Games for kids in the great outdoors
I visited the woods with my nieces a few weeks ago. They enjoyed the nature pretty much of course and were happily hiking until we decided to take a break. We (the adults) began to fall in this comatose state of drinking, eating and talking :D However, the break took a little too long for our youngsters and so they began to get bored.
Are there any games I could have given them which can be played with what the nature provides (common hiking equipment etc. is ok, too :) ), doesn't leave a trace (or at least not that much) and is safe for the kids (in terms of "lost on their own in the wild" etc. - negative example in some circumstances: hide and seek)?
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Things we have enjoyed in the past as a family. These are not all "games", but I think they will help address the larger part of boredom.
- Teach the kiddos all the things are you doing and let them do them to the extent possible. You can seriously eat the whole day this way. Examples:
- Teach them knife handling/wood carving (see related question).
- Let them help with maing fire, preparing food, cooking.
- Take along a field guide for identifying trees, plants, bug, etc.. Have a game out of whomever can identify the most plants.
- A deck of cards. Make sure you know several games to teach them. My favorite was the deck of cards that also had how to tie knots.
- Marbles is actually a decent game when you have nothing else, and it is fairly light. Same with jacks.
- Hike more (no, really)
- We had our youngest spot blazes. +1 marshmallow at dinner for every blaze spotted, -2 for every one missed. Adjust numbers as appropriate for your kids.
- Frisbees are light and easy to carry/pack.
This should seriously be a community wiki. Making it so.
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/13419. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Some things I would do:
- teach 1 type of medicinal herb, something easily detectable (peppermint, for example), and then let them collect some amount (50, for example); set some boundary so they would not wander away too far. When at home, dry the leaves and make a tea from what they've picked
- make them pick colorful objects, plants, leaves, flowers; press them down in a book at home, and then use them to create some colorful handmade things (cards, for example, which they can give as a gift to grandma or someone who appreciates such things :) ). Pros: creative, nice. Cons: extra work for you, stuff to carry home, making extra mess etc.
- make them a swing from a branch and a stronger rope you brought from home
These can be done with what nature provides, but might not be so much up to the Leave No Trace policy.
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/13420. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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