How to get children into the outdoors

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How to get children into the outdoors

Posted by Frank, under Advice and help, Hiking, Hiking with Children.

Getting out into the bush with children? A hassle or fun?

What is the best way to get your children into the outdoors and enjoy the experience?

How can you make the outdoors fun for kids and get em looking for more?

In this post we share a great site that has been set up as a joint project between the Ad Council and the Forest Service in the U.S. The site, Where the other you lives , aims to inspire tweens (aged 8-12) and their parents to re-connect with nature, experiencing it first-hand.
The campaign brings to life the joy and excitement kids have when they discover the wonders of nature, helping create interest in their environment and a lifelong relationship with it.

Where the other you lives

Here is some interesting stuff from the website:

The time U.S. children spend outdoors has declined 50% in the past 20 years. Barriers like population shifts to urban/sub-urban environments, an increase in children’s indoor activities, and a lack of awareness of or access to nearby nature locations have driven this trend.

However, research shows there are many benefits to kids spending time in nature. This time spent outdoors gives children the ability to explore, use their imaginations, discover new wildlife and engage in unstructured and adventurous play.

This campaign seeks to raise awareness of these benefits, inspiring young people to discover the joy of exploring the natural world and encouraging them to experience nature first-hand. As campaign ads depict, nature is also a place of self-discovery. A place for young people to realize and express a variety of personality traits from curious to creative to adventurous.

Children are encouraged to ask their parents to bring them to nature locations and allow them to explore. The website www.DiscoverTheForest.org helps facilitate this by providing a zip code search of forests and parks, powered by Nature Find™ and Google Maps, as well as downloadable activities to take with them.

In addition to being a nicely designed site that looks fun, (well, how can we REALLY judge – we’re not in the target demographic) what we particularly like is a great workbook called “The Book of Stuff To Do Outside”. There is terrific stuff like:

Matching animal tracks
Finding direction without a compass
Creating a nature collage
What lives under that dead tree?

So check out the site and see if it is useful for any of you with teenage children. Maybe they will enjoy the experience and you might get them hiking or backpacking in the future!

Related Information

Don’t forget to check out Adventure in progress , a great site by Damian and Renee have a fantastic blog that focuses on “Encouraging families to get outdoors and experience adventure”.