What are your tips for getting your children to enjoy the great outdoors? Share your ideas on this thread to win a £100 North Face giftcard and more

[EmilyMumsnet]

As kids spend more and more time glued to a screen, they’re experiencing less and less of nature and the great outdoors. To help you enjoy the first whiffs of spring, we’re working with publishers Frances Lincoln to give away one £100 North Face e-giftcard, as well as 5 copies of their new book 100 Family Adventures.

100 Family Adventures is a brilliant resource book packed full of fun ideas for outdoor activities the whole family can enjoy. There’s tips and tricks for budding explorers, sailors and mountaineers, as well as games and adventures more suited to your local area.

To enter our competition, post your top tips for getting your kids up and out into the fresh air on the thread below. The more inventive the better! Share your ideas on this thread before 10am on 6th April 2015. 100 Family Adventures is published on 5th March 2015

This competition is now closed

Thanks to everyone for their wonderful tips and suggestions - you know you're in Great British countryside when cagoules, wellies and a thermos are must-haves!

Winner: Valski

Runners up:
Amy106, BLUEBERRYHEART, greenapples, TooManyNames, Nuttynelnew

We'll be in touch soon about sending out your prizes. In the meantime, congratulations to the winners and thanks again to everyone for contributing.

[TooManyNames]

My 3 year old DS loves bugs... So we play this game on our walks where we turn over logs and big rocks and 'spot the bug'. We identify their main characteristics and which bug family they belong to (insects, arachnids... millipedes etc). You'd be amazed what you can find under there. We also take turns 'following the leader' Peter Pan style- and rotate roles so he gets to lead the way but also follow us. As a result he loves forest/park walks- rain or shine. And there's often an ice cream reward if he's been specially good!

[redalertalpha]

Definitely my boys love an adventure so rather than walks we have zombie hunts with nerf guns or explorer safaris with binoculars, magnifying glasses & treasure :)

[ktmd]

For kids who are just not that into nature, pavement chalks can keep them in the garden, getting fresh air, for ages!

[ShatnersBassoon]

Encourage them to join Scouts.

Buy them some overalls, so even if the garden is muddy you can chuck them out to air off for a bit. Overalls are a brilliant incentive with younger children.

[1033MICHELLE]

My 3 year old son is not so keen on walking but we do a hunt in the park and woods where we have to find an object the quickest. It makes him walk further without really noticing.

[Anusia86]

My little girl is nearly 3 years old (will be in end of May), since sew was baby I always took her out and about, every day we go out (or nearly every depends how rainy is outside) to the park, shopping or for a walk. She loves it, she has got so much energy that even she knows that best way to make herself tired is outside. So many things is going on that you cannot observe at home, for example we watch clouds, or looking for warms. When we are in the park we listen to birds - she enjoys that different kinds of bird, sing in different way. Most important thing is never take pushchair with you, let them walk and enjoy. They will be able to find so many interesting things that even you will be surprised.

[IAmAPaleontologist]

Oooh that gift card would come in handy, I have a lot of kit updating to do .

Make it normal.

It is more difficult now because our work life changed and we have a hectic schedule which does not allow a whole lot of walking to school but we try. When we walk to school we look out for things, I point out birds, we listen for the first woodpeckers in spring, we look at the buds on the trees or the changing of the leaves in Autumn. Simple pleasures that allow the children to grow an understanding of nature as the seasons turn. We forage for apples, blackberries, elderflower but we only take what we need, a little from each bush, leave some for others and some for the birds and so we learn respect for what nature can give us.

And of course we have fun! Yesterday dd dragged me into the woods to set up a forest school and we made dens :). Last week she and her little brother got bored watching their big brother play rugby so they ventured off and made worm houses . We live near Gibside National Trust and go often and we love exploring there. During holidays they put on activities every day ranging from den building and marshmallow toasting to pond dipping. Pond dipping is great fun, the dc adore identifying the creepy crawlies. I think following through and identifying things and talking about them is what captures and keeps their interest. If you jsut see something and never find out what it is or anything about it then they stop looking they don't care. But if we come home, look it up (on the internet, computers can be useful!) then next time they want to find more of them.

Dd got obsessed with butterflies after studying them at school and asked Father Christmas for some so he delivered a net and a voucher for some caterpillars in her stocking so we will be raising our own this summer :)

[Dsiso]

The Gruffalo explorer book is brilliant. Makes the kids look for things and put stickers in the right place. We don't go for a walk anymore, we go 'exploring'. Simply brilliant!

[bughead]

My first love was horses and our granddaughter Sophie is now discovering the joy of combining fresh air, excercise and the love of an animal, unbeatable.

