Unusual environment
Games in a new environment
Children, especially toddlers, are sensitive to their surroundings. Some sleep anxiously in an unfamiliar place, others are more capricious during the day. The following will help calm your baby:
- Worry less yourself: the baby reads the parents’ state.
- Prepare in advance for camping with children. Let them play in a tent at home. Go spend the night in the nearest forest.
- For a night's sleep, it is important to choose the right sleeping bag: it is not only a blanket, but also a house for the baby.
- If your child is afraid of the dark, set up camp early on an overnight camping trip. In a tent with a cozy flashlight, the night is not scary.
- A favorite toy gives a feeling of home and reduces anxiety.
- Tell us about your upcoming trip. Focus on joyful events: what you will do and what new things you will see.
- Increase the duration and complexity of the trip gradually.
- Life among strangers is not easy for introverted children. Start by traveling in a small group. On group hikes, pay more attention to the kids and place the tent in a secluded corner so that the kids have their own space. Perhaps staying in small houses, such as in family Turkey, is more suitable for you.
Come up with interesting goals
At the same time, children get tired of monotony. To maintain motivation, plan your day trips so that the scenery changes frequently: it’s nice to go from a dense forest to an alpine meadow, and spending the night on a lake is an adventure. Walking for a long time along a wide dirt road is also boring: children jump much more cheerfully along a narrow rocky path.
It’s good if you encounter various “attractions” along the way: a colorful village, grazing cows, a blueberry or raspberry garden, a church, a cave. If nothing special is happening around, tell your child about everything in the world: what the trees are called and why the leaves are green, where the sun goes at night and why it rains.
For inspiration: Top 10 most photogenic places in the world
Station TOURISTIC
Lesovichok: - Hello, guys! You came to me on foot. Do you know what else you can travel on? What types of tourism exist?
Children: - Water, horseback, ski, automobile.
Lesovichok: - Correct! Only when traveling can dangers await you, and you must know how you can help yourself and others.
Lesovichok asks the teams questions. For each correct answer the team is awarded a piece of paper.
Tasks on knowledge of rules of conduct in the forest:
- If you scratch yourself in the forest, but you don’t have iodine or brilliant green with you, what can you use to lubricate the scratch?
- If you are bitten by a wasp, what will you do? - You need to pull out the sting, lubricate the bite site with soap.
- If you hurt your knee badly, what will you do? - You need to wash the wound, treat it, bandage it.
- If you find a tick on your body, what will you do? — You need to tell an adult, lubricate the skin with oil, and when the tick starts to emerge from under the skin, you need to carefully pull it out with a needle and consult a doctor.
When going to the forest for nature, remember the safety rules:
- Wear clothes that fit your body tightly.
- The jacket must be tucked into trousers, a scarf, a hood, and a cap on the head.
- When you return from the forest, immediately examine your body. The best way to see an attached tick is in the sun. If you find a tick on your body, immediately inform an adult about it - you cannot cope with this problem yourself.
- If you get a thorn under your skin, what will you do? - You need to tell an adult, treat the needle with alcohol and pull out the splinter with a needle.
- What to do if you hit your head and get a bump? - You need to apply something cold: a cold spoon, a handkerchief soaked in cold water, a wet newspaper.
- What to do if you are bitten by mosquitoes? - You need to lubricate the bites with brine - salt water. This will help reduce itching.
- What to do if you meet a wild animal in the forest? - You can't run away. It is best to freeze, then the beast will go its own way. If an animal is about to attack you, call an adult for help and climb a tree.
Lesovichok: “ I want to offer you horseback riding today.” What will this type of tourism be called?
The relay race “Equestrian tourism” is held.
Children gallop at a straight pace, racing in pairs to a landmark and back.
Lesovichok: - Well done, guys! We completed the task. Goodbye! It's time for you to continue on your way.
Station ECOLOGICAL
Baba Yaga: - What's that noise? What's all the fuss? Who are you and where did you come from? Well, turn back! I won't let you in! There are all kinds of people walking around here! The forest is being littered!
Educator: - We are not just anyone, we are tourists!
Baba Yaga: - Those guys also called themselves tourists, but look what they did! And what a clearing it was! I frolicked here as a child, when I was only a hundred years old! Oh! What was the air like! Aroma! And now? That piece of paper will lie for three years, or maybe more, until nature digests it. And this plastic bottle will not disappear even in fifteen, or even twenty years. What are you watching? Go away, I said I won’t let you in!
Educator: - Dear Baba Yaga, our guys know how to behave in the forest.
Baba Yaga: - And we’ll check this now.
Ecological signs.
Baba Yaga will test children's knowledge of environmental signs:
- Don't trample flowers or grass.
- Carefully extinguish the fire when leaving the resting place.
- Don't shout, don't play loud music.
- Don't tear up the cobwebs.
