Canoe Trip Boredom?

People have asked me in the past how I keep my kids from getting bored on canoe trips. I thought it an odd question, but since those friends are not canoe trippers, I thought little more of it. Then a few weeks ago I read an account from a canoe guru about kids and boredom in the boat. Looking a little further, I found that others too had had this issue.

Having canoed with our kids regularly since their toddlerhoods, I find the whole topic to be rather puzzling, since my own kids never showed any signs of boredom on a canoe trip.

So, with my curiosity tweaked, I have gone through journals, photos etc. to remember just what we did that made the trips not only tolerable, but often even exciting for the kids. It turns out that most of these the kids figured out for themselves. Some of these are posted on the Lemonade website's family camping pages, and some of these I will list here:

• we stick close to shore where we can observe interesting features including cliff faces, rocky outcrops, interesting trees, wildlife, tracks in the mud, etc. This provides shelter from strong breezes as well as some occasional shade, and easier access to land for emergency bathroom breaks
• cloud glazing, from sharing "cloud pictures" to predicting the weather
• water gazing, sometimes using underwater viewer (found on the camping pages on the website)
• singing--when the kids were young (and often still now that they're teens), we sing on the longer stretches and crossings during our trip
• rock dropping--fill a bucket with rocks or twigs and drop them one at a time to watch the ripple patterns and also show the speed of travel etc. This is surprisingly amusing for 2-5 year olds
• float a boat--bring along a small toy boat and tie it to the canoe and watch it float
• bring an extra map so kids can begin to learn map reading skills; be sure to point out obvious features etc. regularly
• small paddles or even a whittled dead branch can let young paddlers try their hand at paddling
• the alphabet game that you can play in a car (finding letters on signs etc.) can be played by kids learning the names of different trees, plants, wildlife, lake and river names, etc. To make it easier, allow letters from any part of the name, not just the first letter
• becoming the trip photographer

At the site, the kids always found lots to do:

• pouring water over rocky areas and building stick and rock dams to alter the flow
• exploring (when younger, we had them wear their PFD with attached whistle to cushion from bumps, provide emergency signal if needed, easy sighting and emergency flotation in case of a fall into water)
• helping out (gathering firewood, pumping water, putting up tents, finding a good spot to hang the food, etc.)
• making obstacle courses for each other
• photography (they really like macro pictures in particular)
• star gazing
• hide and seek (with each other, or hiding natural objects)
• imagination games, such as when a log hanging out over a small bay became their pirate ship etc.
• swimming
• wildlife tracking
• using a pocket microscope to explore the tiny treasures they find

Things we found valuable to bring along on trips:

• at least one kid-proof bucket and shovel
• a toy boat, or a knife to whittle one
• binoculars
• swim mask or goggles (snorkels were also popular with the kids)
• a pocket microscope (a later discovery we wish we'd thought of earlier!)

We never paddled for more than 2 hours continuously, always stopping for lunch and a needed leg-stretch part way through. When paddling with the very young, for us anyhow, distance was never the primary goal. We made a point to move at a slower pace so the kids would have time to make and share their discoveries. Doing so gave us a whole new perspective on the wilderness we love so much, and (I hope) helped to foster a love of nature in our kids.

More family camping tips can be found here: http://llemonade.com/camp

Back (or not back) to School

It's that time of year again, when notebooks full of empty pages bursting with endless possibilities crowd the aisles of department stores and supermarkets. When the summer has soothed our kids, sunburned, mosquito-bitten and well rested in ways only kids can truly know. When the paddle and glassy lake call louder than ever. It is the middle of August.

If you are free from the confines of school and office during the coming weeks, you may wish to take advantage of warm water and less crowds and do a little paddling and/or camping of your own. See here for some tips and tricks, recipes, etc. to help you on your way.

If school is your child's destiny, then you may find some lunch inspiration here.

For school supplies, you don't have to be (as) wasteful anymore. You can find recycled paper products at mainstream locations including Zellers and Staples, as well as pencils made from recycled wood, binders with recycled covers, recycled notebooks, and pencil crayons made from recycled wood. I can recommend the recycled pencils which don't break easily and sharpen well as we have been using them for a year now. Watch out for greenwashing too though! Be sure to check the amount of post-consumer content in recycled materials, which tells you how much has been reclaimed after use.

