How old to engage kiddos in various outdoor activities

Brommeland said:
2. Both sexes will do their best to kill themselves if left unattended, but boys are more danger prone. Girls seem a bit smarter....
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agreed. within hours of my first camping trip with my brother and his kids, he and his youngest son were both bleeding. his oldest son fell into the fire pit. my daughter and niece were sitting quietly coloring. luckily, no one was seriously injured.

we started camping when my daughter was just over 2. she's almost 7 now. as her legs grew I started taking her out for 'adventures' on the trails around town. now, she's starting to develop a little bit of a princess attitude and isn't as enthusiastic about going out and turning over rocks to see what crawls out. she still likes to hike when we're at the campground though, so I'll take what I can get. the teenagers are at the point where we're surprised when they want to come with us, rather than sit on the couch snapping their chats or whatever they're doing.
 
Watching this thread with great interest.

I am in a similar boat - got a late start on family and kids and have an almost-three year old I am chomping at the bit to get outside. I work in the outdoors and am as comfortable out there as I am in town, but the family doesn't get to spend the time in the backcountry that I do. My wife wasn't so much when we first met, but over several years before our daughter, she became quite the camper and even got into some bush crafting. I've been making her into an honorary Eagle Scout step by step, and my best friend gave her a Bark River and fire steel that she has become pretty handy with. But since the daughter was born, family camping came almost to a halt other than occasional cabin/yurt stays.

My daughter is pretty adventurous and our house is in the woods, so she gets to practice hunting for Huffalumps in the backyard, but has yet to sleep outside. Planning on getting her camping this spring as soon as the bite is out of the air. Will likely do a few nights of car camping in the Redwoods with southern Oregon Coast bookends as the weather will be warmer down there during the late winter/early spring.
 
Since every kid is different, this may not all apply, but here's some things I came up with.

Let them enjoy the outdoors in their own way. Don't set a firm goal of covering a certain number of miles. One time we spent the whole afternoon within 200 yards of the car, and she had a blast. She picked out shiny or colorful pebbles from the creek, laid on a carpet of moss, pretended that fairies lived in a hollow tree, watched the squirrels and clouds, caught a baby turtle, picked little wild flowers, poked something with a stick, climbed through gnarled tree roots, etc. Let yourself be a kid again.

The woods are a place to play with things not allowed in the house. Like projectiles. My daughter loved to bring the slingshot grandpa gave her, and launch hickory nuts at stuff. Or the mini crossbow I made her: https://bladeforums.com/threads/made-a-small-crossbow.1311856/ Maybe your kids like Nerf dart guns? Or a pellet/BB/airsoft gun. Or a real gun, once they're older.

Bring Field ID Guides/books, so you know what you're looking at. Tailor them to your kids' interest. My daughter always liked butterflies and flowers, so when we saw some, we'd look them up & both learn something.

To get her interested in shelter building or bushcraft skills, even in the back yard, make things for her dolls. Gather up some sticks and build a Barbie-sized lean-to or other shelter, and construct it the same way you'd build one full-sized. Make different styles, using different materials & construction methods. Let her play with it, and she won't even realize she's practicing for the real thing. I suppose you could do something similar for boys- build a fort or shelters for his GI Joes or whatever. Make traps to catch their stuffed animals. (For some reason, when my daughter would play with her dolls, there always HAD to be a villain. The evil guy could be the one setting traps.)

Pick out several important plants in your area. Ones that are useful for tinder, cordage, food, easily worked/carved/split, have medicinal properties, big leaves that can shed rain, etc. And gather them up together & make them into a toy. I always wanted to have her make her own doll from natural materials. It's not so much about the doll, but getting her to recognize these plants, and how to build stuff.
 
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Glad to see you are all willing to to out with your kids. Actually I expected no less from BF community (in the Outdoors subforum!).

Not much to add that it is quite important to go out with more kids (if you only have one). Having similiar age partners helps getting them focused. At least with mine. She complains much less if there are more kids. And they can play together as well, so you can do other stuff.

I am 35, with a 4 year old daugther, divorced (custody 50/50, her mother and me get along quite well) and own a VW T4 California Syncro van (4WD camper van). She already has her own pair of snowshoes, climbing harness, diving suit (shortie) and knife (Mora Safe, no point). We go out pretty much every other weekend. Sleeping in the van usually and doing day hikes. She cuts her own food with her knife (under supervision, of course) and helps building fires (just for kicks). We dig snowcaves and make the mandatory snowmen in every outing. One day we even put together an iglu. She does have her own 0ºC mummy sleeping bag, but we haven't used anywhere but in the van. Which reminds me that my tent is thrased and needs replacing! In summer is beach time. We go crab/shrimp hunting, splashing and, hopefully, I will get her to use the mask and snorkel this summer.

I don't really push her, but since I do all that stuff, she wants to come along.

My current gf is not SO much into outdoor sports, but she is liking it a lot (snowshoeing for example).

Mikel
 
We've only got to camp a few times so far this year but my 4 year old son is loving his sling shot. I picked up a couple thousand rounds of clay ammo and we have a good supply of "targets" in our cooler when we're camping. He's not only learning to shoot but how to handle the sling shot safely. This should carry over to firearms safety.
 
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slingshots, bows and guns, all same and all different. But yeah, you are right, safe direction of handling, whats behind your target, and where will the misses go, all apply, its only the range that changes. Should be a good starter for him. Plus if he has a head start now, when he gets dumb like all boys do he'll still be ahead of the curve!
 
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