With iPods, iPads, video games, television and YouTube videos, it can be easy to forget about the good old days of playing outside. Hikes with your family can be a great way to spend time together and to help your children learn that nature can be fun. A hike doesn’t have to be just an ordinary walk; it can be turned into an adventure. So put down the electronics and head outside!
Sarah Holmes, science teacher at Barstow School in Kansas City and nature lover extraordinaire, shares a few tips to try with your kids:
Paint Chip Walk: Go to the hardware store and grab some paint chips in a variety of colors. You can cut them up individually, punch holes in them and put a book ring on them. Then , ask the kids to find the colors of the paint chips in nature. You'd be amazed at how many colors they can find.
Flip over Rocks: Look for worms, ants and other stuff. Just make sure you flip the rocks back over gently to give the critters underneath a home. This is a good opportunity to discuss the kinds of animals that live under rocks and how to protect them.
Sensory Walk: Have kids close their eyes for a couple of minutes as they rub the bark of a tree or listen to the sounds of the world around them. Point out which leaves are soft and invite kids to describe what the bark feels like. Then instruct them to breathe deeply and describe what they smell.
Amber Terry, state park superintendent for Missouri State Parks, also shares some ideas to make the walk outside an adventure. These ideas have been offered through the state parks’ Interpretative Nature Hikes program:
Wild Edibles: Go on a trail walk, preferably during the summertime when berries and fruits are prime for the picking, and look for plants that have "wild edibles" on them. Of course, you’ll need someone who knows a little bit about the topic, because you want to make sure you're only picking things that are actually edible and not poisonous!! See how many different kinds of fun things to eat you can find along your walk, and at each stop, listen to your naturalist teach a little bit about the plant (identifying features, how to tell it apart from other plants, how to tell it apart from any kind of plant that looks similar but is NOT edible, etc.). After that, each hiker gets to taste one of the berries or fruits and answer the naturalist’s questions about what kinds of animals might like to eat these fruits in the wild.
Creatures of the Night: This adventurous hike takes place in darkness (let everyone's eyes adjust before beginning the trek). For the first park of the hike, you walk slowly on a designated path as quietly as you can, listening to "sounds of the night." After you get into the woods a bit, stop and just listen for a few minutes. Let everyone share what they heard and discuss what creatures could have made that noise! Next, try to "call the birds." Play a recording of a owl’s call, then wait and listen...usually a REAL owl will call back!!! This works with several owl species and other nocturnal birds. It's pretty fun to see how many real birds you can get to answer your calls!
Leaf Collage Walk: Have the kids take a piece of paper and crayons with them and, along the walk, take a leaf from each kind of tree they find. Then on the sidewalk, have them do a relief rub of their leaf. They can do each kind of leaf in a different color if they want. By the end of the walk, they should have a nice colorful collage of different leaf prints! Back at home, everyone can use the leaf pictures to help identify the different types of trees, then label the leaf pictures.
More ideas from hiking enthusiast and Platte City mom Natalie Burger to turn your walk into an adventure.
- Carry hidden chocolate in your backpack for when the mood starts to drop.
- There is a funny book called Who Pooped in the Woods that we see at every national park. In it are comic pictures of animal’s tracks and their respective droppings. We often look for such things along the way. Kids love strange things like that!
- Don't get mad if they play in the mud puddle.
- Make a tape bracelet, sticky side out. Then you can stick flowers to the bracelet as you go along.
Jennifer Higgins is a free-lance writer and teacher from Kearney who loves taking her two daughters on hikes outside.