Encouraging children to go on walks - any tips?

[halster]

Have just got back from another walk with the kids - as per usual there was much moaning, wingeing, tears, cries of "my legs are tired". We did not go far at all. They are 3 and 6, I understand that the 3 year old will get tired easily, but the 6 year old? I would love to take them on lovely country walks regulary but it is so stressful!! I try to make the walks as interesting as possible. And bribing them doesn't work either.

Do your kids happily go for walks? What is your secret?
My MIL maintains that my dh walked the Pennine Way when he was 4 (carrying his clothes in a rucksack).

I want to do geocaching.

(no spare funds for £80 on a thingamybobwotsit)

Give them a buket each and get them off searching for 'treasure' sticks/red leaved/stones feathers etc etc it does help or us.

Snacks in pockets help too! Museli bar/dried fruit etc etc

have you got a satnav flame?

Some great ideas here. What worked for us was knowing the point at which the toddler hates being strapped into the push chair and making the most of that time, even though lots of chasing and carrying is involved. But when he wanted to walk, we let him walk. Most of the time . The 'going entirely the opposite way' phase always involves a little restraint with straps.

Flamesparrow - my DH just used his mobile phone. But to be honest we couldn't really get a signal so we just relied on the clues. I would say try an easy one and print off the map on Google maps as if you type in the co-ordinates it will bring up the relavant map. It probably will take you a bit longer that way but it's worth a go. Also make sure you decrypt the extra clue!

Flamesparrow - I used a garmin forerunner thing (that I usually run with) but to be honest it wasn't that helpful - what was more useful was putting the co-ordinates into google earth and zooming in (like I think dobby? suggested.) From that I could pretty much work out where they both were and just had to hunt around a bit when we got there. We used every hint going too!

I once met a caching team who didn't use a GPSr, they used Google Earth and made notes on where the cache should be, printed off pictures from Google Earth etc. They'd found quite a few.

We went geocaching for the first time today. We don't have a gps yet, we couldn't find one of them, but found the other. DD was delighted ( we had 8 month old DS in the ergo) and told everyone in the supermarket we'd been on a tresure hunt and found treasure. Some of the caches on the geocaching site seem REALLY nerdy though, loads of obscure clues and you really need a gps for them.

Found two geocache's today, failed to find number 3 - though the last person to find it has responded to e-mail through Geocaching.com with confirmation that they did find it a couple of days ago, I was in the right location, etc. So may try that one again.

Has anyone tried walking as a group? I meet up with two (sometimes more) childminders during the week and go for our usual weekly walk (Bishopsgate to Savill garden - in Windsor Great Park). Babies go in the buggies/packpacks/slings, pre-schoolers walk. With school aged children they tend to run and hide more than walk! Thing is, it's a group exercise, the children interact with each other, adults get to have a chat, all get to have a snack at the coffee shop.

Maybe we should have some Mumsnet meetup's where we go walking on an adventure. Anyone in Surrey area up for that... Smithagain? (maybe we could arrange to all meet at Stepping Stones).

You really dont need a GPS to start with as long as you stick to the easy ones. And even the best GPS units will only bring you within a few feet of the actual cache - there will still be plenty of searching around to do as they are always camoflaged/hidden in tree stumps/stuck on top of/under/behind things

We went back to find 2 today and despite searching for ages and KNOWING we were within inches of one we still came back disappointed grrr.

And nannynick i often go trundling up crystal palace park and other local haunts with my fellow CM buddies, one of whom I have also turned over to the dark side of geocaching

Oh I just posted on another thread about crystal palace park... I guess the zoo is no longer there, though I expect the dinosaurs remain.

very best tip is walking with other children - preferably of same age, otherwise older children who would enjoy entertaining younger ones as much as the younger ones would keep walking just to keep up with older ones. Frequent stops with treats (a flask of their favourite soup /hotchocolate; sweets & chocolate bars , even if usually rationed).

We have no car so kids used to walking since very young. stopped carrying them when they were 2 - mummy is too old/ tired/ worn out. Do checkpoints - with various rewards e.g. sweet, apple, lunch in pub etc. Do not tolerate whinging - just march on regardless.

5 y/o can do 5 miles, 7 y/o old 7 miles plus.

footwear - trainers or walking boots for rough terrain.

playing horses/ dogs/ tree climbing, looking out for places of interest, reading the map and using the compass all good incentives.

Do not exoect them to carry anything other than something they might eat themselves.

Will investigate geocaching - sounds fun but as have no gps could be a PITA. nothing worse than promising a treasure hunt and then finding sod all.

My son will happily do 6 miles (DW moans beyond this point), and at least 20 miles on the bike.

We go mushroom hunting when we go out walking, fungi spotting (and identification) gives him something to do. Plenty of other things you could look out for, interesting rocks/stones, lichens, insects, birds (bring binoculars?) the list goes on....

With geocaching, if you can read a map, stick to the easy ones and use the clues you should be able to get quite a number of them. I did my first 60 or 70 without a gps. Admittedly there were ones I didn't get, but then even with a gps I have missed some really obvious ones! It's the type of thing that as you approach the drop zone you start thinking 'now where would I hide one?'

Garmin gecko currently £45 on eBay with no bids yet. This is what we use for geocaching and it's brilliant.

Agree with others take a digital camera (a cheap one from ebay ideal for little ones)

Thanks to this thread, DS (4) and I have done a 3 mile walk in the forest this morning and I've contacted the local ramblers association about their family walks so, thank you halster .

I am quite sure we could manage a 5 mile walk and we'll try that in a couple of weeks when it is a little less cold.

Well, we tried geocaching today for the first time. And we didn't find any of them! Ok, admitedly, I think it was my fault. We don't have a GPS and live in central London so I was going by the description and clues (they were right by a station). So when we got home, I put the co-ordinates into google earth and reaslised we were looking in completely the wrong locations! Still, it was a useful exercise and ds1 is keen to go back and look again now that we know where!

Do any of you walkers have an idea of how I can measure the distance that we are walking? I thought of a pedometer but I really need to know miles. I mean, we are walking london streets, but if we go on holiday I would like to know if they can manage a 2, 3, 4 mile walk etc based on what we are doing here.

If you get hold of a GPSr to use for geocaching, that will record your distance travelled (as long as you don't keep turning it on and off/ changing the batteries like I have to do!).

If you know where you went, you can mark it out using the path option for the "ruler" in Google Earth.

I am hoping to avoid buying one yet if possible. Any other ways of measuring the distance?

We have a dog so walk everyday and sometimes it is very painful!

What works for us sometimes is to announce that today we are going for a "nature walk" which gets the two dds very excited, we take pots etc to put leaves in and I sometimes "see" exciting animals which have mysteriously disappeared by the time they look for them which helps keep the interest up!

Sometime we decide before hand that we are going to collect some items for a specific purpose ie collage, to give to Grandma etc.

We have lots of walks with special points on them ie paddling, tree climbing, views, mud etc

Also agree that friends help - have just walked for about 2 hours with friends and no moaning - success! There was the lure of the cakes we had made earlier at the end.

Soupdragon - that sounds interesting. I will look into that!

IlanaK if you use walkit.com to plan your walking around london it gives you the distance in steps,kms and miles