How to make walking outdoors fun for kids

Map reading

Hand over the map to your kids – this is the easiest ways they will love the feeling of responsibility of being able to lead the family! This could be an app on a phone or for older kids invest in some ordnance survey maps – they are lots of fun to try and navigate!

Get outdoors cards

These Gofindit cards are brilliant for distracting kids from remembering they’re on a long walk. Send them off with these great ideas to find various outdoor objects. You can up the pace by setting a time limit!

Build a Den

Why not try building a den with kids too!

Try a Scavenger Hunt

This magnetic scavenger hunt by is perfect for kids to take when out and about when going on a walk. They turn over the objects as they find them and you can buy additional sets to keep them challenged on new walks.

Matchbox Hike

A great nature appreciation idea is to have a matchbox walk. It’s an excellent opportunity to get your kids to love nature. Give your child a small matchbox to take with you on your walk and ask them to fill it with tiny nature treasures they find. You’ll appreciate not having to carry home yet another pine cone and this will teach them to admire the minutiae of nature and wildlife. This is a great nature walk experience.

Take a penny hike

If you’re just out for a wander and don’t mind where you roam – take a penny with you and get your kids to choose left or right to represent heads or tails. Every time you reach a juncture – toss your coin to see which way you should go! This is a really fun walking game for kids of all ages!

Take hammocks and hot chocolate and use walkie talkies

Take picnics or a thermos of hot choocolate on a cold day. The promise of good snacks over the hill is one of the easies things motivate the littlest of legs! You could also take a hammock to relax in the trees if you’re on a woodland walk. This is fun for older kids to build and younger kids to explore. You can use walkie talkies to play lots of our fun outdoor games for kids. Here’s our favourite woodland walks near South East London.

Give kids a magnifying glass

If you’re on a nature walk with kids – they love to investigate so give them a magnifying glass so they can get a glimpse of wildlife close up. You could even go on a bug hunt! Here’s some brilliant ideas for bug hunt activities with kids.

Nature Walk ideas for kids

Start a nature journal

Nature walks are great for kids of all ages. Take a small notebook with you so that your kids can record what they spot or things they see on their walk. You might want to take some paints or colouring pens with you and stop to do some drawing or painting of your surroundings. Here is some more ideas for Nature prompts for kids and ideas of how to start a Nature Journal. And if you want an easy way to start a Nature Journal – I’ve made this 21 page printable Nature Journal for kids which can be used in your garden or on a walk. It contains lots of simple activities for kids to do outside illustrated with pretty watercolour drawings to help kids love exploring nature. AS A LOVELY READER HERE IS 10% OFF WITH THE CODE THIMBLE10.

Nature bracelet

Making a nature bracelet is a fun nature activity to do on a walk. Tie some sticky tape round your child’s wrist with the sticky tape upwards. Now they have a nature bracelet that they can stick pretty flowers too or interesting leaves or anything fun they find on their walk.

Fly a handmade kite!

This works so well on a windy day! Make a handmade kite and the kids will have fun running round with it in the wind!

Give the kids a job!

Kids will feel more motivated to walk if they have a job or task to complete on the journey. For example – they might need to find 5 different types of leaves or spot 3 different types of birds or study the clouds at every hour on the dot?

Bark rubbings/ nature rubbings

Pack some crayons and you could do nature rubbings of fun textures you find on your journey – try leaves, twigs, bark etc…. or you could simply collect the textures to complete the bark rubbings at home.

Flower and Leaf Pressing

Pick some petals and leaves from the ground and bring them home with you to press in a flower press or under a large pile of books!

Go on a pond hike

Liven up a usual walk and go for pond hike – find a pond to hike to and spend some time exploring and pond dipping. Make sure you pack string, a jam jar (or these squidgy buckets are great because they pack up small.) Also try bringing a small sieve and a magnifying glass to see if you can catch some bugs! You could even make a nature boat to sail in the pond or down a river! We love these Wild Books for giving you ideas for fun places to explore and kid friendly walks to go on.

Set your kids a challenge!

