Hiking activity: Collecting craft materials

Pine cones, leaves and twigs collected on a day hike all make for great
craft materials. Photo courtesy of Hammonton Photography / Photoree.

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 collecting craft materials.

Children love to pick up and examine pine cones, twigs, leaves, pebbles and other small items found in the wilds. Go online or visit your local library to find children’s crafts that you might do at home and that would require such materials collected on a hike. During the making of such crafts with these collected materials is a great opportunity to discuss the hike. Warning: Many parks and national forests prohibit the collection of such items from public lands.

Materials: Bag to carry collected stuff, Internet connection or library.

Ages: 3 and up.

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