11 Items For Kids Hiking Packs And Safety Tips was inspired by our our family’s first nature walk of the year. Before I share the tips I thought it would be fun to share some pictures of our walk with you!
The best part of our recent nature walk is it was on a Sunday, so daddy came!
Nemophilists
Here’s a new word we learned recently.
Nemophilist; noun
A person who loves forests and forest scenery.
I’m a serious nemophilist, people. I love to tell the memory of how I first found Jesus in the woods. I was 5, by myself, and on the 1.5 mile walk through the woods to the school bus (I was homeschooled with the exception of my first year in kindergarten).
Normally my older stepsister was with me, but she must have been sick that day.
As usual, I was distracted by all the wonderland around me. Sometimes I would be distracted by tree, or flowers, or a porcupine.
This particular day it was a dandelion gone to seed, and so I picked it to make a wish.
I had gone to Sunday school a couple times before with my Grandma, and I had learned how Jesus died for us, but nobody mentioned that he came back to life three days later.
I remember that for the first time my five year old heart was filled with love over the thought that Jesus died for me. So I made a wish that he would come back to life.
That night I told my mom what had happened and she told me that He already had come back to life.
I always wondered why nobody told me that part!
What Inspired These Tips
We had the most lovely time on our nature walk, but after turning in for the night I woke up at about 3 am (common for me), with this post on my mind. I guess I was dream thinking-if that’s a thing?
I remember dream thinking about all the places I want to take the family this summer, and it hit me that my kids are just like me and I woke right up.
My first thought was about how my kids get distracted easily in the forests and they have a tendency to feel right at home in them, just like I did. Last year we had problems with them wandering off out of site and I awoke thinking of how I need to step up the safety measures if we are going to be spending so much time in the forests this year.
So after some research here’s what I’ve come up with.
11 Items For Kids Hiking Packs And Safety Tips
The first thing I’m going to do is sit down with the kids and explain to them they cannot wander out of site anymore. I tried last year, but they didn’t listen very well-even after I tried to explain there are mountain lions, bears and wolves (no, serious, there really are!).
It didn’t work very well. My kids are pretty fearless.
So this year we are going to have some ground rules. Since the thought of wild animals doesn’t scare them I’m telling them that if they wander out of my sight I’ll buy a child leash and keep them leashed to me so they can’t get more than 5 feet from “slow” boring old ma. I know how to put the fear in them, lol!!!
But we are also going to take the tips in THIS AWESOME ARTICLE and discuss what to do if they do become separated from the group.
In addition to this I’m putting together hiking backpacks.
Hiking Backpacks
We have some backpacks, but I need a couple more. I’m going to hit the thrift stores first for these but if I cannot find any I’m going to go for a couple of these. I like that they come in so many colors.
Each backpack will be filled with the following;
- A whistle
- A long sleeve synthetic long john type shirt
- A hat & gloves
- first aid supplies
- 3 protein bars
- additional bottle of water
- Lavender Roll on (works wonders for soothing bug bites and stings)
- Insect Repellent Roll On (mine is child safe)
- A waterproof poncho
- A plastic baggie of baby wipes
- fully charged walkie talkie
- Small first aid kit
Resources I’m using
Here are the items I’ve selected from Amazon for the backpacks- (I plan to divide up and disperse the first aid kit).
If you enjoyed 11 Items For Kids Hiking Packs And Safety Tips be sure to check out DIY Nature Journal Book Cover.