Day Hiking Trails: Great day hiking game for kids: Counting

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Great day hiking game for kids: Counting

"One ant, two ants. three ants..."

Generally, exploring and discovery is enough for kids, but sometimes even they can grow bored with that and become restless. Remember that they naturally have shorter attention spans than adults.

Fortunately, there are lots of tried and true activities you can do on the trail that’ll keep kids from getting bored. Among them is Counting.

Working in pairs or as individuals, each team or person counts the number of some object they name in advance – squirrels, dead trees, lizards, oak trees, etc. The object sought should not be extremely common, such as rocks or ants, so that teams have to keep an eye out for them. Whichever team finds the most of their sought object wins.

Materials: None needed

Ages: 5 and up

Learn about more than a hundred other hiking diversions for kids in Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities.

Meet the Author

My name is Rob Bignell. I'm a long-time hiker, journalist and editor. My son Kieran and I have been hiking together for the past decade. Before Kieran, I taught middle school students in New Mexico and Wisconsin, served as an infantryman in the Army National Guard, and worked in newspapers. I've won several journalism awards, from editorial writing to sports reporting. In 2001, The Prescott Journal, which I served as managing editor of, was named Wisconsin’s Weekly Newspaper of the Year. Currently I own and operate an online editing business, Inventing Reality Editing Service. After spending several years in Southern California, my son and I now live in Wisconsin on the scenic Red Cedar River.