Almost as important as ensuring that your kids are equipped for the challenges of life ahead is maintaining your relationship with them. Much of the bond between parent and child is natural, but it needs to be nurtured by shared experiences, too. Some of the most impactful of those can be the experiences that take you away from the familiar environment of home to have brand new experiences in the outdoors.
See More of the World
One of the best ways to expand your horizons is to physically get out there and see things you have never seen before. Taking a road trip to a nearby national park or area of natural beauty can show your kids that there is a lot more to the world than just the small sliver of it in and around your own home. Plus it will undoubtedly give you some vacation stories to recount when you get back home, especially if you bring some souvenirs.
Connect with Nature
Most children are innately curious. If something grabs their interest, they will want to know more about it. You don’t have to be an ecologist to answer their questions when you take them out on nature walks, however. If they see something that you don’t know a lot about, you can use apps like iNaturalist that can help you identify all manners of flora and fauna. Not only do you get to play the mentor for them, but you can learn brand new things together, which helps make those new discoveries even more novel.
Learn Some New Tricks
Aside from learning about nature itself, there’s a lot of benefit to learning about how to better be amongst and work with nature. Setting up a camp and navigating the wilds are one thing, but hobbies like fishing can teach children a lot about the cycle of life as well as the importance of wildlife conservation, and sites like Tailored Tackle can help teach you the ropes, as well. When you see something go from the end of a rod to a dinner plate, it also makes you more conscientious about where your food comes from in general, too.
Forge New Memories
Just as important as getting out into nature is the way that we see it. Some children may not immediately see the appeal of natural beauty, but that might simply because they haven’t taken the time to really look. Photography is a great hobby for kids to pick up and learn because, in part, it teaches them to really take a closer look at their subjects and the surroundings of their photos. Furthermore, there are few better ways to build a collection of new memories than to turn them into physical objects, or at least digital files, that you can take the time to admire when you get back home.
The outdoors can offer bonding experiences that your home simply cannot. If you want to ensure that your children have plenty of fond memories to look back on as adults, then you should go out and create some.
Category: The Morning Four PodcastTags: morning four