- Don't break tree branches.
- Don't destroy birds' nests.
Baba Yaga: - Well, tell me, where to put the garbage after yourself?
A competition is being held to see who can collect the trash the fastest.
Children put on gloves, take garbage bags and, when given a signal, quickly put garbage in them.
Baba Yaga:
- I will tell you from the bottom of my heart - All the guys are good! They cleared a clearing for me.
- Look at this fire. Did his previous children prepare him correctly? What is missing?
The competition “Cover the fire with stones” is being held.
Baba Yaga: - Well done, guys! We completed the task. Goodbye! It's time for you to continue on your way.
Changing your daily routine
The hike gets up earlier. Source: katerinacost.ru
Children's sensitivity to routine varies: some sleep whenever they can, while others schedule their day minute by minute. It will not be easy for the last ones on the hike - we choose family trekking and stick to the usual schedule.
But even here there are no surprises. The baby may sleep twice instead of once or not sleep until the evening. Passengers of ergo backpacks sleep on the move and frolic in the parking lot.
Calm, just calm! Adaptation will take place and everything will work out.
How to organize a baby's nap during a hike?
The baby fell asleep in the carrier and is resting on the mat.
When preparing for a group hike, check with the organizers about the approximate daily routine and age of the children who have signed up.
At home, shift your routine by 15 minutes in both directions.
A good rest is sleeping on a flat surface. If you notice that the baby is nodding off, put him on the mat and rest yourself.
How to prepare for a hike with a child?
The kids were well prepared!
Remember: you are going on a hike for a good mood. Create it in advance and don’t lose it along the way.
Think through the logistics and route. If they were developed in advance, refresh the information. If you go with a group, check to see if there are any changes.
Write a list of equipment - take into account the experience of others and decide for yourself what to take for a comfortable stay. Consider the weather forecast. Take your favorite toy, but don’t overdo it with entertainment: there is plenty of it in nature. Think about what games to play while camping.
Tell your child about the upcoming event - explanations are useful even for a baby.
Relax on the eve of departure: busy days lie ahead. Good luck!
Take some delicious food
Camping food is not sticky kindergarten oatmeal. With a little ingenuity, outdoor cooking can be done just like at home. To make a delicious milk porridge, take plain milk powder (not powdered coffee creamer!), dilute it according to instructions, add your favorite cereal or whole grains, cook on a burner and, when almost ready, add freeze-dried berries. Place the finished dish in a beautiful camping plate and take a photo for Instagram.
For lunch, you can make soup, for example, from the Yelli or Yelli Kids series, or have a snack with sandwiches and tea from a thermos. For dinner, try pasta with dried vegetables, aromatic oil (make sure the bottle cap doesn't leak), and a hard cheese that's easy to grate ahead of time.
For bottle-fed babies, parents usually carry water in a thermos and bottles according to the number of feedings, and in the evening they wash and sterilize everything at once.
Find more ideas on what to feed your child while camping and what to do about the lack of fruits, vegetables and milk on the Touristenok website.
What if something happens?
Mom is on guard for safety.
The biggest fears are in the head. Properly organized trekking is no more dangerous than a children's playground, but for this, everyone must follow the rules of the trek.
Discuss with your child in advance what to do:
- obey you and the instructor;
- be near;
- do not touch unfamiliar plants and wild animals;
- talk about all your experiences.
For extra safety, pack a first aid kit. Watch your baby carefully and everything will be fine.
Acclimatization
Children in Cyprus
Children endure climate change more difficult than adults and adapt in up to two weeks. How to shorten and facilitate adaptation?
- Travel to a region with a similar climate.
- Do not change the standard time by more than 2 hours.
- To travel in hot climates, choose the off-season.
- Try to arrive early and get used to the new area.
- Let me get some sleep.
- Give your child more vegetables and fruits, but don’t get carried away with unusual ones.
- Drink water more often.
- Returning to the cold, do not rush to walk.
- Don't rush to kindergarten. Rest at home for a few days and let your baby sleep longer.
An excellent option in the south without the heat is the Elbrus region with children. And the mountains are in full view, and there are no problems with adaptation.
Prepare surprises
Children enjoy surprises on a hike no less than they enjoy gifts and sweets for the New Year. Secretly prepare one small treat for each day. This should not be an ordinary camping layout, but something special: red caviar, a jar of Pringles or cherry jam, unexpectedly appearing from a backpack far from civilization, will be worth its weight in gold. Introduce the "pass chocolate" rule: open the bar after a difficult climb or when children have covered half or two-thirds of the day's journey.
You don't have to limit yourself to edible surprises. When you arrive at a pass or other destination, quietly hide the treasure. Small, light and unbreakable things are suitable: cars, plastic animals, reflective keychains, pocket mirrors, rings, bracelets. The child will be happy to find treasures and hear the legend you made up about where they came from.
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