Trailspace Blog Kids

Thankfully this is not a video of me singing.

Recently I was hiking with my toddler. We were having a nice time looking at trees, touching boulders, eating snacks, when for some unknown reason she was suddenly and furiously done with the hike. Food, drink, walking, carrying, warm clothes, none of it made a difference.

The problem was, we still had a mile and a half to go back to the trailhead, a short but suddenly monumental distance.

So, I stuffed her back in the carrier and speed hiked/jogged as fast as one can with 25+ pounds of crying kid on your back, while navigating a rocky, leaf-covered trail and trying to distract her with songs.

Thus arrived my second problem. Despite having 3,000+ songs on my computer and iPod (back at home), I could no longer think of anything decent to sing for longer than a single verse. I blame my initial brain freeze on the sobbing behind my ears.

I eventually managed to recall:

• “The Wheels on the Bus” (pros: I know all the words, and my toddler was mollified; cons: I was not allowed to stop singing it);
• “Loch Lomond” (pros: I genuinely like the song and the chorus is about walking —  “you take the high road and I'll take the low road”; cons: I have trouble remembering much beyond the chorus, and my Scottish accent needs work);
• “The Titanic” song, despite (or because of) its morbidity factor, thanks to summer camp;
• and my own rendition of “Val-deri,Val-dera, with my toddler on my back.”

Not my most impressive of playlists.

Back at home I Googled hiking songs and quickly found some of the worst (I'll spare you further suggestions, lest I'm guilty of planting “earworms”) and many camping/hiking/marching songs. However, there's no consensus on what, if anything, makes a song a good hiking song, versus a song about hiking (à la “The Happy Wanderer”), or just a song often sung outdoors (“Kumbaya” comes to mind here).

I think a good hiking song needs to:

• be a good song to begin with (an annoying song will not become better due to a change of scene);
• stand up to repetition (lest you ruin a good song forever);
• be easy to sing (in your head or, in certain dire circumstances, out loud);
• be appropriate for all ages (folk songs have an advantage here);
• and, be easy to recall in full (even when someone, who you're carrying, is sobbing for you and you're descending a field of leaf-covered boulders).

I'm now working on a mental play list of good hiking songs that I can (hopefully) recall without much prompting. First up, full rounds of “Loch Lomond” and “Ob-La-De, Ob-La-Da.”

Got any other suggestions? Or am I doomed during times of duress to remember only tunes that were locked in my memory back at Grange camp?

Kids, and adults, need unstructured time outside. Take a hike together. Collect leaves and acorns. Let them play with your carbon fiber trekking poles.

Did you know, outdoor time for kids has decreased by more than 50 percent in just a generation, while time spent inside, plugged into electronic media, has stretched to more than six hours per day?

Here are two resources in the growing campaign to get the kids outside:

1) The National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There campaign encourages families to unplug kids and give them a daily Green Hour, a bit of time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world.

The NWF website also has kid-centered nature info and outdoor activities. Give yourself a daily Green Hour (or two) with the kids while you’re at it. www.greenhour.org and www.nwf.org

2) Outdoor writer and dad Eugene Buchanan has penned Outdoor Offspring. With sections on getting your brood outside to hike, camp, backpack, ski, climb, fish, swim, snorkel, jog, bike, paddle, and more, the book is aimed at saving kids from slouchdom and couchdom, and helping parents continue their outdoor lifestyles.

A portion of book sales will go to the Outdoor Foundation, which grants funds to successful youth outdoor programs. (Trailspace also supports the Outdoor Foundation.) Outdoor Offspring won’t be released until January 2010, but you can read a sample online (PDF) or pre-order now. The sample chapter on snowsports with kids was funny and right on.

outdooroffspring.com

It’s easy to focus only on “serious” outdoor gear. After all, we all want to know that the gear we select and buy for our backcountry adventures is worthy and dependable. But, there's also room for fun in the outdoors. So, this one is for the kids, or the kids at heart.

