Another request from Sarah.
Another lockdown means taking children out for a daily walk to keep them occupied and healthy. But not all children are keen on walking, so having some ideas to make it more exciting could be helpful.
As most children, especially the younger ones love to have a splash in a puddle, put them on some wellies and make a plan to get out there and find some puddles.
If you are fortunate in having a space with a few trees in your neighbourhood, then take some paper and a chubby crayon on the walk and get the children to do some brass rubbings of different tree bark.
You could also collect different leaves to brass rub back at home.
Plan a visual treasure or scavenger hunt for them; give your child a list of things to look out for: A snail, a worm, different types of leaves or flowers of varying colours, a man up a ladder, a woman using a walking stick, just use your imagination.
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Children could take photos using their phones of the items listed in the natural world, so that they are not risking picking up anything contaminated with covid19.
Take some paper and a pencil and encourage your child to draw something that they see during the walk.
When I was walking with the children as a registered child minder, I would often find ways of ‘jollying them along’ if they were getting tired or bored. We would look out for a squirrel as we passed the park, or they would walk along a low wall, holding onto my hand.
One day we came across a helium balloon that was caught high in a tree so we always looked to see if it was still there or if the wind had blown it away.
Geo caching here is another way of making a walk more appealing.
A friend has started to make videos of her daily walks with her daughter that they put on tick-tock.
As we are meant to stay local for the permitted exercise, I have written an earlier post on why we you shouldn’t have to drive somewhere else here
Tips for keeping children fit and healthy here
As always questions and comments are welcome.
Until next time.
Karen
x
Linkede with
Some good ideas here ,I liked the idea of a treasure hunt.my girls always want d a dog and used to say they would enjoy walking so much more. During lockdown you might know of someone elderly and unable to walk far that would love someone to give thier dog a nice walk.another interesting topic Karen .
Thanks, Pearl, for your kind words and for your comment
These are some fantastic ideas. We have done lots of outdoor Scavenger Hunts on our daily walk and lots of Pokémon hunting! #MischiefandMemories
Popping back over from #KCACOLS
That’s great, thanks for sharing
So many good ideas here for getting kids out in the great wide world!
Thanks, Michele
Great tips thank you. It’s hard to get them enthusiastic about a wander around the streets. I do love a scavenger hunt though. Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time
Thank you, Helen, I will be back with new posts next time
Great tips, it is a challenge keeping a daily walk more exciting especially during the winter months. I forgot about crayon rubbings so we will definitely be doing that x x #MischiefAndMemories
That’s great, hope you find a good variety of tree barks, Dana
Some really lovely ideas here, Karen. #KCACOLS
Thanks
I’ve heard a lot about geo caching although we’ve never done it – sounds fun! #mischiefandmemories
You should give it a try
I’m afraid I’m a fair weather walker! I love walking but prefer it to have a purpose so having a scavenger hunt or prepared activities sounds great. Thanks for linking up with #MischiefAndMemories (please remember to comment on other links by 9pm on a Friday)
Fair weather walking sounds good to me, Laura, will make sure that I leave the necessary comments on time
I love these ideas Karen. Especially taking paper and pencils along to capture tree rubbings and pictures of sights along the way. I’ll have to remember this for next week. Thank you for joining us for #MischiefAndMemories
Ah, thank you, Annette and for hosting the linky y
‘jollying them along’ made me laugh, we have great trouble encouraging my 3 year old along. I think she’d like crayon rubbing though, we may try that.
Katrina x
#KCACOLS
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Katrina
Love this thanks I need something to make these daily walks fun again and not a chore for the kids and me! Thanks for joining us on #MischiefandMemories
Only too pleased that I have helped, thanks for stopping by and stay safe
Oh yes what great ideas. There are only so many times we can count trees. Thank you for sharing and joining us for #KCACOLS, we hope you join us next time.
Ha! Thanks ,Kelly-Anne, will be back next time
Brilliant tips, Karen. Been a while since I took pencils and paper out and done some drawing with Rowan, but it was such fun and a lovely memory.
We’re Going On A Bear Hunt has got us round many walks.
Thank you for sharing with #AdventureCalling
Thank you and thanks for having me as part of the linky
Some lovely ideas-we’ve definitely all had to be a bit more creative recently in keeping the children enthusiastic. I’m excited that things are opening up, but also glad that we’ve had some time to get to know our local area and enjoy some family time. Thank you for sharing #AdventureCalling
Thanks for your kind words, yes there are some positive things about the lockdown, if you think about it
Thanks for your kind words, there are some positive things about the lockdown if we look hard enough
Geocaching, scavenger hunts and taking paper and crayons along have all worked well for us with making walks a little more interesting. It does help to have things to look out for. #KidsandKreativity
Thanks for verifying that my ideas work, Louise
Some great ideas. We used scavenger hunts and footprint hunting to make our walks a little bit more interesting this year. Thanks for linking up to #KidsandKreativity, hope to see you back next time.
I hadn’t thought of footprint hunting that’s for telling me, Kerry, I will definitely be back to link up more posts next time