One more note to parents (and teacher too, who should definitely know this!): recent (and some not-so-recent) studies have shown that students do not benefit academically from homework and in some cases can burn out from "too much work, not enough play". Be especially wary of worksheets, numerous fill-the-blank activities and sheets of math problems (especially all of the same type). Once your child firmly grasps a concept and can complete a few problems, there is no benefit to be had from such repetition. Occasional finishing of project work would be fine, but this should be an exception rather than the rule.
If you find your child has homework each night, this should be a cause for concern, and should be taken up with the teacher immediately. Kids in primary grades (grades 1-3, or 5-8 years of age) and younger have no need for any homework at all. Learning and development at these ages especially needs to come from the child's own experiences in free play. There is much learning that comes from unstructured children's play and this is an essential part of child development.

If you would like to read more about this, including the actual studies, refer to Alfie Kohn's website.

Canoe Tripping Styles

The family canoe is in the shop getting a new set of well-earned gunwhales, thwarts, fabric and paint. In the meantime, I have recently been reading about a cross-continent canoe trip the Shepardsons made with their two young children back in the early 80's.

In reading this, it has become clearer to me that there are some very different ways to approach canoe tripping!

On our trips we travel in a much more luxurious fashion than they did. We carry a serious water filter (Katadyn Combi), a single-burner camp stove, and ALL of our food. We decide which sleeping pads to bring not whether to bring any at all. We carry internal frame packs, not Duluth packs (I've never even tried using a tump line!). We generally carry 2 or maximum 3 sets of clothing each, plus extra socks and underwear, all packed in drybags, and rain gear. We have not yet done a trip in which we stop along the way for supplies, nor do we hunt or fish. Our focus is different. So are both the length and intensity of our trips.

They're much more traditional in their approach, more like modern-day Voyageurs than vacationers. We are much more casual. Both are valuable, but very different sorts of activities!

The places we go tend to be overstressed by human activity as it is--we do our best not to add to the problem any more than the long drive up and our travel along the portage paths.
I know many see fishing as a crucial part of canoe tripping, but we have had no need. Perhaps if we were in a more remote area and in emergency conditions we would fish. Some lakes near us are artificially stocked for weekend anglers. We've found fishing line left draped over bushes, and some still use lead weights which further pollute the waterways. I do not wish to contribute to this practice. Instead, to keep the packs manageable, we grow and buy local produce and dehydrate it ourselves.

There is a can and bottle ban in Algonquin Park, where we first started our canoe tripping adventures. This has shaped our food planning by forcing us to repackage items, and in doing so, reduce our weight and bulk for portaging. It also helped us on our way to learning to pack well for backpacking trips. We hang all our food before bed each night, and whenever we leave any behind on our site while exploring. Nuisance bears are common in the well-travelled places we paddle, but I wonder if our precautions don't serve more to entice them than dissuade them. Still, we have been fortunate to have avoided theft by bear when camping, and the family canoe still has indents where a bear rolled the canoe to get at food packs underneath during one of my father in law's trips. Raccoons and red squirrels on the other hand can climb well and are appreciative when you hang "their portion" in the relative safety overhead. Red squirrels (and chipmunks) thank you by chattering and clucking and dropping well-aimed cones and twigs where you are working.

I now make up bannock mix in pre-measured baggies (just add water and oil) and we cook this on sticks over the fire, usually on the last night. I also measure out portions of dried hummus in baggies (add water, seal bag, knead with hands then cut off corner of the bottom of the bag to squeeze it out). More camping food ideas can be found here.
Yes, the baggies are an environmental blemish on our trips. I'm working on it. We no longer double-bag items, and reuse resealable packaging when we can. It's not perfect, and suggestions are welcome!

If we are travelling more remotely (or more likely, off season in normally well-travelled places that are now deserted), we carry a camp saw rather than an axe. It's much lighter to carry, and we generally use smaller sticks of wood (rather than logs) anyhow. But carrying a camp stove reduces our need for wood. Wood is our backup plan, and we do plan one fire/trip to appease the kids who love to practice their pyromania. The eldest can start a fire from a single ember left by previous campers, and has done so several times now. It's a little alarming to see how quickly it can grow, all from an inadequately extinguished fire, and usually just from material within arm's reach of the fire pit!

Many times people who canoe trip are focused on their distance, esp. distance travelled each day. We are slow movers, slow paddlers, and very slow portagers. This used to bother me, but once we had kids, I learned to accept and embrace that. On trips marked for 4 days, it is not unusual for us to take 5 or even 6. But for us, the trips are vacations, so relaxation is an essential element. The kids need time to build dams and waterways, follow insects, float sap-powered leaf boats, etc.

As the kids are getting older though, I see that the relaxation is becoming a little more like laziness. Last year in the Barron Canyon the kids gave us a little peek as to what they are capable of, and I'm going to be hard pressed to keep up this year! It's amazing to me how strong and efficient they've become. They can set up and strike down camp themselves in minutes. They carry appreciable loads now on portages, and when they paddle, the boat gains considerable speed. They are truly comfortable with nature, which I'm sad to say is a rare phenomenon with kids these days.

