National Walking Month.

If there was ever a month that was created purely for The Reluctant Explorers it’s this!

I mean, in case you hadn’t noticed, we are quite fond of a family friendly walk! And National Walking Month means we are going to be able to completely spam you with ALL OF THE KID FRIENDLY WALKS! Waterfall walks, walks with a play park, family friendly pushchair walks, quirky walks, walks with legends, walks with ruins WALKS, WALKS, WALKS!

Ok. I’ll calm down now…

And perhaps I’ll tell you a bit more about what’s in store….

What is National Walking Month?

Set up by UK charity Living Streets, ‘Walk this May’ is all about getting walking MORE! As simple as that.

In 2022 their theme is #try20, which is simply encouraging people to get out and walk for just 20 minutes a day. Nowhere fancy, nowhere special. Just walking!

How do you get involved? Well you know what? There’s no big form involved, no registration process, NOTHING! Just get out and explore!

You can read more about Living Streets National Walking Month on their website.

The Little Trekkers Challenge

We know a GREAT challenge to motivate the kids during National Walking Month! It’s The Little Trekkers Challenge!

We are so proud to be involved this year, keep your eyes peeled for our blog!

Having taken part last year, we know how much of a great incentive the Little Trekkers challenge is. This year’s theme is National Parks, and they are working in association with National Parks UK. It just so happens, we know a fair bit about a certain National Park (The Yorkshire Dales, it’s the Yorkshire Dales!!)

If you head to the Little Trekkers website, you’ll be able to grab a Challenge Pack for £7.50. All of the profits are going to The UK National Parks Foundation, which is SUCH a brilliant cause. The challenge runs from 1st – 31st May 2022, and this year, kids are encouraged to set themselves a personal target to achieve. This way, your challenge can be tailor made for your own kiddies, and there’s also a way to raise sponsorship too!

In the pack, you will receive an information and activity booklet, a national park map & sticker sheet and at completion you will received an eco wooden medal & personalised certificate!

How many miles can your little ones walk during May?!

The Cold Hard Walking Facts

Walking is an easy way to improve physical and mental health, and a 20 minute walk a day is enough to help to reduce preventable health conditions including certain cancers, depression, heart disease and Type 2 Diabetes (Living Streets).

By cutting down on those short drives, it will also help the environment, by reducing air pollution, congestion and road danger.

Great right?!

But here at The Reluctant Explorers, we know that a lot of kids don’t really care all that much about all of that!

And they will be pretty vocal about it!

So…. The Cold Hard Walking with Kids Facts

Yes, I know that a lot of the time, the prospect of getting kids excited about being out walking seems about as likely as a flying elephant.

But a challenge like Little Trekkers, is a great way to get started, with a great incentive!

And here are a few more tips that we have learned along the way.

Information is everything.

The knowledge of where you are going, how long it will roughly take, where the snack stops are going to be, and what kind of walk you are going on is literally priceless. It seems pretty insignificant right? I’ll admit, that I didn’t attach any importance to it at all for a long time, but now? EVERY walk. And it helps. It’s not a miracle cure, but it’s definitely a treatment for the whinge factor!

Hand over the control.

Offer the kids a choice. Would they like to walk to a waterfall, stepping stones or maybe climb a mountain. You know how as grown ups sometimes we can’t be arsed to climb a gigantic mountain? Imagine if you were forced to do it anyway (sorry to my husband on that front!!) It’s literally win-win. You get to walk, the kids get the benefits of being outdoors, and they feel like they have had some input into their fate!

Give them a map.

I’ll admit, that my preference is always the OS GPS map on my phone, but I do have the good old fashioned paper version too! Hand that over to the kids, and let them navigate! Again, they are given that sense of being involved in the whole process, rather than just being dragged along for the ride. Plus, it’s helping develop those basic map reading skills!

Have a picnic.

Food literally makes my kids move. Not just in the fuel sense, but in the locating of a perfect picnic spot. A picnic is fun. Take a blanket with you, get the kids involved in the food prep process, and then get them to describe their favourite picnic spot. Take a look at the walk route together and see if anywhere comes close. Then find it! (Sometimes, the response to ‘where do you want your picnic?’ is ‘here and now!’ I’ll admit!)

Have fun.

Ooooohhhh that sounds proper patronising doesn’t it?! It’s not meant to be I promise! Take a frisbee with you, or a pack of cards. Play noughts and crosses with sticks and stones, collect pine cones, play word games, memory games, tag, scavenger hunts, hide and seek. Yes you will probably find your pace slows to that of a snail, but it really does help!

So there you are! National Walking Month in a rather large nutshell! Here’s wishing you a Happy Walking Month!

Disclaimer: This blog may well get your kids out walking, but it can in no means stop the following: needing a wee within the first 10 minutes, getting soaking wet at the furthest point, it will not prevent sit down protests, nor will it stop sibling bickering. It will also not provide you with a reminder to not forget the snacks, spare trousers or socks.

Sorry about that!