Beaver Scouts are young people usually aged between six and eight years old. They belong to the first and youngest Section in the Scouting family. Young people can join Beaver Scouts in the three months leading up to their sixth birthday. They can move to the next Section, Cub Scouts, between seven years and six months and eight years six months.
Easily recognised by their distinctive turquoise sweatshirts, Beaver Scouts enjoy making friends, playing games, going on visits and helping others. They usually meet together once a week in a Beaver Scout Colony.
Some Beaver Scout Colonies also organise Sleepovers. These are often the
first time a young person spends a night away from home. They take place in suitable buildings, often Scout centres.
When the Beavers came back from half term we decided it was time that they earned some badges. First up was the Animal Friend badge. So on the first week back Vicky and her daughter Lucy bought 3 of their ferrets to show the Beavers and tell them some facts about them. The Beavers seemed excited and scared at the same time as ferrets aren’t very common pets. The Beavers then made bird feeders from wire and Cheerio’s but some seemed more interested in eating the Cheerio’s than making bird feeders (you know who you are).
The next week we took the Colony to Pets at Home in New Malden to finish their Animal Friend badge. The Beavers got to handle animals like hamsters, rabbits and chickens. They were then taken on a tour of Pets at Home and got to see fish, lizards, insects, rats and many other exciting and exotic creatures.
On the Sunday Cheryl and Vicky took 5 of our Beavers William, Phoebe, Josh, Mathew and Theo to the District Science afternoon to do lots of “science” stuff.
Next week we did the Hobby badge. The evening consisted of the Beavers bringing something to do with
their hobby and telling everybody about it and why they enjoyed doing it. There were some very normal hobbies and some very abnormal hobbies that the Beavers had, I can tell you.
Robert Marsden
Colony Asistant