We put our son in his "age appropriate" group for a few different reasons. First, he wasn't a big kid, or very athletic,(though he played a lot of sports, and knew the rules better than anyone,he was not physically gifted) and a lot of scouting is very physical. They have tug of wars, "wrestling" contests, a bike rally, sit up contests, etc. We did not want him to be way at the bottom of the group there. Secondly, this way he played baseball, soccer, etc with the same boys that were in his den. This was great socially, and it worked well for several years. I will say that at the very end of cubs, when ds dropped the team sports and had less and less in common with most of his den mates, it was not as good a fit. I think that last year would have been a wash if it hadn't been for one other very gifted boy in his den.