Can they climb up that hill? Can you collect the smallest stick? Can you collect the longest stick? Little challenges on your walk with kids can help motivate them to keep going!

Go for a walk with a Nature Playground

Sometimes our kids just need the walk broken up a little bit – choose a kid friendly walk with a playground. We love the National Trust ones or you can use this link to see the best Forestry England walks which have the fun Gruffalo trails which is a fun idea for walking with with kids.

The Woodland Trust also have a great list of walks.

Make your family walk exciting!

Sometimes kids need a little more encouragement to walk! Why not try including a search for a waterfall? Or climb a (small) mountain? Or find a hidden castle? Anything a little out of the ordinary can make walking really fun for kids! Try the outdoor guide for some really interesting family walks in the UK.

Go on a Torchlit Night Walk with Kids

Who says walks have to be in the daytime? Your kids would LOVE a nightwalk in torchlight! And……if you go in the winter they don’t even need to miss their bedtime!

Make a lantern for your night walk!

Any good night walk will need a lantern! Find out how to make an Autumn leaf lantern here!

Photo scavenger hunt

If you have a phone or camera with you – challenge your kids to take a photo of different things they see on their walk. We like to give the older kids themes/ topics to focus their photos and help them develop their creative side. Here’s one of the photo scavenger hunts we’ve tried. This is the perfect walking activity for older kids.

Simple ways to help kids enjoy walking

Walking games to play with kids

Games can pass the time on a long walk or keep little kids engaged and motivated, our favourites are below…… There are some more fun games to play with kids on a walk in this post.

I spy

I Spy is a classic game to play with kids of any age.

Treasure Map Game

For young children – create a treasure map for some make believe play as they follow ‘X Marks the Spot’ to their treasure.

Shopping game

You can play this game with kids of varying ages. Someone starts by saying ‘I went to the shops today and bought…’ something beginning with A (e.g. apple). The next person continues by saying the previous item (apple) and then something beginning with B (e.g. banana) and so on working through the alphabet, adding one more item to the end of the list each time. You can make this game harder by making the shopping list only include ‘fruit’ or ‘vegetables’ for example.

Family and Friends Treasure Hunt or Nature Scavenger Hunt

As an alternative to the traditional scavenger hunt – get friends or family to text you a list of things to find on your walk. This works really well if older children, grandparents or aunties/ uncles text the scavenger hunt right before you leave! Or you could challenge other families to beat your time for completing your nature scavenger hunt!

Name that tune

Hum or sing a song and see if others can guess the tune.

Sound hunt/ colour hunt

These are a great way to keep kids interested in the walk. As you walk, ask kids to listen out for certain things or collect particular coloured items. Here’s some ideas for your sound hunt……..

• Birds Chirping
• Bee Buzzing
• Brook Babbling
• Aeroplane
• Dog Barking
• Wind Blowing
• Leaves Rustling

 Geocaching

Geocaching with kids is another great hiking trail idea for kids – it is the equivalent a treasure hunt for the digital generation. A geocache or ‘cache’ is a small waterproof treasure box hidden outdoors. Sometimes you can find You can find out if any “caches” on your neighbourhood walk by visiting geocaching.com and you can find out how we got on geocaching here! Our first attempt wasn’t a complete success! But we’ve got better since – here’s our top tips for geocaching with kids!

20 questions walking game

A great walking game for preschoolers is to hide a small object (something from your bag, or that you find on your walk) in your hand and then ask your kids to try and figure out what it is in less than 20 questions. You can also play this game with people – think of someone and then you have to guess ‘who am I?’

Spelling Game

This is a spelling game that’s a great walking game for older kids that I play with my students at school. The challenge is to add letters to a word fragment—but not be the one to complete the word. Start with a random letter, and then each player takes turns adding new letters. They must be legitimate parts of a word and be leading to spell a word. If you do finish a word (say, it’s your turn when “HIKIN” gets to you; your only choice is to finish the word “HIKING”), you get a point. Get five points and you’re out. However, you can challenge someone who might be ‘pretending to create a word’. If they can’t say the word they’re challenged on – they also get a point.