Great day hiking activity for kids: Treehugger

How many kinds of tress can you name? Photo courtesy of Wis. DNR.

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 Treehugger.

After your children have learned to identify some trees, you can play this game to hone their skills. Call out the name of a tree – maple, birch, pine, oak, etc.; the first child to point it out wins that round. Whoever nabs the most rounds out of 10 is the overall winner.

Materials: None needed.

Ages: 12 and up.

Read more about day hiking with children in my Hikes with Tykes guidebooks.