwork

When there are large groups of girls and boys of the same age working together towards a common goal, whether the goal is community service or a sports game, your child will learn what teamwork is all about. Some of these kids can struggle with giving up control what happens when they work together in a group setting, but in the long run, your child will learn that depending on their partner can be a huge benefit for them. Teamwork is humbling, which help your child realize that they have worked on earning a healthy self-image!

Scouting is also very helpful in mind expansion because learning about different people helps them to gain different perspectives. This is how they can learn to move past differences and to accept others for who they are. This is important because it widens the tunnel of a narrow mind and pushes your child out of their comfort zone. The younger scouts learn some good life lessons from the older boys and girls when they move past their comfort zone. This is a wealth of new information that helps your scout to look at the universe in a healthy and more accepting way. Scouting also helps your child learn to problem solve between themselves because they are in a group with all their peers. This will help them grow and learn about new friendships without becoming emotionally dependent. This is very healthy for there psychological well being and will help them for many years through life’s struggles. Scouting is healthy for competing for your child and will help them learn their strengths and weaknesses and how to use them to their advantage. This will help your child become more ambitious because without ambition, the child’s psyche can become unhealthy and this can cause depression. This is why scouting is important for children so they develop a healthy sense of their self-worth.