Fun game for hiking kids: Rock Pictures

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Generally, exploring and discovery is enough for kids, but sometimes even they can grow bored. 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 restless. Among them is Rock Pictures.

If taking a rest stop at a place with a lot of small rocks – such as a Great Lakes or Pacific Northwest beach – have the children make “pictures” using small stones they find. For example, a child might collect rocks and in a clear, sandy area “draw” a face with them. Other possible pictures they can create include a truck, shapes, or an animal.

The older the child, the more sophisticated the picture can become. In fact, it even can take several hikes to complete. For example, your child might keep an eye out for rocks shaped like the various states and use them to create a mosiac of the United States. The stones then would be taken home and kept as part of an ongoing project.

The mosaic can be made permanent by using a strong adhesive, such as Gorilla Glue, to adhere the small stones to a piece of wood. Besides being fun to construct, this project yers from noe can spark memories of the many hikes undertaken to find the various stones (You may even want to keep a log of where each stone was found!).

Materials: Stones, pebbles found on trail

Ages: 3 and up

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

Fun game for hiking kids: Rock Patterns

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 Rock Patterns.

This is a great beach activity, especially for those shores with a lot of cobble – as is the case in the Pacific Northwest and along the Great Lakes. Have children collect a variety of small rocks. Next, separate the rocks by size or color. Older children might do both categories as well as shape. With a stick, draw a pattern in the ground where rocks can be placed to make a “picture.” A spiral is an easy picture to draw that tends to provide pleasing results for most children; for a spiral, place the larger rocks at the center and with the rocks becoming increasingly smaller as circling outward.

Materials: Rocks.

Ages: 4 and up.

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