Children love nature. Nothing is better than a toy-free day enjoying the outdoors with your child. And nothing is more frustrating than a day spent with a bored child in the wilderness.

I am a stay-at-home dad and also a naturalist. As an outdoor educator, I took groups out on trail for two or three days and nights straight. So my bag of tricks — fun outdoor activities with little or no equipment — is pretty vast. Several of my games can be played with as few as two people: the guide (parent, caregiver, naturalist) and the learner (child or otherwise).

I’m going to start sharing some of the outdoor games I’ve played with kids as young as four years old. Before I jump in, though, I want to point out some ground rules I always stick to:

• Be safe. Nothing spoils a hike like poison oak, except, perhaps, worrying about poison oak. Although you can teach about various dangers, harping on what’s unsafe can discourage a child from feeling comfortable outside. To help both parent and child relax, find an age-appropriate trail or site that’s mostly free of anything noxious or dangerous.
• Minimize the “setup.” Don’t ever talk about the activities’ “names” or mention “rules.” Magicians don’t name their tricks for you, nor reveal their secrets: to your kids, all these activities should feel like just part of the normal flow of your day.
• Allow free-form exploration. Guiding an outdoor experience does not mean controlling every moment. Use the activities as an impetus for fun exploration and playtime, not a replacement.

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The First Activities: Observation

The only difference between a scientist and the rest of us is that scientists are really good at observation.

The first concept we play with outdoors is observation. I’ll point out here that as a teacher of many age groups, I frequently adapted language to the audience. For younger kids, you could refer to “learning how to see.” Avoid talking about “paying attention” because many children connect that phrase with being scolded.

Here are the observation activities I’ve used to start almost every single hike I’ve ever done, from preschoolers to adults:

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Freeze Frame

Don’t set this one up at all, just jump right in. Even though I’ve used this game successfully with three-year olds, it can be made really challenging even for older kids.

1. As you’re walking along, if you notice a particularly distinctive, obvious color — a field of golden poppies, for example — suddenly shout “Freeze!”
2. If your kids are about 5 or older, say “Close your eyes!” Younger kids may be able to do this with eyes closed, too, after a little practice.
3. Now say, “Without opening your eyes, point at something orange!” (substituting the obvious color from step 1). If you’re in a natural area and with older kids, you might suggest that they use “something natural.” This prevents clever children from using their own clothes or a car in the parking lot! You can play this in the city too, though, and drop that rule.
4. Give your child a few seconds and then ask them to open their eyes to see if they were right.

Staying in the same place, repeat the game a couple of times using different colors. If your child is having trouble, switch to easier colors — green, let’s say, if there’s grass everywhere, or you might try blue for the sky. Once they get the hang of this game, you can really test your kids’ observation: maybe there’s just one purple flower visible — call out “purple!”

One of my favorite calls is “point at the sun,” because on a nice day, the kids can actually feel their way to it. (The first impulse is usually to point straight up, but they figure out that the warmth actually comes from an angle.) If you use the sun, please be careful. Tell your child “without opening your eyes, first look down while you keep your hand up, and only then open your eyes.”

You can repeat this particular game several times throughout the day and see how your kids’ impromptu observation skills improve. With older kids, you can let them put you to the test, too!

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Change Three

This one works from about age five. (By all means, try it with younger kids, though!)

1. Stand facing your child and look at her, really look. She should look at you, too, because she’s going to need to know exactly what you look like.
2. Both you and your child turn around and change three things about the way you look. You might turn your hat around, or untuck your shirt, or take off one shoe, for example. The only rule is that you have to be able to see the change — no moving a rock from one pocket to a different one! (With older kids that can follow the sequence, I usually play this in two rounds: first time, you change three really big things, and the second time change really small things.)
3. When you’re both ready, turn back around and see if you can tell what’s been changed.

There are lots of possible twists to this — you might set out a group of objects (rocks, twigs, leaves) and move them around when your child has her eyes closed.

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Make a Rainbow

This is probably my favorite observation game and works from about age four. You can play it while walking, which is really useful when you need to get to the end of the trail!

1. Pick a set of colors — for older kids I used red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, but for the younger set you can do a couple at a time, or even just one.
2. Explain to your child that he should find one thing for each color, and you’ll do the same thing. (Again, if you’re in the wild, you can make the rule that the color needs to be from nature, but you can easily play this game at the playground or even at home.) Don’t pick up the color, especially if it’s a plant or an animal; just remember what it was.
3. When you’ve each figured out your rainbows, share them with one another. Maybe I saw a blue flower, but you used the sky!
4. Once you’ve shared, you can each make another rainbow, only this time, try not to use anything from your first one!

It’s best to play this game as a “silent hike”: that is, you and your child or children will make individual rainbows in your heads and count your colors by holding up your fingers. That way everyone gets to make his own. (In some spots and at some times of year, purple is pretty hard. Shadows are often good, or grey-purple rocks. Feel free to drop colors that are too challenging.)

If you recognize this game, by the way, it’s because I adapted it from Marie Lawson’s book The Sea is Blue. Sadly, it’s from 1946 and is out of print, but well worth the effort to track down a used copy.

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So there you have my first three, trail-tested activities. Please give them a try and let me know your results!In future installments, I will cover:

• The Beach: Games to play on the beach, lakeside, or creekside that you might not have thought of.
• Journaling the Wild: John Muir never went anywhere without a notebook. Here’s some things you can put into yours!
• Nature Party! Things to do when you do have a group of kids outside — a birthday party picnic, scout retreat, or family reunion.
• The Art of the Night Hike: All that’s fun under the… moon!

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[tags]family, kids, parents, nature, wilderness, trees, plants, colors, environment, hiking, fun[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by Mr. November, under a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved