Why Do Homeschoolers Need to Join Scouting.jpg

Hi everyone,

The time is flying very fast, isn’t it? It has been in the middle of the year while I still feel that We have just celebrated new year. Well, the time will be very fast for really busy mom like me.

We have just joined the first week end camping with the scouts and it was a very exciting time for our family so that I would like to share it some thought about how important it is to join the scout for everyone, especially the homeschooling children with the support from the families.

Be Prepared = Life Skills

Well, I am not a USA citizen, but I tried to read some scouting resources of the Boy Scouts of America. Both Indonesian and American scouts have some similarities and differences, but they have the same motto, Be Prepared. This motto is very useful as a life skill for everyone. There might be a lot of controversial issues about scouting in other parts of the world, but you might also see how we have and see scouting in Indonesia. It might be different with yours. Isn’t it good to see other perspective outside the negative one?

Be Prepared… the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise.

Robert Baden-Powell

from:  Brainy Quotes

It is very impressing that the scouts are taught some life skills to be able to use in some emergency and critical situation and condition. I sometimes think that they might look like magicians that they can use some simple things to be functional and useful for many people. It is not only the theory that people have to learn only, but also the practice or the action to accomplish the theory so that the theory can be useful for others.

Family Bounding

I am also impressed with the family involvement to support the scouting program. When most parents of schooled children trust their children to their school, the homeschooling parents are usually more proactive. In my local community, parents are more involved in supporting the scouting program rather than the school. Therefore, although parents don’t interfere the meeting activities, scouting has tied stronger bounding between parents and children as parents have to work together with children in preparation. 

Cooperation and Competition

The ability and the sense of cooperation and competition of homeschooling kids are doubted by many people in the society who still need more information about homeschooling. Joining the scouts will give kids a chance to show off their natural ability to compete and to cooperate among and within dens as a lot of assignments are given in groups.

Character Education

People might say that the character education gained in the scouting program is similar with what is received at school. I can say that it is completely different as scouting program is not a daily regular basis. At the same time, the support of family and the family structure system in scouting program are thicker so that the 

  • simplicity
    As the motto of scout is “Be Prepared”, scouts are trained to be alerted toward simple life that might happen in urgency and emergency. In the middle of the modern age, the ability of mapping, knotting, and any scouting skills looks very traditional and simple. Anyway, the simple skills will be very useful in unexpected condition.
  • creativity
    To deal with the simple and emergent condition, scouts are trained to be creative so that they can survive in minimum condition as best as they can. Creativity is needed for solving the problem using things around them.
  • honesty
    As a member of a den or scouting group, scouts are demanded to be honest toward each other so that they can be trusted by other group members. The value of honesty is emphasized to scouts so they are reminded by any scouting activity to stay honest.
  • solidarity
    Most of the scouting activities are based on dens or groups. The assignment completion is checked and confirmed initially in the dens. Therefore, the sense of solidarity is really needed for the success of the group.
  • responsibility
    In order to do some assignment or criteria to get higher rank or badge, a scout should be responsible toward their requirement to achieve their goals. 
  • confidence
    In many scouting activities, scouts have to do some performance in front of the group or in some inauguration ceremonies. Therefore, they need to have confidence to do that. Even in a campfire, scouts entertain each other whether it is in a group or individually. The activities might start in a group. Once someone is comfortable in a group, he or she will be required to do it individually.

There are still a lot of character education supported in scouting programs that promote homeschooling families most of the time. 

Socialization

The scouting activities will promote the socialization skills for homeschooling kids. Scouting activities will be a great time for homeschooling kids who don’t meet daily and regularly to meet up each other. They come from many different family background.

As I said previously, we just had our first weekend camping with the scout. We were very happy and we provide our readers some camping coloring pages. Please grab it by clicking this picture as it is still free.

camping Coloring Page BBAD