How do you trick your kids?

[Just Jeff]

A while ago on another forum we had a thread on hiking with kids. There are lots of ways to keep kids entertained by showing them new stuff, but I'm interested in various ways you guys use to trick your kids while hiking. Like snipe-hunting and stuff. Here's what I posted on that thread:

I "found" a pile of poop next to Amicalola Creek while they were playing in it. I called them over and explained how the animals come to drink, how you can find water by following game trails, etc. Then I asked what kind of poop they thought it was. Deer, rabbit...just guesses. So I said that you can tell what an animal has been eating by how the poop smells and tastes, then I picked up a piece and ate it...confirming that it was deer poop. My 8yr old screamed and ran away! Then I gave him his own pack of Raisinettes and he knew I just tricked him. The scary thing? My 4yr old actually tasted it before I showed him it was candy. Now THAT'S trust! If you know of other tricks, maybe we should start a new thread about how to trick kids in the woods.

Another one - I was a survival instructor for a while, and one of the big issues we had to overcome was food aversion. Almost any living thing can sustain you if you can convince yourself to eat it. So I had some critters stuffed into a bag and I made them all line up with their eyes closed and mouths open, and told them to crunch down fast before it jumped out. I made a big show of carefully opening the bag and everything. So I threw it in (one at a time), they crunched, and you should have seen the faces! Pure disgust! One of them even spit it out, and one almost gagged at the crunch. Then they realized I gave them M&Ms, and saw that food aversion is all in the head.

So what do you guys do? Any funny tricks like that to keep the kids (or scouts) on their toes?

[lobster]

a snipe is a bird by the way!

[gsingjane]

Oh boy oh boy oh boy I would get my HEAD handed to me if I ever tried anything like that with the Girl Scouts!!! No way Jose, I've been berated for more stuff than you could possibly imagine - things I would never ever in a million years have thought anyone could have a problem with - things that are even in our handbooks and badgebooks and hence "approved" by National. No difference, I still get it from all sides. Why do you sing Christmas carols? Why don't you sing Christmas carols? Can't we do Harvest Day instead of that Satanic holiday? Why do we sing grace? Why can't we mention Jesus when we sing grace? Why did you let my daughter touch a needle/scissors/matches/hot glue gun/jack-knife? You talked about not smoking, I don't want anybody to talk about cigarettes one way or the other.... and on and on it goes. Some days it feels like everybody has a problem with everything and yes, it sure takes all the fun out of it after a while.

About the only "trick" I would ever think about playing with Scouts would be, when we were hiking, simply to minimize the distance we had yet to hike, or maybe not tell them about a special surprise, like a lookout or rock formation, that was coming right up. Anything beyond that, whether it was ghost stories, jackalope or snipe hunting, short-sheeting, I would approach with extreme caution. People these days are just unbelievably sensitive and fast to complain when it comes to their children and through sad experience, I have learned not to take any risks at all to do anything that anybody might find "offensive" on any grounds whatsoever.

Jane in CT

[johnny quest]

geocaching is a great way to get kids into hiking

[hikerjohnd]

When I worked for the YMCA, I would take the kids for a long hike around the lake (a pretty far trek even though level terrain) to tire them out. The hike would take us to our campground for an overnighter. When we got to the site, the kids usually ate, did the campfire thing, and went to bed. The next morning, when they all started to talk about the long hike back to camp, I told them I knew a shortcut - we were actually camped 50 feet from the main parking lot.

[Just Jeff]

HAHAHA - now THAT's funny!

Come on, guys - I know more of you have kids out there...how do you keep them entertained on hikes?

[CynJ]

I would get them their own camera. And maybe some field guides so they can poke around and see what they can find in the book. Maybe make it a contest!

[MDSHiker]

I have an 8 yr old daughter that likes the outdoors. I have noticed that I do a lot of planning when I take her backpacking. It has to be interesting for sure. I usually point out things along the trail that are interesting. Fungus, sinkholes, birds, lizards, insects, etc. Also, camp time is the most important. Marshmallows and a fire keep her happy! She has her own headlamp so she can check things out at night. She also likes to get in her sleeping bag and read...with headlamp. The bottom line is to make sure you hike someplace interesting to keep them interested! Hmmm...not a bad idea for adults either.

[Dances with Mice]

Long ago in a place far, far away the staff at a Scout camp played a little game where they'd tell ghost stories around a Troop's campfire. The staff, older teens, soon stretched this out into a little program where they'd tell a story about the Lake Monster that lived in the lake beside all the campsites and how campers have been known to disappear right out of their tents, and so on, the usual spook under the bed type of story that a good story-teller can make believable. Later after the boys had gone to bed one of the staff would dress in his scuba wetsuit, cover himself with mud and lake weeds, put on a scuba mask and snorkel and stomp through the camp moaning, or roaring, through the snorkel. The kids still awake would hear or see him, and some wouldn't, but everyone would talk about it the next morning and the legend grew. All good fun until....

