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7 Posts |
Posted - 09/03/2010 : 8:58 PM
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| We have 3 girls, the two older ones will hike and like it, our oldest daughter hiked up to Garibaldi Lake this summer with a light pack on! Our 6 year old however claims her legs are tired when she hits the ground by the parking lot. I use positive reinforcements, like tonight, I went to our local grocery store, stocked up on some bulk cavity building sweets and snuck them into little baggies that she gets when she reaches the top without complaining. For each complaint she has to share a treat with me. OK, this might be considered bribing but we need to build up her leg muscles and hopefully develop a greater liking of hiking. She likes what she sees, just wants to be carried. We bring a couple of easy digital cameras to and let the kids snap away the whole trail, keeps them busy if they are getting a bit tired. |
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Chilliwack, BC
Canada
301 Posts |
Posted - 09/03/2010 : 10:30 PM
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| Bribing or not, at least she's getting out! I started out just taking pictures of the outdoors and whatever. Then I eventually got into exploring more for the sake of the health benefits and all. |
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New Westminster, BC
Canada
212 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2010 : 12:33 PM
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Don't forget the carrot, too. No, no, not a bag of carrots! That won't work. The carrot on a stick.
Convince her there is something interesting to see or do up ahead on the trail. Better yet, have a whole string of things to see on the trail. That way she doesn't have to wait too long for some gratification.
Try and think of things she might be interested in. Water in any form is always popular. Tadpoles are fun. Who doesn't like a glacier? Come up with something you can 'sell' her on to make her want to move forward.
Lynn Valley is great this way. It starts with a bridge over the roaring creek. There is the old logging trailer with the tree growing up through it. All along the way, there are opportunities to play with water. There are bits and pieces of old logging junk.
If you can't come up with things of interest, you might want to question your choice of trail. A boring trail is just going to be work. Too many of those and she will just grow up hating the notion of hiking. ('Oh wow, ya, like that is something my mother used to make me do.') |
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7 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2010 : 5:51 PM
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| What a great day to take the family out hiking! Our youngest daughter didn't complain once! This hike is a bit steep too and she just kept on going, the little teapot left on a log part way up was a source of amusement for them and having her own camera to take pictures helped too. There was always something for her to look at that kept her interst going until the top and she got her little reward bag of spider shaped gummy candies! When we got down we told her how proud we were and she was beaming and can't wait for the next hike. We do lots of walking with her but are working on the steeper climbs this year so we can take the whole famiy on bigger hikes in the future. Really nice hike too, the forest in there is quite pretty and the view of the lake from the lookout point is nice. |
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Heading to the Teapot Trail tomorrow
