Keeping Kids Entertained on the Trail

Tiny Turtle gets bored quickly. During our hikes we will play games.  The first game is the “word” game. Most people have played this at one point or another. It’s a simple game. The first person says a word that begins with the letter “A” like apple. The second person then says “Apple” and a word that starts with the letter “B” like bear. The game keeps going until the end of the alphabet but each person has to say each of the words before making their additional word. You can change it up by going backwards on the alphabet or making it categories like animals or plants.

The second game is finding something like a walnut to use as a ball. This works great for an eight-year-old boy! Tiny Turtle was in a boredom spell and the only thing I could find was a walnut. As we walked the trail, he would kick and/or throw a walnut down the trail.  Then we would race to see if we could get it before he did but he was always just a little too fast.

The third game is Tiny Turtle will go up further on the trail and hide. Make sure your child knows not to go too far off the trail. The idea is to be on the trail but to see how long it takes to spot him/her. Kids love it.

The fourth game was to be the first to spot the blaze. This keep their attention on the trail in order to be the first one to see the blaze! An addition to this game is having them keep count of the blazes.

The fifth game we would use is a modified version of a scavenger hunt, which we call a survival hunt. The idea is that you have them be on the lookout for certain items along the trail and when they see it they alert you and you mark it off their list. With multiple kids this is a fun competition. You could have them point out items they could use if they needed to make a fire if they were lost in the woods. It is also a good teaching moment because they learn different types of trees, plants to avoid, and plants that are edible.

These are just some of the games we played and they seemed to work. If you have any suggestions, we would love to hear about them!