[Larnipoo]

We've found visiting local country parks to be a lovely way of spending time outdoors with our 7 yr old autistic son. Not only does it visual teach about the seasons, there free entry - result!

[rachaelsmith84]

We do lots of scavenger hunts, the kids draw what they think they'll see on our walk and then tick things off as we go. We sometimes draw treasure maps for them to follow too and hide kinder eggs at the X for them. They always love it! If going to something historical, castles etc. we get them to dress up as Knights to slay dragons we might come across too.

[ZanyGran13]

Put old clothes on them plus wellies, lead them to the great outdoors and lock the door. Leave them with food, drink a skipping rope and ball. Make sure they know their home telephone number, but keep any mobile phones with you, and let them use their own initiative to find natural things from a list you have made earlier. No rare flowers in that list, preferably flowering weeds. Give them a time limit and expect them in on time with penalties if they are late. Make sure they have enough money to ask for someone to ring home from a landline.

[improbablesaint]

when in France once we had to trek over long sand dunes to get to the beach, i used to tell the LONGEST stories as we went over them, involving all their mates and whatever craze they were into at the time so they couldnt moan about the ( admittedly long) walk

[pinxminx]

My kids love "helping" out in the garden. We rake leaves, sow seeds, prune bushes and plant bulbs. We also keep bees, so they help with that. It connects them to nature and gives us all some fresh air. We are going to build a shed this year, so they can help with that too.

[luckyjazz]

My 2 love treasure hunts, I buy some cheap toys from the £1 shop, hide them and then write out fun clues for them to track down the prize, mine will happily do this rain or shine, they also love assault courses, place various obstacles through the garden and they then have to leap over and around them x

[lottietiger]

We keep lots of wellies and waterproofs and we go out in all weathers. Growing your own food gets my son outdoors every time he loves planting seeds, watering them and checking to see if they are growing. The other thing that gets him outdoors is feeding the birds, he loves to take his crusts out to the table and then hide to se who comes and takes them. He knows the names of all the birds in the garden and makes sure they don't go hungry.

[Segga86]

My kids love going out to explore the outdoors, I only have to suggest trying a new forest or a cave and they are happy :)

[pontosj16]

My girls enjoy collecting sticks for the fire - we race to fill the bag and have a 'best stick' competition! Also take a snack to have halfway on a walk to perk them up

[JiminyCricket]

If you live in a city look and see if they publish a 'statue' trail or something similar - Bristol does and we took small children round to see and take photos of them all on two seperate days. A great way to find new places in a city you know well. Sometimes me and dd2 go out sketching as she enjoys visual things/beauty more than sports activities.

[FirstOfficerDouglasRichardson]

We pretend to be superheroes (well I'm usually the supervillain). It involves a lot of running, climbing and pretending to zap each other. DS hides behind trees even the tiny sapling twig like ones thinking I can't see him.
We also recently built a bug hotel in our garden. If we find bugs we bring them home to our hotel to stay (although I'm not sure that's a very kind thing to do, forceful relocation of bugs - no bugs are harmed during the course of moving- think of us like a friendly bug removals company).

[Nittyb]

Get into geo caching, treasure hunt in the great outdoors, you can get the app on your phone & use it to find caches that other people have hidden with a notebook to put your name & date, & 'treasure ' little trinkets you can take if you put something else in.

[ThisIsOurBlanket]

We take binoculars and magnifying glasses, little trowels and buckets for bringing back "finds".

But actually I think the most important thing is weather-proof clothing. If they're cold or wet, they always moan, if they're protected from the elements they'll keep on going. We have brilliant waterproof dungarees, we definitely couldn't stay out so long or explore so much without them.

[MooseyMoo]

in the winter the kids loved going on torch walks, trying to catch the torch beam, spotting the moon and stars. Now it's getting lighter earlier they love chasing their shadows, spotting bugs and recently after a huge rainstorm they went out in waterproof trousers, raincoats and wellies and had so much fun jumping in puddles. Running jumps, who could jump highest, who could make biggest splash, chasing to get to puddle first, trying to find the muddiest/largest/deepest puddle. They were thoroughly drenched, mud all over and were so happy.

[SachaF]

We do orienteering events as a family which involves us going to different woods or parks every so often.
I have an allotment, where the children have to either entertain themselves running around/digging in mud or help me - enforced outside time as there is nowhere else for them to go!
Also, we have a motorhome so most holidays involve the outdoors in some way or other- cycling, walking even skiing.
In the summer, I try to get the bikes out so we cycle to an activity the children do in the next village. I will make a picnic tea. As we go straight from school we have some time to kill so we head to a field near a river where we have snacks first and look at the ducks and swans.

[MooseyMoo]

Forgot to say DC are 3 and nearly 5