Children in Nature: Make it a Game

About a week ago we arrived in Moab, UT after about 7 hours in the car. The sun was setting and I had a tent to set up, a fire to build, dinner to cook, and some relaxing of my own to do. My two daughters had spent all day trying their best to be good in the car but the excitement of a 3 day camping trip was more than they could handle.

As I worked on setting up the tent and unpacking the car the girls kept asking me to do things with them. I was happy that they were excited about the trip but I just couldn't give them the attention at that moment. Just as I was about to get angry at them for not understanding the work I had to do, I stopped and helped them think of a game.

There were two large rocks side by side. I took a break from working and said, "watch this". I ran around the the two rocks making a figure 8. Then I asked the girls if they could do it faster than I did. Suddenly those two boring rocks that they hadn't noticed was now a game. They took turns running around and around the rocks seeing who could do it faster. Then they tried skipping around them. Then walking backwards, galloping, scissor steps, baby steps, and walking with waggling their arms.

Soon the tent was up, the car was unpacked, and the fire was burning. The games expanded and changed each night but a quick minute of my time was enough to get their imaginations started and the games never stopped.