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.

The boys like exploring and looking at wildlife so we try to look out for activities that will keep them interested

I take my son geocaching but we call it treasure hunting. If we're shopping his legs are tired after 5 minutes but if we are hunting pirate treasure, he'll walk for miles and miles!

In the summer my boys are happy to go out, but they don't like going outdoors in the winter or when it's too cold/wet, so I put their jackets over the radiator so it's nice and warm when it's time to go out. We also pack a warm flask of hot chocolate and sometimes a hot food flask as well.

My little one loves the fresh air and outdoors, we have a park right behind our garden so we literally just need to walk to the end of our garden to reach the park. We have a 10ft trampoline as well in the garden which she absolutely loves

We are very lucky as we have the beach and beautiful countryside nearby. A long dog walk with a picnic always goes down a treat, even in winter.

My kids love being outside. For me the key was to make it a daily event - there's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. Also accept they could get mucky and don't chastise them for it - it's part of the fun and experience. I have a ball, boomerang and kite in my bag which they love and the iSpy series of books - trees, birds, plants, wildlife are also a big hit. Dad works long hours during the week, at weekends we go on much longer adventures - the kids would follow him to the moon and back!

My dds love making dens. They can play for hours - making the den and then it becomes a clubhouse. Bike rides are also very popular.

We do some hill walking near my mums house, they would rather that than sit and watch the boring adult tv programmes

Were quite lucky to live near a nature reserve so getting the kids out is not to much trouble cause we love it over there. whats helped the most is making it exciting, taking a picnic etc and turning it into a real adventure. we sometimes have a list of things we have to find and the person who finds them all first or the one who finds the most on there list wins! it gets them searching high and low and they really enjoy it

We go geocaching as a family - the kids love it because it's like treasure hunting and they sometimes get to keep something from the cache as well as leaving a little something for someone else to take. It's great exercise and gets us exploring our local area and discovering places we've never been before.

We used to write a list together, before we set off, of things to spot on our long walks in the local woods. Things like a feather, a tin can, a pine cone, a birds egg, a Robin etc.
It kept us all amused and interested in our surroundings.

We walk to 'biscuit bridge', or 'sweetie gate'. When we get there the kids have to say some magic words, with their eyes closed, and magically biscuits or sweets appear! (aka from Dad's pocket, but the kids don't know!) Not the most healthy treat, but it works every time for our 8 and 3 year old.

Scavenger hunts! My son writes what he thinks he'll see on our walk and then ticks things off as we go. We sometimes draw treasure maps for him to follow too and hide prizes at the X for him!

We are lucky where we live in Rossendale there are lots of great places to go to and explore, reservoirs, parks and woods etc, We often go for lovely walks and my kids love to take their scooters it is just a shame the weather is so awful at the moment

We have recently got scooters for the entire family so we are out on them every weekend - rain or shine! The boys love it that mum and dad scoot too and its been fun finding which new places we can scoot next! Has definately made us more active as a family.

I find that if I sneak outdoors with a cup of tea for a quiet five minutes, an alarm must go off in the house and the kids will be at my side demanding my attention in no time at all, fresh air for all, ha!! (top tip!!!).

I recently got myself one of those step counters that you attatch to your waist and the kids keep having a go with it too,so I got them one each too and over the Easter Holidays we are having a little competition to see who can manage the highest number each day with the weekly winner getting to pick a DVD for watching on Saturday night with their choice of dinner. I'm hoping that this will ensure we all get out each day doing various walks or cycles and I'm hoping I win :)

We live near an airport and you can walk around the perimeter. We walk half way round and at each end, there's a park (used for motivation!!)... We spot planes, plants, insects, etc. Daughter loves it!

Making dens in the garden with a clothes horse and old sheets. Sorry grandma we blamed your dog but it was me and dgs! Having a teddy bears picnic under it / making duplo structures / playing with cars.

I think often people think money needs to be spent to make the outdoors an experience when it is the being outdoors that IS the experience

When mine were 5 or so We would give them the a bucket, spade & water etc and let them play in the sandpit or a muddy area of the garden !

They would get filthy & love it, I would then hose them down & let them have a long bubble bath with crazy hair sculpting thrown in

Treasure hunts are always good. Getting a dog is even better...

The Gruffalo explorer book is easily our favourite

My kids love treasure hunts so we do treasure hunts in the garden ! We love going on walks in the village and seeing what we can find, doesn't matter if it's raining, that just makes it more fun ! Wellies and mac's on and out we go, enjoy a good splash in the puddles on the way home too !

The local council run subsidised activity days in the holidays -for several years I've booked as much as I can afford.
They've done high ropes,archery,sub aqua,horse riding and climbing among other things.
I do outdoor sports,and love to camp and be outside so they've grown up with it being normal too.

We tend to play games were ever we go our walk down the dene for example we play follow the lender when we are walking and the boys take turns to be the leader . If we find trees with some of the stump missing they play dens in it.We look for objects or animals beginning with certain letters . Always trying to keep our boys entertained by making things fun.