Day Hiking Trails: Fun game for hiking kids: Balancing Act

Friday, June 15, 2012

Fun game for hiking kids: Balancing Act

Not quite on the head, but the leaf is the right size...
Photo courtesy of Anna Langova.

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 Balancing Act.

Find something on the trail that can be placed on a child’s head – a leaf, a pine cone flattened on one side – and see how far your child can walk with it stop them. You can turn it into a fun competition by seeing who can cross a finish line without the leaf or pine cone from falling off their head.

Materials: Leaf or pine cone flattened on one side.

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.