Top 5 Merit Badges for New Scouts [SMD158]

SMD : 5 merit badges for new scouts.

As of 2023 there are 138 current merit badges to choose from. Technically any scout can take any merit badge, but there may be local laws, camp rules or even troop preferences against doing so by new scouts.

Not every merit badge is age appropriate, for many reasons. For example, I would council a scout away from merit badges that would be difficult to understand or physically difficult to do for a 11 year old.

There are also merit badges where they will understand the concepts of the badge better when they are older. Personal Management is one of these, as while it’s possible to complete for a young scout, my opinion is they will get more out of it if they are 16 than 11 years old.

But turning our attention this week to the ten merit badges that are great starter badges for younger scouts. These include badges that may be easy to complete, but also ones that might hold a greater interest for a young scout to get them really interested in the program.

The first one would be Family Life.

Family life is an Eagle required badge, but is a great one that involves the whole family. It teaches responsibility and their place in the family. From a scouting perspective it also gives them a leg up on Star rank, as it gets a Eagle merit badge out of the way early in their scouting career.

Our second badge is Art. Art is a simple merit badge that can be done independently. It has only seven requirements and can build on a scout’s creative nature.

Badge number three is Fingerprinting. Not only does fingerprinting have a cool merit badge but with five requirements it can be easy to complete in a group or at home with a little bit of advanced preparation.

Before we continue our journey with badge number four, please take a moment and help out the Scoutmaster Dave channel by subscribing. It only takes a moment and really helps out the channel.

For Badge number four, we have Pets merit badge. Pets merit badge requires taking care of a pet for four months and has four easily completed requirements.

And lastly, badge number five is Reading. If your scout enjoys reading, this a great badge. If your scout does not enjoy reading, this can be an educational opportunity that requires the scout to read a few books on specific topics or genres and tour the local library.

There are Troops out there that will limit younger scouts to starting merit badges early in their scouting careers, but my opinion is this is short sighted, as the merit badge program, if done correctly can be an integral part of the scouting experience outside of the Troop or summer camp, allowing for exploration of topics of interest to the scout that can become lifelong hobbies or careers. All due to scouting.

Take what you like, leave the rest and as we say in Woodbadge, Feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments so we can all learn together.

I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this five merit badges for younger scouts.