Once you’ve got your children excited about the hike, you next have to get them to the trailhead, probably in a motor vehicle. Sometimes those drives to a national forest, nature preserve or state park can be long. You can keep kids’ spirits up by playing games on the drive there.One tried and true possibility is Reverse Spelling Bee.
One child spells a nature-related word (such as tree) backwards (or as e-e-r-t). Whichever child can correctly guess the word wins a point. The child who gives the correct word then gets to spell the backward word in the next round. If the child giving the backward word misspells it, a point is taken away from his score. For older children, make the game more complex by limiting the words to those about the area you’re to which you’re going to hike.
Materials: None
Ages: 9 and up
Learn about more than a hundred other hiking diversions for kids in Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities.
