We all know that it’s not always easy to keep the kids entertained on a walk. We spend lots of time outdoors as a family and enjoy lots of great outdoor activities for children. We love family days out and walks but young children need something to focus on and keep them happy. Here I’m going to share my best ideas for 25 things to do on a walk with kids.
We often go to places that are great for entertaining kids naturally. Places like Hare Hill, where there are hare sculptures dotted around for children to spot, it keeps them happy. Or places where there is a play park for them to play on are always a winner. Find my favourite child-friendly walks in Cheshire here.
Sometimes though we visit our local woods for a nature walk and we have to think of other ways to keep the kids happy. Today I’m going to share some of our ideas with you for keeping your kids happy whilst enjoying nature walks with kids. You’re sure to find some ideas for activities to do on a walk that your child will love.
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Things to do on a walk with kids
We’ve learnt many tricks over the years for keeping our kids happy on nature walks. We love our National Trust membership as their properties offer so many great family walks. They often have play areas, fantastic activities for kids and kids nature trails too. In addition, most are suitable for pushchairs. Find out more and see just how little * family membership costs here.
Things to collect on a nature walk
My kids love collecting nature on walks. You can find out our favourite things to collect on a nature walk here. Whether it be autumn treasures like conkers, acorns and pine cones or shells when we go to the beach. Even simple sticks. There are so many fun things to do with sticks. When you are young, a stick can be any number of things from a wand to a fishing rod.
How about collecting wildflowers and taking them home and drying them in a * flower press like this one. Or collect pine cones to make bird feeders. What about collecting nature and trying some of these summer art activities.
Make a journey stick
Journey sticks are great for children who like to collect things. All you need is a stick and either some string to tie nature finds to the stick or for younger children I find double-sided sticky tape on a piece of card best.
Find out how to make a journey stick here.
Take an adventure pack with you
My kids love carrying a little rucksack with them and even better if it contains a few interesting items. Ideas include:
- A pair of * kid’s binoculars,
- Scavenger hunt sheet,
- A * Magnifying glass,
- Paper and wax crayons,
- A * Bug hunting pot,
- Nature journal,
- A * Bird spotting book,
- Geocaching treasure to swap
- A * Compass
- Pen or pencil
- A * Minibeast identification book,
- String or sticky tape
- Plant identification book
- A little bag for collecting loose part
Find a bridge and play pooh sticks
Do you remember playing pooh sticks as a child? It’s a really simple game to play. All you need is a stick each and a bridge over a river or stream. Simply throw the sticks over the bridge at the same time, in the direction the water is flowing so your sticks will wash under the bridge. Run to the other side of the bridge and see whose stick comes out first.
Find more Nature walk games for your next family walk here.
Enjoy natures playground
My children love going to the park but they also have lots of fun on a walk without a park. They love finding woodland dens, balancing on logs and throwing autumn leaves in the air.
Dress up with DIY fairy wings
My girls love dressing up and fairies so these fairy wings we made a while back have found their way on to many a woodland walk.
Have a Scavenger hunt
If your children love collecting nature, they are sure to love a scavenger hunt. I have created a nature walk scavenger hunt free printable for every season. All the illustrations were done by my husband and I put them into an A4 pdf document that you can print out and let your child use next time you are out walking. You could even laminate yours as I did so you can use it more than once.
Play go find it
We’ve had a set of * go find it cards for a while now. They’re great for keeping in your bag impromptu scavenger hunts. Find my go find it cards review here.
Go on a bug hunt
If you’re not in a rush, you could take a bug hunting kit and spend a little time looking for insects. Try looking under leaves and logs and you might find some woodlice, centipedes or perhaps a worm.
Geocaching with kids
Geocaching with kids is another way to get children to enjoy walks. It’s a modern-day scavenger hunt that kids and adults love. All you need is a mobile phone with GPS enabled and a free geocaching app installed. I’ve written a post to get you started with all my tips for Geocaching with kids.
Find more ideas for getting outdoors with kids here.
Snacks
Although not an activity as such, it’s important with young children to take plenty of snacks with you. We love to bake our own like these delicious, cheap and quick flapjacks.
More things to spot on a walk
Find more ideas for things to find on a walk over here.
Ad – My walking with kids essentials
These are walking kit for kids that we love. All links are affiliate links
25 things to do on a walk with kids
- Collect nature
- Make a journey stick
- Take an adventure pack with a few items for nature exploration in it
- Spot & identify birds
- Do some leaf and bark rubbings
- Play pooh sticks
- Balance on logs
- Dress up in fairy wings for a magical walk
- Have a scavenger hunt (get your free printable above)
- Play go find it
- Hunt for minibeasts
- Geocaching
- Play I spy (for young children, use colours “I spy something red”)
- Let your child be in charge of which direction you take at each junction
- Have a penny hike. At each junction, toss a coin and let the coin decide which way you go. Heads for left and tails for right, or vice versa
- Talk about nature that you can see all around you
- Climb a tree
- Splash in puddles
- Have a colour hunt. Find things that are green, red etc
- Look for animal tracks in the mud
- Have a sound hunt (find out more by clicking through)
- Take a camera and let your child take photos of anything that interests them or make it a scavenger hunt if they need more direction
- Create art on the ground using nature like shells, stones, sticks and leaves
- Play stop go. If my kids are struggling, complaining they’re bored, we play the stop go game. One person is in charge of shouting stop or go. When they say go, start walking until they shout stop.
