The Cub Scout program is uniquely designed to meet the needs of young boys and girls and their parents. Starting in the fall of 2018, girls will be able to join Cub Scouting. Cub Scouting meets these needs through offering fun and challenging experiences that child and parents do together.  Such experiences range from learning how to cook, swim, properly care for animals, or use hand tools to complete small projects.

These experiences are truly time well spent. If such interactions are not made to be priorities, valuable avenues for a parent to demonstrate love and commitment are lost. A father says, “Scouting gives my son and me a lot of time to talk and share stories about my childhood.” Young children recognize that the priorities of parents are expressed in how parents spend their time.

Perhaps as important, Cub Scouts learn skills in an environment that includes other boys and girls their age. The scouts work together, play together, challenge one another, and encourage one another.

Benefits like these cause one Cub Scout mother to summarize Cub Scouting this way: “Scouting helps build self-esteem. It teaches children about respect for themselves, their community and each other.”

While every parent wants his or her child to have fun experiences in their childhood, fun alone is not enough.  Young children need safe environments and activities that promote strong values and character.