One troop of young scouts bought the story hook, line, and sinker. They believed! And they were really scared, the staffers could tell. So when the monster made his tromp through the camp, he thought it was way too quiet. Someone would usually wake up and yell or point a flashlight at him, something. But he was getting no response. So he pulled back the flaps of one tent and stuck his head in and gave a roar.

And a log came flying up and caught him right in the chest! He went down hard. Then all the boys came yelling out of their tents with sticks, rocks, axes, tent poles, all these weapons they'd taken to bed to protect themselves and proceeded to pound on the poor monster! He had to be rescued by the adult leaders and a few staffers watching from the sidelines.

So ended the Lake Monser story program...

[weary]

All my kids were backpacking by the age of five (the youngest by three). I never found trickery needed or necessary. It was just something we did from time to time on weekends and vacations.

I never forced the pace. I planned short distances for short legs. They all seemed happy to go and whining and crying was always minimal. KIds are naturally curious. They always found things to keep them interested and excited without any artificial manipulation by me. I did from time to time try to teach them the names of trees, wildlife and flowers. But they seemed to be more interested in stopping at ponds for a swim.

Weary

[smokymtnsteve]

I don't trick my kids...I tell'em the truth...

there is NO santa claus or easter bunny

[Seeker]

my 11 yr old daughter is the one who goes with me most often... we get zero mileage most times, by my standards, but she's always good for a discovery, even if it's just a weird looking stick... i have to just set my 'goal' to 'wherever we end up by the time she's tired'... sometimes it's a mile, sometimes more. we counted paces once, and i figured out she takes three steps to my two... 6 miles for me is like 9 to her... so we just meander and sometimes just car camp with a short hike nearby... as long as i can cultivate the love for the outdoors, nature will do the rest as far as keeping her interested... so i don't push the mileage... i did that once, when they were really small, like 5 and 9 years old....it was 8 miles round trip to a waterfall... that was too much, and may be why i lost the older one... she remembers her feet peeling... i still feel bad about it... peer pressure works too, though... but that's another boring story...

[weary]

....there is NO santa claus or easter bunny

Right! But there is a "spirit" of Santa Claus that makes interesting things happen on Christmas morning.

[smokymtnsteve]

Right! But there is a "spirit" of Santa Claus that makes interesting things happen on Christmas morning.

we not B xian..so we don't recognize nor celebrate the consumption orgy of Xmas,

[Just Jeff]

Lighten up, weary! I don't trick them to get them into the woods - they go there willingly. But life sure is more fun if you can make people laugh - whether in the woods or not.

It's just that some jokes that work at home don't work in the woods.

[Moxie00]

In 1948 Boy Scout Troop 136 from Waterville, Maine climbed Katahdin. We climbed on the AT and that was my introduction to the trail. I was 10 years old at the time. Only one boy turned back, he was afraid of height. The rest of us climbed on because we were assured there was a hot dog stand at the summit and they would have cold sodas. I don't remenmber anyone getting mad when all they found was a tall pile of rocks and a sign. We felt a real sense of accomplishment at climbing a mountain a mile high. Heck, it was a dirty trick but it got us there and we were happy it did.

[teachergal]

I worked at a summer camp for inner-city kids outside of Cincinnati, Ohio for 4 summers while in college. One year during "teen week" (the week I always hated...) my cabin group wanted to camp out - a rare thing for a bunch of 13 year old girls to willingly want to sleep outside. I got special permission from the camp director and special extra staff to help supervise (we didn't want any raids on the boys cabins). We were going to sleep at the Pioneer Cabin which was just outside of main camp.

Our "camp spook" was named Renee - it's was one of those "the story changes depending on who is telling it" stories but one thing was consistent - her name was Renee. Well, that year we had a staff member named Renee as well.

As I was walking with my 13 year old girls in the dark - no one was using a flashlight as it was a bright night and they thought it was cool to not need one - Renee the staff member came out of the woods and approached us. None of the girls saw or heard her but I did and I causually said "Hi Renee!". You could have heard the screams miles away!!!!! Several girls bailed out of the camp out after that!

[weary]

Lighten up, weary! I don't trick them to get them into the woods - they go there willingly. But life sure is more fun if you can make people laugh - whether in the woods or not. It's just that some jokes that work at home don't work in the woods.

HMMM. What "joke" did I miss?

[betic4lyf]

just an idea. slugs. if you lick em, that part of your tongue goes numb. i have seen people eat them, and they say that your hole mouth goes numb. learnt it from a thru-hiker named moonshine on the top of mt. greylock.

[weary]

we not B xian..so we don't recognize nor celebrate the consumption orgy of Xmas,

Nor am I. But because when my kids were growing up, they lived in the real world of friends and society, we talked about the "spirit" of Xmas, and waited until December to buy them a few months supply of socks, pants, winter jackets and an occasional frivilous toy.

Neither then or now have we ever engaged in an orgy of consumption. One son complained the other day that the refrigerator in the house we built, and he now rents and lives in, had stopped working. I told my wife that in the "spirit" of Christmas giving, that we should think about making a new refrigerator his "gift" this year, along with the usual books that I hope he will read.

Weary