2. Make sure your adventures grow along with your child.
In order for your child to want to continue to adventure with you, you need to create adventures that are new and also challenging. If we’re still suggesting the same walk around the neighborhood that our 10-year-old has been taking since he learned to toddle, the excitement won’t be there on his part. So instead of that walk around the block, suggest a couple mile hike in a wilderness park. And once that becomes routine, begin training for a hike up a peak or to a back country campground for an overnight campout. When we help our kids achieve something they worked hard for, they’re going to enjoy the satisfaction of that achievement. And that will make them all the more ready to join us on the next adventure!
3. Teach your child that misadventure is not a negative.
It’s easy to want to give up when our adventures don’t go according to plan. But if we want to grow those character traits of adaptability and resilience, there is no better way than through misadventure. When we teach our children to embrace misadventures as an opportunity to grow, learn and even laugh about later on, we’re giving them powerful tools to use when they face adversity in all areas of their lives, both now and in the years to come.
When we make the time to create regular adventures for our family, to keep adding to them as our kids grow, and we embrace misadventure to discover what we can learn from it, we are on our way to raising adventurous kids.
Greta’s debut book, Adventuring Together is available now! Check out all of Greta’s musings at gretaeskridge.com