- Have a picnic. Even if it is just a snack.
Free family walks tracker printable
Have you ever wondered how far you walk as a family or would you like to set your family to walk 50, 100 or 500 miles or km? If so then you need my free family walks tracker printable.
Where to go on a walk with kids?
Find all my favourite family walks North West in this post.
Find your nearest Forestry England woodland here. If you’re lucky there might even be a Gruffalo trail.
RSPB nature reserves are also lovely places for walks.
Find some great Yorkshire family walks here.
We love walking in the peak district. Find the best family walks in the Peak District here.
Join the Family walks North West Facebook group to be part of a community sharing the best walks for families across the region. Click here.
Where to next?
Would you like ideas for 100 things to do outside for kids?
Here are 50 fun things to do outside at home.
Find more ideas for summer outdoor activities for kids here. Or perhaps you need some spring activities for kids.
Camping with kids this summer? Find the answer to the most common question I get, What do I need for camping with a toddler? and find the best camping toys for kids here.
Want to read inspiring outdoor play quotes? find loads here.
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These are great ideas and I love the idea of a scavenger hunt and an adventure pack. My eldest recently got some binoculars for his birthday and he takes them everywhere. Including a wedding!
Binoculars are great. I’d never thought of taking them to a wedding!
The scavenger hunt is a fantastic way to keep them entertained on a woodland walk. The magnfiying glass will also keep them busy looking at bugs and veins on leaves, etc. Stops them saying I’m bored, that’s for sure ?
It does seem to work for mine the majority of the time
We always loved magnifying glasses and scavenger hunts. Those fairy wings are great too #countrykids
Thank you. They all really help don’t they.
Lovely ideas! That magnifying glass seems really easy to hold!
It is really well designed for little hands
I used to love pressing flowers when I was little #countrykids
Me too!
Great ideas for a walk. When my son was little, we loved walking our neighborhood in the rain and having leaf races in the water at the curb. Your post brought back memories of scavenger hunts, color hunts (with each spot on an egg carton painted a different color to collect colorful treasures), photo scavenger hunts, insect hunts (we especially liked going to see the bee tree on a trail near our house), finding the letters of the alphabet shaped on the path by leaves, plants, rocks, sticks, or vines. We also brought along bags to collect item to glue together or glue onto paper at our resting stops on our walks. I think I still have “RockMan” in a cubby somewhere in my house. #countrykids
I love to walk through the woods to see birds, butterflies, bunnies and beautifully colored leaves etc. I love the idea of a scavenger hunt for the kids. This sounds like so much fun.
Thank you. It is.
I never thought of taking a magnifying glass with us! Dexter has just started paying attention to bugs and we saw a ladybird in the park the other day and he was fascinated. Thanks for the idea
We found a ladybird too. My girls love them.
Oh I love these ideas! And your printable… gorgeous! Thank you for sharing
I’m glad you like my printable as much as I do.
My boys love a scavenger hunt and don’t realise how far they walk while hunting. Adding more and more obscure things too, a fab few hours spent.
It is amazing how little they notice how far you are walking when they are entertained.
Such a great time of year for scavenger hunts. We have acorns and sycamore seeds all over the place, the leaves are beginning to fall and the mushrooms are sprouting in the fields. Looks like some lovely toys there to help with an entertaining walk for kids too.
We love autumn for treasure hunts.
In all these years I’ve never never thought of taking a magnifying glass on our nature walks. What a brilliant way for them to have fun and take in more details x
It’s great for keeping kids entertained
Oh wow those toys are amazing. they would go down really well on the farm. I will be looking at them for Christmas presents. I love woodland walks
They’d be perfect on a farm.
We have some items from this range too, fab aren’t they. We love our nature hunts #CountryKids
Hape is a great brand we love for young children. Nature hunts are great
I haven’t heard of Hape before but those toys look great – sustainable and fun to use. We love scavenger hunts too, your husband is very talented and this is a great idea to encourage children to get into nature more! Thanks for sharing these great ideas with us at #CountryKids
Hape is a great brand we love for young children. Thank you, i wish I could draw as well as him.
Scavenger hunts are always so much fun – Sophie loves doing them. I never think to laminate the sheets though – that’s a good idea! Love the fairy wings and the flower press kit too 🙂 #countrykids
I’m glad you found it useful
I love your laminated scavenger hunt pdf! I think little ones love magnifying glasses – the one featured is a fab shape and size for little hands!