Put a little SPRING in your step because warmer weather is here to stay! You are no longer stuck inside, prisoner to your own home because of bitter cold Kansas City winters. Being confined indoors for what feels like months (oh, wait…it WAS months!) not only gets monotonous for you, but for your children as well.
A great, easy way to enjoy the warmer weather is to head out for a family walk. Everyone gets their endorphins flowing, and the exercise is an added bonus. Here are a few ideas to keep it interesting:
Explore
Let your child go off the beaten path to explore his surroundings. We currently live in an apartment, and while there isn’t any real exploring to do around our complex, we say it anyway. “Exploring” for us means we have no agenda…we pick up sticks, chase squirrels, flick cicada shells off the trees, gather pinecones, stop at the creek, admire nests, etc. Anna, a Shawnee mom of two, says, “We enjoy taking walks near a pond where the kids can get out and throw rocks for a few minutes.”
Mix it up
Head to some friends’ house to walk their neighborhood or check out a new park. “We love to swing by a park and let the kids play,” Andrea, a Shawnee mom of two, says. “They enjoy taking a snack and having a picnic when we get there. Taking bubbles, sidewalk chalk, balls, a kite and/or sand buckets and shovels makes for tons of extra excitement too!”
Games
Play red light, green light, I spy, Simon says, follow the leader or have a race. You can even make it educational and your child probably won’t even notice she’s learning! Stephanie, an Overland Park mom to two children, says, “I'll often race them to various points along the walk (almost always letting them win). Sometimes we count how many squirrels we see, things that are green or look for objects starting with the letter C.”
Lights, camera, action
Take photos along the way. Have your child pose in fun and silly ways. Then switch things up by letting your child take some fun, silly photos of you too, or maybe a family “selfie!”
Wheels
Bring along a wagon, bike, skates, scooter, whatever! “Our family loves to add wheels to our walks. Scooter, bike and wagon rides add a little speed, which our family enjoys,” Brooke Latas, mom to a blended family of six, says.
Scavenger hunt
Give your child a checklist with specific items to look for: jogger, dog, kite, leaf, bus, squirrel, hose, flower—the possibilities are endless! The great fun with having a scavenger hunt is you can change the list each time or change it depending on where you are walking (your neighborhood, park, trail, etc.). While you’re “hunting,” let your child look for things to collect too. Your child can simply bring the items home for display or create an art project. Living in an apartment with lots of trees lends itself very well to our children’s picking up and collecting sticks during our walks. They love finding ones that are different shapes and sizes and piling them outside our front door…we could probably start a small fire!
File these ideas away but whatever you choose to do, enjoy it and revel in this wonderful season we have in Kansas City called spring…because pretty soon, we’ll be complaining about how hot it is!
Julie Collett loves to go on walks with her husband and three children, ages 4, 2 and 7 months…even if only down to the apartment office to check the mail!