5 Easy Hacks to Get Your Kids Begging for Family Walks!
I am pretty well qualified to write on this topic, having absolutely hated family walks myself as a kid! Now with a 6 year old and an 8 year old, I’ve developed a couple of easy hacks that make family walks fun for the whole family!
These tried-and-tested ideas have put a stop to the whining and whinging, the sore legs, and the constant bickering. Now we all look forward to a family adventure together!
Looking back over my childhood, there were a number of family walks that stand out in my memory, because they were actually rather fun! Nowadays I have a 6 and 8 year old who are less than thrilled when I announce a family walk, but are pretty excited when I rephrase it in one of the following ways!
Family walks can be such fun, as well as great exercise for the whole family, and with just a few little tweaks we can make them great adventures! It’s often just all about the mindset!
Before I begin, if you’re a new parent, I’ll give you a quick piece of advice right now. Always bring snacks! You need them wherever you go really, but definitely on walks!
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If the weather often deters your little one from Family Walks, it’s worth checking out this affordable waterproof set, from Amazon, so you can enjoy your family walks in all weathers!
1. Collecting Items for a Craft
We use this hack for our family walks a lot! We think of a fun craft we want to make, that uses items from nature, and then we head off with a bag to collect them. It’s as simple as that! When you’re all busy searching for the perfectly shaped pebble to paint, or trying to find lots of pine cones on the forest floor, you don’t really notice far far you’ve walked.
If you’re struggling to think of Nature Crafts, here are a few easy ideas!
- Pressed Flower Bookmarks
- Painted Pebbles
- Shell Necklaces
- Pine Cone Animals
- Leaf Headband (More ideas for that here!)
- Leaf Necklace (Instructions here!)
- Wildflower Collage
- Leaf Prints
- Pine Cone Garland
I have found that having a little mission to collect things, like this, really helps with the motivation on a family walk and makes them forget their tired legs! It’s also lovely to use natural materials, like these, for crafts and activities.
You could also collect many of these items for your mud kitchen. Pine cones, sticks, leaves, flowers, shells, and pebbles make great pretend food!
2. Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger Hunts are another great way to encourage kids out on a family walk!
You can make your own, or get your kids to make one if you’re a creative family. Alternatively, you can download one of mine and print it out right now! I have a number of scavenger hunts for kids on this post, including summer nature hunts and spring nature hunts. They’re great if you’re heading to the beach or into the forest!
Scavenger Hunts are a great hack because they turn a walk which could become boring and repetitive, into a fun game and a challenge!
With these Scavenger Hunts, you can do them together as a family, your kids can compete against each other, or they can team up against their parents! Lots of fun ways to play!
3. Photo Challenge
Similar to a Scavenger Hunt, but perhaps more appealing to older kids or a bigger family, this Photo Challenge can add some fun to your family walk!
How many of these 25 challenges can your family complete on your walk? Alternatively split the list into sections and do a few each time you go for a walk! A fun way to liven up a walk and create fun family photos along the way!
You can grab my Photo Challenge Printable here from Etsy and you’ll receive it as an immediate PDF download to print off.
4. Imaginative Play Along the Way
Imaginative play is not only great for encouraging our kids imagination, vocabulary, and creativity; it’s also a ton of fun!
Instead of going on a walk with my kids, sometimes we are ‘going on a bear hunt!’ Have you read that book with your kids? If not, I highly recommend it (amazon link to it here). The children in the story go through the swishy grass, the squelchy mud, the whirring snowstorm, and so on. It’s such fun to act out on our walks!
There are so many other Imaginative Play Ideas for Family Walks, especially if you’re walking in the forest. I’ll list a few more ideas below.
- Den Building
- Looking for Fairies
- Sword Fighting with Sticks
- Pretend Fishing with Sticks
- Den Building
- Tree Climbing
- Being Racing Cars
- Pretending you’re in one of your favorite books, like ‘The Magic Treehouse’, ‘The Wizard of Oz’, ‘The Gruffalo’, or ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’.
5. Expedition Leader!
This one is particularly effective if you have a kid, or two, who love being in charge!
Everyone takes it in turns to be the expedition leader. It sounds simple, but little kids just love being ‘in-charge’ and leading everyone else!
My two just love taking turns to walk at the front, decide which direction to take, and when to stop for breaks. And, they stop every so often for a question and answer session, like a tour guide! It’s a lovely rest for me too, as the ‘leader’ is in charge of motivating the rest of the group during the walk!
I hope these ideas work as well for your family as they did for mine! Drop me a comment below to let me know how you get on!