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 Twig caterpillars.
While children are hiking, have them look for and each collect a two-inch-long twig of evergreen needles, say from a fir or pine tree, and two berries (the smaller and rounder the better).
During a rest break, have the children bend the needles downward to act as legs. The twig holding the needles serves as the backbone. Next, at one end of the twig, bend a couple of the needles upward; poke each needle into a berry to act as eyes.
They now have a pet twig caterpillar.
Materials: Evergreen twig with needles; two small berries
Ages: 4-14
Read more about day hiking with children in my Hikes with Tykes guidebooks.
