Fun activity for kids on hike: Five Senses

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 Five Senses.

Have your child find and describe some object along the trail that appeals to each of the five senses: sight (green leaves); sound (Western meadowlark singing); smell (fresh scent of red pine needles); touch (rough bark); and taste (tart berry – though note that children should not put objects found along the trail into their mouths).

Materials: None

Ages: 9 and up

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

Reason No. 22 to Hike: Kids Develop Better Brains

Hiking equals smarter kids.

When exposed to new places and activities, our brains reorganize themselves in new ways to make sense of and to better deal with the stimuli the next time we encounter it. This amounts to “exercising” the brain, as we’re not just doing the same old, routine stuff day and day.

Taking kids out on a day hike is a good way to stimulate the brain. They will see new things (maybe a deer sprinting for cover), hear new sounds (such as wind rustling tall grass), take in new smells (perhaps the musky leaves beneath their feet), touch new textures (like the roughness of basalt or granite), maybe even enjoy new tastes (say wild blueberries).

These experiences can help kids expand their minds. Talking about it afterward can help them better understand nature and increase their desire to protect it – as well as experience it again on another hike!

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