Dadventures: Amazing Outdoor Adventures for Daring Dads and Fearless Kids. Alex Gregory
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Название: Dadventures: Amazing Outdoor Adventures for Daring Dads and Fearless Kids
Автор: Alex Gregory
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Кулинария
isbn: 9780008283711
isbn:
Map
Plastic collection bags/sandwich bags
What to do
1 Provide approximate distances (in child’s paces, ‘lengths’ of a school playing field or similar, or metres) and compass directions to follow to get to the point at which the next clue is hidden.
2 Wrap objects in tin foil and hide them in the ground, under leaves or under non-metallic objects for your child to find with their metal detector. This could be a prize or the next clue.
3 Set challenges of things outside that they have to photograph along the scavenger-hunt route. Only when they’ve correctly found, identified and photographed all the items you’ve listed do they receive the next clue or prize.
4 Set them a route to follow on a map. Maps are wonderful things and map-reading a brilliant skill to grasp early on. They are fascinating pictorial views of the countryside, and learning the symbols and markings is great fun. Setting a route together and allowing your child to take you along the route is a hugely rewarding experience.
5 Set the route based on items they can collect. Leaves, interesting stones, wood, tree bark, pine cones can all be collected in a bag. If all the items have been correctly identified and collected they have successfully completed the scavenger hunt.
Using a combination of some or all of these ideas you can create an incredibly interesting, exciting and varied scavenger hunt, in which your child has to use their brain as much as their energy in order to complete it!
Challenge
As you and your child become increasingly accustomed to the process of a scavenger hunt you can start adding in extra components to make the hunt even more exciting. Switching between a clue they have to work out, a clue or item they have to find, even a challenge they have to complete before you give them another clue, is a great way to extend and enhance this game.
My dad was a master of treasure hunts. For years my birthday parties would involve long hunts over miles and miles of countryside. Up and down hills, across fields, along rivers, up trees and straight through woods. A clue or riddle would lead to the next point, and so on until we eventually found the prize. This would sometimes take all day to complete. His clever little cryptic clues were difficult but we always managed to get a hint out of him as he followed on behind, sending us off in the right direction. It was so much fun and such a thrilling way to spend the day.
Flour/sawdust trail
A flour or sawdust treasure trail is a simple activity, and a great way to get kids outdoors and active. Either as a high-energy exercise done at speed with a teenager or at a slower pace with the family as a whole, it is a fantastic way to encourage movement and can be such a good laugh. As with the treasure or scavenger hunt, it can turn into a long full-day undertaking, but it’s also perfect to use up the last of the day’s energy after school, or even in the dark with a torch.
What you need
A bag of flour or sawdust
What to do
With younger kids who can’t be left alone, set up the trail in advance. It doesn’t have to be long, but again the beauty of this is that it can be done in both urban and rural settings.
1 Every 5 to 10 metres drop a small pile of flour or sawdust to mark a trail for your child to follow. This can be on the edge of a path, on a tree branch, on a wall or piled in any other place that is not immediately obvious.
2 Make sure you mix up the location of the flour or sawdust to keep the difficulty up and interest going. If you discover it’s too easy for them, then next time use bigger gaps between drops so they have to really search and even double back on themselves.
3 Be thoughtful of where other people will walk, so avoid dropping flour or sawdust right in the centre of a busy pavement or anywhere it will look unsightly.
4 Allow yourself a 10-minute head start and make your way off along the route, dropping a small amount of flour or sawdust at regular intervals.
5 Your kids will race after you at top speed following your trail with intent. With the head start, you’ve given yourself time to create false paths and decoys, where you can double back on yourself and continue along the correct route. When you’ve come to the end of the intended route, why not hide and wait for them? Climb high into the branches of a tree and sit watching their progress as they approach the tree you’ve led them to and the trail runs cold. Eventually they’ll think to look up, where you’ll be waiting.
6 This is an active challenge that stimulates thought and observation. Watching your child work out problems, see the next clue, charge after it and on to the next is hugely satisfying and great fun! We always bring the hunt back round in a loop to our house, where dinner will be waiting or where there’s a hidden chocolate prize that can be eaten for dessert.
Challenge
How about creating a trail that finishes at a pub where you can all have dinner together, or ending the trail at a perfect site to start a little fire to cook some marshmallows over? There doesn’t always have to be a prize. The fact that you’re doing something together is the prize – all that kids really want is time with you.
Shelter with a hot drink
This simple activity can be done anywhere and can turn a boring trip home from school into a fun little memorable experience. The beauty of this is that it can be done whatever the weather – in fact it often works best when the weather’s at its worst!
What you need
A flask of your preferred hot drink and some non-breakable cups
A large plastic sheet/tarpaulin
What to do
1 Take a flask containing your hot drink with you on the school pick-up, along with a large plastic sheet or tarpaulin. It’s even better if it’s raining because there will be fewer people out, making it even more exciting.
2 If going by car, find a spot to stop and park up. The verge at the edge of a field or next to a park or playing field is ideal.
3 Hunker down against the hedge or under a tree, sitting on the plastic sheet and pulling it up over your backs to keep out the weather and create a small, dry shelter.
4 You’ll soon warm up in there, especially while sharing a warm drink. It’s your time to be together, talking and watching what goes on outside when everyone else heads for home. It’s also a chance to watch the wildlife that stays out feeding in the rain and watch the passers-by, too, although they probably won’t even notice you there. It’s an opportunity to enjoy time together in, let’s face it, a very unusual place!
This activity is so basic, so simple and doesn’t cost a thing – and yet I expect 99 per cent of people reading this have never done it.
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