Raising Curious & Adventurous Kids
"The call to adventure is in all of us. Listen to it. Follow it.
And never stop following it,
wherever life takes you."
-The Lost Book of Adventure
Most of us don’t have stories about an emperor penguin waddling into our tents in Antarctica, being watched by a jaguar at night in the jungle, eating fire-roasted tarantulas, surviving a hyena attack in Botswana, racing giraffes on a bicycle in Africa, or watching the celestial aurora borealis. We would never imagine visiting the deepest point on Earth, completing a journey around the world in only a wheelchair, taking a six-month camel trek across the Australian outback, or climbing the highest peak on Earth 17 times. Luckily for all of us, there are adventurers that have done all of these things and more, and inspire us to get out of our comfort zone to make memories actually worth telling friends. These books are so inspiring and beautiful that you will be ready to pack the suitcase to try something new.
Let curiosity be their compass
Curiosity and the desire for adventure is innate, and it is shaped over time by experiences beginning as young children. With each new experience, the brain catalogues what happened, if it was successful or not, and how it could have been improved. It’s critical for survival.
As parents, our natural instinct above all else is to protect, however we are plagued with what-ifs and worst-case-scenarios in our information age. Therefore we end up removing any risk and doing for our children what they need to be learning for themselves. While it’s appropriate to remove obvious danger from our kids paths, let us not raise kids who as adults are afraid to travel solo or hike in the dark to see sunrise from the mountain summit because of our fear of what might go wrong.
Being curious and adventurous are lifelong traits that will propel them into being excellent teachers, artists, astronauts, engineers, entrepreneurs, police officers, doctors, travelers, fossil hunters, scientists, and even parents themselves. It will make them want to see the world, to climb to the top of the mountain and to swim with creatures in the ocean.
Let curiosity be their compass as experience teaches them wisdom in navigating the world around them.
Stop freaking out your kids
I was raised on 600 acres in the country in north central Texas with two older brothers. We had no neighbors for miles, cell phones and car seats didn’t exist, we didn’t use sunscreen, and no one chased us with water and snacks all day. We would be gone from sunup to sundown exploring ponds, spying on cows, riding horses, and searching for treasures such as old farming equipment, thrown horseshoes, or neat-looking rocks and arrowheads.
We grew up desensitized to the fear of the outdoors because it was the only life we knew. My father would remind us to watch for snakes, but we were not fearful. He couldn’t possibly have detailed all the worst-case-scenarios that could have happened, and that’s not who he is anyways. Because he also grew up on this land and knew it was safe. For all the years and hours we spent outside roaming the countryside, I remember very few snakes that were slithering away from us, we never got bitten by a poisonous spider, we somehow never got poison ivy.
Fear is contagious. Stop scaring your kids about snakes, spiders, bugs, and toothed mammals because they will grow to be afraid and miss opportunities for adventure. Every time we go out and nothing terrible happens, then we gain more confidence that nothing bad is going to happen. We are still cautious, but never fearful. The chances of something terrible happening is so small that not worth focusing too much time on.
Be cautious, not fearful
So how do we encourage our kids to be adventurous without sending them into danger’s way? Well, for starters, let’s get real scientific about what danger is and what it isn’t. Most people are concerned about snakes, spiders, coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and bears in Texas. If we look at the snake bite and venomous arthropod statistics for Texas, only one person per year actually dies from a snakebite. You are four times more likely to die from a lightning strike than you are a snake bite. Approximately half of all venomous snake bites are “dry” and the venom isn’t injected into the victim. Every time I have seen a snake, it freezes hoping it won’t be seen or slithers away in fear. If a snake actually strikes, it’s trying to protect itself from what it thinks is a predator.
Coyotes and bobcats are prevalent in both cities and rural areas, are naturally afraid of humans and will run the opposite way. Mountain lions and bear sightings are mostly near Big Bend, and are so rare that seeing them is actually the highlight of most visitor’s trip. Since 1946, with over 10 million visitors to Big Bend National Park, there has not been a single death from mountain lion or bear attacks. In fact, there has not even been a single human death across the entire state of Texas due to these animals. While we are cautious when we are out in nature, we don’t let all the what-ifs and worst-case-scenarios outweigh the researched most-likely scenarios.
There are easy ways to lessen fears to add some adventure and amazing memories for your family.
5 steps towards having more adventure
1) Get inspired.
Reading adventurous books show the amazing experiences of explorers outweigh the problems that they had to overcome. Our favorite kids adventure books are Great Adventurers, The Lost Book of Adventure, and The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid, and Microadventures. Follow and subscribe to the Texas Kids Adventures website to find kid-friendly places to go. Join family nature clubs and local hiking meetups.
2) Get educated.
Know how to identify poison ivy, where chiggers live, what poisonous snakes and arthropods look like. Use the iNaturalist app if you need help with identification. Stick around and I’ll show you all of these things or check out the Texas Parks and Wildlife Young Naturalist series.
3) Know the nature rules.
Don’t ever stick your hand in a hole because that’s someone’s home and they are likely to defend it. Don’t ever pick up a snake unless you want to get bitten. Respect nature. Rely on your peripheral vision as you walk to scan the trail for surface roots or branches, poison ivy along the edge, and animals on the trail. Stick to the trail until you are more comfortable and knowledgable exploring off-trail. Follow the posted rules at parks since they are there to keep you safe and to preserve the habitat.
4) Plan for safety. Minimize risks.
Learn to swim. Wear a lifejacket. Swim with a buddy. Wear sunscreen and sunglasses. Bring insect repellant. Wear a bike helmet. Bring extra water and a snack. Bring a map. Tell someone where you are going and what time you expect to return. Take a fully-charged cell phone in waterproof bag and a battery powered charger for backup. Take a camera for photos so you don’t run down your phone battery. Bring a first aid kit.
5) Start by taking small risks.
Each time you do something adventurous and nothing terrible happens, then you build confidence in your skills. Check out Microadventures which are big adventures that are on a smaller scale. Take a guided tour at a local park or state park. Try camping in the backyard before you hit the state parks, or join the Texas Outdoor Family for to learn how to camp in a group setting at Texas State Parks. Try kayaking in shallow water. Check out ropes courses and smaller scale rock climbing through instructors.
Adventurous kids = adventurous adults
The adventure that kids have today sets them up for a lifetime of not being afraid to try something new and learning wisdom through experience.. There’s also a really good chance that you, as parents, will enjoy these trips as much as the kids to become adventurous adults yourselves.
Join our Texas Kids Adventures Facebook group to chat, ask questions and meet others in your area. Stay tuned for much more information on all of the above plus some really cool places to go.
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