Making hiking fun for 7 & 5 year old - Page 2

[greeny]

Oh hillymum, my kids would looooove that!!

[Paeta16]

Originally Posted by AndVeeGeeMakes3

Awesome thread!

Ditto! My DD is 3 y.o. and still loves hiking with us but we have definitely had to adjust to HER pace in this regard. We stop WAY more often than I was used to but it keeps her involved. She is constantly stopping to look at things or we'll point out different birds/bugs/plants, etc. to keep her interested. I have also found that singing helps things along but my DD is young still and really loves music.

[JayGee]

All three of mine enjoy hiking, but it needs to be interesting terrain (a lake, rocks, a river, etc.) rather than just walking in the woods. They also like to do the same trail over and over, every time we go to a specific park. I think I could do the lake loop at our local state park with my eyes closed ! Last summer we took them to Wyoming and hiked some amazing boulders at Vedauwoo outside Laramie. They are STILL talking about that hike!

[ameliabedelia]

We LOVE hiking in our house and we do really frequently.

We don't really do any scavengar hunts or lists, and we haven't tried letterboxing or geocaching, although I know my kids would LOVE it. We just haven't really been anyplace where it was.

One thing we do to make it more interesting, is tell stories while walking and make the woods a "magical place" ..like "look, did you see that unicorn up there?" or "I bet this old tree is where the gnomes live" I have girls, so they LOVE that stuff. My 5-yo has even made up her own imaginary creature that lives on X trail of the local nature center. Everytime we go, we look for the "heiters" and our 5-yo tells us where they are and where they moved to, etc.

Veering off the path a little bit (if it's allowed) is also fun...letting them climb rocks, or splash in a stream, etc.

[TanyaS]

If you encourage collecting things, make sure you check the rules of the park. Many state and national parks do not permit removing anything from the park.