Getting Kids Outdoors: A mama-tested, littles-approved guide

With the Getting Kids Outdoors initiative well underway here in Emmet County, I thought it might be fun to spend a month focusing on specific ideas-- from planned trips to backyard playdates-- that we use time and again with our own children.

We recently spent a weekend in Ann Arbor with our kids, and spent an afternoon at the U of M Natural History Museum. There is an entire floor dedicated to "Michigan Wildlife." Peering through each glass case, my boys studied the birds and stuffed mammals, the fungi display, and habitats. But when they got to flora and fauna, Max (at four) stopped cold. He cocked his head left, then right, and sighed.

"That dusty thing in there does NOT look like a Trout Lilly," he said in a matter-of-fact (and somewhat offended) voice. "And that Trillium doesn't look so good either."

He named them all, the spring beauties and dutch britches, and wondered aloud where the heck the leeks were, because, "you know, the Trout Lilies grow by the leeks, Mom."

And they do-- in our backyard. Standing there, watching bystanders think I had some horticultural boy genius on my hands, I was struck (I know, I know, yet again....) by how lucky my children are to be growing up Up North. Where as some folks only experience the bounty of a hardwood forest through the two-inch glass of a museum display case, we can walk out our backdoor. Regardless of where you live (or visit) in Northern Michigan, there are plenty of open spaces and protected places just waiting to be explored. So this month, I'm celebrating a life outdoors, and the benefits of getting our children outside to play and adventure and simply soak up the world around them. I'll be posted twice a week, so check back often!

On the Outside: Idea One
Go for a treasure hike.


On any given morning, Max will slide on his shoes and announce "It's time for an adventure!" Lately, the adventure of choice has been treasure hiking, which is really just a nature hike (often with picnic lunch) in which we pretend we're pirates (often being chased by bad pirates, sigh). We take along our trusty fabric treasure map (a sewing tutorial can be found here), which doubles as our bounty bag thanks to the nifty pockets I added on the back. We treasure hike all over-- sometimes just around the house, and sometimes at a nature preserve.

Today, we walked along a local nature preserve boardwalk. In addition to its magical, fairy-world nature-- babbling brook, little bridges, lots of evergreens-- it was also an easy jaunt and had plenty of little treasures for us to pocket...all in hopes of trading it for gold, of course, Max would like me to add.

Here's some of what we saw along the way:





When we got home, Max dug everything out of the treasure map and set to work recording his findings in his handmade nature journal.

He sat, tongue out in concentration, carefully doing a pencil rubbing of a piece of old fern he found on the boardwalk and tracing a leaf he plucked from between the wooden slats.

And I sat back and watched, already thinking about where his map will lead us tomorrow...


Younger kids definitely get into this one, but older siblings can be incorporated too-- they can take on the adult's role of helping guide what treasure is left untouched...