Geomate.jr The Geomate.jr ($69.95) by Apisphere is a simple geocacher for kids or families. Go outside, turn it on, and you'll be directed to the 20 closest geocache locations in the United States via an arrow and distance. The Geomate.jr comes preloaded with 250,000 geocaches in all 50 states, including cache hints. You can buy an update kit, seperately ($24.95), for the latest caches and ones in other countries. The Geomate.jr came out in May. Now, it isn't going to teach kids, or their parents, the necessary navigation skills, but it might get more of them outside and exploring in the first place. Just don't forget the map and compass. Batteries: 2 AAA's, last more than 12 hours Weight: 3.2 oz (with batteries) MSRP: $69.95 www.mygeomate.com

Zing Toys You couldn't miss the guys from Zing Toys showing off their launchers, boomerangs, blasters, and other outdoor toys. My 5-year-old would have spent all morning with his new Zing buddies, who let him throw air darts at a target and launch and catch a big ring from something I'd call the torpedo. www.zingtoys.com

Hey, kids! The National Park Foundation is asking kids across the nation to share ideas on how to protect and preserve America's National Parks. Kids aged 9 to 12, with the help of a parent or guardian, have through May 1 to submit an essay of no more than 500 words answering this question: Why are our national parks important to you and what is your best idea to protect our parks for the future?

The first prize winner will receive a $1,000 Visa gift card and the opportunity to direct a $5,000 contribution from the National Park Foundation to his or her favorite national park. The funds will be used by the park to put into action big ideas like those included in the winning essay. The top three essays will be featured in the Junior Ranger Gazette and on the National Park Foundation website.

• To submit an entry online and view the official rules visit: www.nationalparks.org/get-involved/essay-contest/
• For info on the National Park Service's Junior Ranger program visit: www.nps.gov/learn/juniorranger.htm

Yet more reasons to get the kids outside:

• A lack of time spent playing in the great outdoors can make kids literally shortsighted. That’s according to Australian researchers who found an association between high levels of outdoor activity and low rates of myopia (shortsightedness).  (Via Treehugger and Hindustan Times)
• Also, a new British study blames over-protective Mom and Dad for the decline in outdoor play. The study found that half of all children have been stopped from climbing trees and 17 percent have been told they cannot take part in games of tag or chase. (Via Treehugger and The Guardian)

Want to help counteract these alarming trends?

• Promise to take at least two kids outside as part of The Outdoor Foundation's "I Will" campaign. Not only will the kids benefit, but creating a new generation of backcountry enthusiasts is necessary for the future of outdoor recreation and the environment.
• Parents who want creative, confident, in-control kids, also should watch Gever Tulley's short TED talk, “5 dangerous things you should let your kids do.” Tulley, co-founder of the Tinkering School (where kids get to play with power tools!), explains why children should own a pocketknife and play with fire, among other "dangerous" activities. I'm eager to read his forthcoming 50 dangerous things book.

On the summit of Mount Jefferson, N.H.

Parenting.com just published “10 ways to get kids environmentally involved.” While it has some semi-useful suggestions about clothing swaps, using less electricity, recycling, and so on, it largely ignores what I consider the number one way to connect kids with nature—get them outside to explore on a regular basis.

True, number five on their list is “Head Outside,” but it only mentions apple and pumpkin picking. Now those are nice activities that support local agriculture (and something I do with my own preschooler), but connecting kids with the outdoors should be a regular part of every family’s lifestyle, not one special seasonal activity.

Here’s my rewrite:

1. Take Kids Outside. Get your kids outside every single day. Give them safe green spaces to explore and connect with nature. Give them time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. Take them hiking, climbing, paddling, biking, fishing, snowshoeing, camping, stargazing, or just plain exploring. Grow a garden together. Have fun simply playing outside—climb a tree, dig in the dirt, check out a stream. Your kids (and you) will be healthier and less stressed, and will have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment.

Without a meaningful connection to the outdoors, how can you expect kids to care about it?

For a few tips read "Hiking and Backpacking with Kids."