Encouraging Young Adventurers – What adventurous activity does your family love to do together? Have you felt the tug between wanting to protect your children and letting them try hard things? Here are some tips to help you encourage your child’s adventurous side.
Photo taken at Moraine Lake – Banff, Alberta, Canada. Visit the Banff Lake Louise Tourism website for more information about what outdoor family adventures you can enjoy in Banff National Park.
That first step off is always the hardest one.
I could hear my husband coaching her down over the cliff. She lost her grip on her confidence, and even from where I stood down below, I could see the tears starting to fall. She was only seven, after all.
But before long, she looked her dad in the eyes and found the assurance she needed that he would help her down. She gathered up just enough courage to take one more step backwards—and then another.
I watched as she slowly made her way down the cliff face. When her feet finally reached the ground, I’ll never forget the smile beaming on her face. She had DONE IT!
She was so happy with her accomplishment, and it wasn’t five seconds before she excitedly proclaimed, “I want to do it AGAIN!”
My husband has been rock climbing and rappelling since he was young, and we’ve recently taken up this hobby as a family. On our first outdoor rappelling adventure, the kids’ nerves were close to the surface, so we took it one step at a time.
It was an amazing experience as we all worked together. My husband belayed and gave instruction; he taught my oldest daughter how to attach, as well as check and connect equipment, and she began helping the younger siblings get ready to rappel.
We cheered each other on and celebrated each other’s successes.
But what made the day for me was seeing the unmistakable boost of confidence my seven-year-old gained from mastering something she didn’t really believe she could do.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you cannot do! – Eleanor Roosevelt
I’m often struck by the precarious balance between wanting to keep our children safe and protected, on the one hand, and allowing them to fly, on the other. It can be much harder to let them fly, knowing they may encounter fear…or failure.
But I believe that tackling challenging adventures side by side with our kids helps them learn valuable skills that can translate into real life.
7 Things Our Children Gain through Adventure
- Problem solving and decision making skills.
- Heightened curiosity and creativity.
- More familiarity with their limits and boundaries.
- Experience working as a team.
- Trust in the people they can depend on, like the trust my children have for their dad when he belays them.
- A healthy view of risk. Joe Frost, an influencer in the field of play and safety, has said, “In the real world, life is filled with risks—financial, physical, emotional, social—and reasonable risks are essential for children’s healthy development.” source
- And perhaps biggest of all, the inner belief that they can do hard things. By reiterating their successes during your daily life as a family, your kids can extrapolate that confidence—ultimately believing in their ability to handle whatever life throws at them.
Tips on Finding Adventures that Suit Your Family
- It’s okay to feel scared. Overcoming fear allows our children to feel the rush of accomplishment and a subsequent boost in confidence.
- It’s also okay to push them a little, to encourage them to stretch themselves and reach beyond what they think they can do!
- That said, “adventure” doesn’t mean taking dangerous risks. It means participating in calculated challenges that will help our children grow, not dampen their self-worth or endanger their wellbeing.
- Start small and build from there. Before we moved to an actual cliff face, our family started by rappelling at a local recreation center. Once the kids were comfortable with climbing there, we moved outdoors.
Adventure Activities for Kids and Teens
- hiking
- rappelling
- kayaking
- paddle boarding
- water or snow skiing
- mountain biking and cycling
- rock climbing
- swimming
I’d love to hear what kind of adventures your family enjoys doing together and if you’ve had any similar experiences! Happy adventuring, friends!
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We take our three boys on hikes all the time. The baby is still to young to walk on his own, but he’s getting to heavy to carry. Hopefully by next summer he will walk on his own. 🙂
This is so great, Rebecca! My four love our outdoor adventures! We just got back from a week in Utah and a week in Northern California… exploring. We even took them all white water rafting for the first time! It was amazing! There truly is nothing better than getting outside and experiencing the world together!
I love this post! I just wrote about how my husband encouraged my inner adventurer, and we just took our 3-year-old camping for the second time last weekend – we love being outdoors here in Colorado! Headed to Montana to explore in just a couple weeks. Love your blog – beautiful photos and great ideas.
So inspiring. I was just telling my husband and kids how I wanted to find a rock climbing gym in our town this week. I used to rock climb and boulder when I was in high school and college. It was one of the most fun things I have done.
Our children are still quite young (5, 3, & 1) but we try to take regular trips into the mountains to go hiking and camping. We also love exploring and playing in rivers and creeks. Teaching our kids how to be safe in the river and the fun of exploring has been a lot of fun.
My husband and I have always been travelers and love adventure. We were marrying 25 years this year but the big milestone for us this year as that we adopted 2 boys, 8 and 11. They lived with us for the previous 3 years so 2 years ago we started taking them to Colorado. We are from Louisiana so when we really started hiking and riding on 4wd trails it was really special to the 4 of us. Each year we hike somewhere different in that area. We hope to go to Glacier National Park next year. We are all so excited about that new adventure for all of us. Oh the places we want to explore. It makes our boys feel strong and courageous!!!
I am reading a book right now called The Opposite of Worry. In it the author Lawrence J. Cohen says that using the phrase ‘be careful” adds anxiety without offering any specific help causing some kids to avoid risks ands stop trying new things. Instead he suggests asking children, ‘Do you feel safe?” This questions forces children to take stock of the situation and helps them to listen to their own internal warming signs. I will aim to remember this when I feel very anxious and work on planting those seeds of cultivating an inner belief that our children can do hard things and achieve success. Thanks for your precious time and energy sharing what you do. Be well.
I think I need to read that book. Good tips. I am a constant worrier, so is my mom. We’ve both dlt with some pretty bad stuff in life. My husband however is the opposite alllllmost to a fault. But because of him we have some amazing adventures and like this gals husband has been rapelling and hiking since childhood and so I do feel like my children are safe (most times) under his watchful eye.
Great post! We just finished the 4 day Inca trail hike to Machu Picchu. I have not had a chance to do posts about it yet, but I hope to have them live next week. It was a fantastic experience. There were only 5 children out of 500 people on the day we took off. I highly recommend this experience for the adventurous family.
That sounds like an amazing adventure! I do love hearing about people adventuring with their kids.
My inlaws went to machu picchu earlier this year, and it didn’t occur to me till you said it what kind of adventure that would be with kids! The trip to get there seems like it would be overwhelming for me. We just took our kids to hawaii (first time for all of us) and the 6hr flight was almost too much for them. But the experience was incredible and life changing.
I LOVE this post! And while I am a constant worrier, I firmly agree that my children need adventure and to do hard things because their father does (and so do I if I’m being honest). I know it will make them great people!