Fun game for hiking kids: I Spy Alphabet

"I spy something in nature that begins with an L."

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 I Spy Alphabet.

While either hiking or resting, pick out an object ahead of you on the trail (such as a tree) and say “I spy something in nature that begins with a __ (“T” in this case.).” The children then must come up with an object and explain what it does in nature, like “I see a tree, which provides homes for nesting birds.”

The activity can be turned into a competition by seeing who comes up with the correct answer first. If you have a lot of children in the hiking group, any child who gives a good but incorrect answer (such as “I see a turtle, which eats plants.”) might receive one point while the one who says “tree” receives a two points.

Materials: None needed

Ages: 5 and up

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