About Rachel
42 year old mother of twins who are 23 and also a grandma to two beautiful girls!
i could use some fun ideas on ways to make nature walks with my grandkids more fun. Any ideas would be helpful!
- Asked in reference to Eco-Friendly Crafts for Moms and Kids
May 10, 2012 By 20 Answers
Answers
Post an Answer
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I agree that it really depends on the age. The little ones love to see how many colors of flowers we can find. The older ones like to search for specific things that we talk about ahead of time: birds, other wildlife, plants. It can be fun to try to listen to the bird calls and see if you can figure out which species they belong to.
Scavenger hunts, journal writing, bird watching, singing, photo taking are all activities my kids enjoy. They tend to lead me various directions depending on their mood and where we are.
Have you tried geo-caching? Kids (and adults) love it!
http://www.geocaching.com/
Probably depends on age. We do scavenger hunts. Depending on the age of my kids I write a list on a brown lung bag or give it to them with a pail and they collect the things on the list. You can draw pictures for toddlers/non-readers. Also, my youngest loves to collect rocks! He’s not two yet and stuffs them in his pocket so we have a little rock collection going for him. They’re nothing fancy, but it keeps him occupied.
Teach them along the way, talk about different kinds of bugs, why you shouldnt disturb nature. Talk about the good things, like the birds, How lovely they sing. Have them listen. Have them pretend they are frogs, they could hop like a frog along the trail. Show them how pretty nature is, Point out the plants, and streams. Explain why it is so important to keep it clean. Not to litter. Use your imagination to think up ideas. OR let them come up with their own ideas, get their little brains working. Kids and old persons are the smartest people on the planet!! Enjoy your grandchildren, have fun!!
Give them kid-friendly cameras and let them take pictures of where you go!
Take binoculers and do some bird spying and listening for the different calls.
Gather bugs and make a bug board. (That’s what my kids want to do!)
Gather wildflowers and press them in a book and label.
Gather leaves from different trees. Take them home and do crayon rubbings with them and then label the type of tree it came from.
I agree! Scavenger hunts are so much fun!
Scavenger hunts sound fun; thanks for the idea! Our family does a lot of walking and hiking.
how bout the rock idea someone else posted?
I also was thinking scavenger hunts
Have them make fairy houses with nature supplies—leaves, sticks, flowers, milk weed pods, rocks. . .
Let them take a small basket and gather some things to bring home and then make something out of it, like using leaves at stamps, etc.
We take a lot of walks and do what others mentioned- we look for rocks, sticks, animals, shells,always something wherever we are . Makes it more fun!
great ideas thank you!
thanks i will check out that site!
LET THEM TAKE SOMETHING TO HOLD STUFF IN.MY KIDS ALWAYS LOVED FINDING FEATHERS,LEAVES AND ROCKS TO TAKE HOME AND KEEP IN THEIR “TREASURE BOXES”.
You could do like scavenger hunts, find the shiniest rock or the greenest leave etc. You can also check out http://www.backyardsafari.com/ they have a lot of fun toys for outdoor fun. Binoculars, walking sticks, vests etc.