Love Caravan-Camping? Connecting with Nature is the easiest way to get the kids board

You can always try to identify and learn things in retrospect by uploading your photos to social media”

Travelling with kids across the vast and never ending roads of Australia can be monotonous and challenging for our little ones. As much as we parents want to experience and live out all our bucket list dreams, let’s face it, our kids are here for the wild ride. So how can we get them to relate to our travels, goals and interests with as much enthusiasm as we adults have? Easy, get them connected to nature!

We have found that engaging our children in the surrounding natural world has made a huge positive impact on their learning, development and relevance to our travels. Outside the classroom, the natural world is the greatest teacher. We can gain so much knowledge and insight into certain locations, seasons, behaviours, animal events or even just random fun facts. Young minds will be sponges and soak it all up. They will surprise you how much they know and retain, especially if you have been travelling since they were a very young age.

Here are some ideas to get them interested:

Read all the Signs

A great way to learn as you go is to take notice of the informative signs available at pretty much every attraction, walk, hike and monument there is. This info will be the cheapest, most up to date and easily interpreted information you can get. Take photos so you can read later if you’re in a hurry.

 

Snap now and Research later!

Thanks to our smart phones we can document anything and everything we come across with a simple click. Taking pictures of all the signs, illustrations, plants, animals, shells, clouds, etc to have a reference of things you have seen in certain locations. You can always try to identify and learn things in retrospect by uploading your photos to social media, forums, museums or even through Google Lens where you can search using images. This has been great when on hikes and beach walks where you are bound to stumble upon unique things.

Get Interactive 

Information centres are goldmines for information, images, maps and even displays for local areas. Also they are free, and well worth the stop in. Also take note to visit wildlife parks, aquariums, zoos and museums. Being in an interactive place where you can experience animal encounters is a great and safe way to get up close and personal with furry, feathery or scaly friends. The kids will associate that experience with that certain location and reflect back on it later on.

Most of these places do require entry fees, but we have found that the money is well directed into conservation, education and maintenance to keep these local businesses running.

Educational Media 

When you have internet available, download some educational children’s programs on streaming services. Our boys just love Octonauts, The Wild Kratts and Andy’s adventures to name a few. Young kids love repetition, so they will most likely watch them over and over again, especially if they enjoy the topic.

Involve them

Let the kids help you read that map, or take the lead on a hike. Let them interpret the weather, tide times or even just the time. Be present for that sunrise or sunset, let them witness these constant but important daily natural events. Go fishing, let them identify and measure the catches. Giving them small but significant tasks gives them responsibility and confidence.

On the road, incorporate nature into games. Do an animal count or bird count, play eye spy. Or a favourite in our family, guess who but with animals.

Talking about Trash

Educate kids about pollution and the negative impacts it has on the environment. Travelling comes with its fair share of rubbish, so starting conversations on how we can make a change for the better.

Beach clean ups are a great way to involve kids and can be done on any beachwalk. They know what they are doing is saving marine lives and that it doesn’t take much effort as every little bit counts.

Kids are like sponges and learn so much from their surrounding environment. Connecting with animals teaches them life lessons such as compassion, kindness and respect. Showing them how our interactions with nature can leave footprints big and small is priceless.

If they love learning about and being part of nature then they will want to protect and preserve it for years to come.

Love nature? Join the AdventuringPals as they tour Shark Bay, Monkey Mia, Francois Peron National Park.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuringpals