22 Jun Five Essential Skills Kids Need for Adventure Travel
© Krasnevsky
Most kids come with a built-in compass pointing always toward adventure. If there’s an overgrown path that needs exploring, or a curious hole that must be poked with a stick to see what lurks within, you can pretty much count on your young explorer rising to the occasion. But when you decide you want to venture beyond the backyard or familiar camping turf, there are some basic skills your child should have before you get packing, from the potentially life-saving to those that can simply help you dodge a major inconvenience.
1. Swimming
The first and most important skill an adventure kid should develop is the ability to swim. Water will likely be around on many occasions, drawing kids like a liquid magnet. Be it a lake, stream, river, or shore, curious kids can’t wait to get their feet wet. In case they suddenly get in over their heads, especially when that wasn’t the intention, they must be able to swim to safety or stay afloat until help is at hand.
2. How to identify poison oak or poison ivy
Until your kid misses a full week of school from severe poison oak, you will not fully appreciate the importance of this outdoor skill. The first step is for your child to recognize, “This one has leaves of three, so I’ll let it be,” when you point at the brush and ask. But it doesn’t stop there. The end goal is for your child to recognize areas where there is likely to be poison oak, so he will steer clear of it rather than tunnel into it to set up his next fort.
3. An understanding of wildlife around them
As in the case of poison oak, curious kids reveling in their imaginations in the wild are more likely to encounter wildlife in their path. It’s important that they have some knowledge of the species around them so that they’re able to spot and enjoy them—and so that they’re able to identify and avoid the potentially harmful critters as well.
4. River smarts
Swimming ability is one thing, but river smarts are something else entirely. If your kids will be spending time around moving water, on a raft or kayak or just the banks of a river, it’s never too soon to start teaching them to “read” the water signs. When they have a better understanding of rip currents, eddies, and undertow, they’ll not only use more caution than they do leaping into a lake or swimming pool, but they’ll also be more willing to wear the all-important PFD.
5. How to get found
It’s a far greater challenge to get found within a few acres of woods than it is within several acres of a theme park. While it’s highly unlikely your child will become separated from the group during your adventure, kids need to know that if they do get lost, they should find a safe place and stay put, and understand that trying to find their way back may only lead them farther from help. Additional skills like using natural materials around them—rocks, sticks, and pine cones—to spell out HELP are also important. What’s more, don’t set them loose in the wild without a safety whistle in case they should ever need to call for help.
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