We have never run any whitewater with the kids. Our own skills are a bit lacking in this area, and we've only really dealt with class I or II in the past, so this is probably a wise decision. Having said that, I believe it is time for us all to take a clinic then practice the skills. There are rivers calling, and the kids are old enough to appreciate safety and still young enough not to have lost their nerve yet. They can cheer on their over-cautious parents!


I absolutely love the Lady Evelyn River (the site of our honeymoon), and hope to return soon. Aside from the "interesting" portages on the south channel, I think we would be able to manage it later one season (once we've done a more laid-back lily-dipping lake trip to warm us up). For the south portages, it will just be grin and bear it, and try not to fall on the steep scree slopes. Luckily, the kids are part mountain goat. Here's hoping that recent reports about the increasing traffic and degradation of sites are overstated.

Am I ready to canoe across the country? Nope. While many areas call to me, I know that I'm (way) too soft for huge expeditions like that. 2 weeks seems like a more attainable and enjoyable goal for us.

There are some rivers--the Nahanni, the Tatshenshini, and several in Quebec that sound pretty interesting. Our skills and fitness levels aren't up to those yet, but perhaps it's time to set a goal!

Backpacking with the Kids

We just returned from a backpacking trip with the kids--the first one with our own kids. This reminded me of some earlier comments that I meant to post on the website but never did (will soon perhaps!).
- small kids may need to take 2-3 steps for every one step you take
- singing, storytelling and imaginative creations (trees that remind you of a dragon, moss that looks like a miniature forest--I wonder who lives in that forest? Counting "Excalibur" trees--trees whose roots grew around rocks, etc.) go a long way towards increasing everyone's enjoyment and taking their minds off of the work of walking
- kids are way stronger than adults, both physically and spiritually, or at least, these kids are way stronger than these adults!
- sometimes reading the map and figuring out where you are (using a compass or not) can be fun, unless you try and share that info with someone who is feeling particularly tired out at the time!

- kid loads should be about 20% of their body weight; even though these seems light, and they may beg to carry more at the outset, it is good to remember that their bodies are growing and the extra stresses can cause long-term problems for them
- a well-fitting, well-adjusted backpack is worth its weight in gold (although it also shouldn't weigh much at all when empty!)
- keeping easy to reach snacks available for the kids at all times, and topping up the water bottles regularly keeps everyone happy
- even the most cheerful backpacker is bound to get a little grumpy when their footwear gets waterlogged
- "one" should always fix any broken gear immediately after a trip and before "one" forgets that it has been damaged!

We bought "big squeeze" backpacks from MEC for the kids for Christmas and this was their maiden voyage. I have to say I am incredibly pleased with the design. The only thing I'd change is to put a water bottle carrier right on the hip belt rather than just the ones on the sides of the pack so that they are more easily accessed by the kids with small arms and hands. The packs were easy to adjust and re-adjust on the trail, held an impressive amount of gear (which is good, because the kids carried the light but bulky items), and the compression straps were incredibly useful. The vertical alignment made it easy for the kids to dig through and find things themselves quite easily.

Songs we sang this trip: The Happy Wanderer, Mud Mud Glorious Mud, I've Been Working on the Railroad, The 12 Days of Backpacking (the kids had to keep revising it as we saw more and different wildlife), Put One Foot in Front of the Other, Smoke on the Water, we hummed the Top Gun Anthem, and a few others I'm not thinking of at the moment. An eclectic list for an eclectic family!

For more tips on camping with kids (car camping, canoe tripping and backpacking), see my camping pages here: http://greensim.com/lemonade/camp.html

The Value of Camp and Camping

My kids and I have recently discovered a new natural playground. The tree of us are overjoyed at the possibilities this brings for the coming summer. I envision hanging out under a tree quietly observing the wildlife; my youngest is excited about floating homemade boats in the creek and my eldest has some serious fort building planned.
This summer the kids will be spending a couple of weeks at residential camp. My eldest went last year, but this will be the first time for my youngest.
While it is hard for me to let go (being rather kid-like myself, I do envy them a little!), I am very pleased to be able to provide them with the experience.
Traditional summer camp offers kids a chance to be a part of a group in an informal way, with less imposed structure than in most other places. It gives them a chance to try and learn new skills on their own terms, and to figure out who they are and what makes them tick. It is a chance for them to learn and practice leadership and cooperative skills that are lacking in most kids lives. The atmosphere puts kids less on the defensive, and asks both less and more of them as a result. Kids are given the opportunity to create their own expectations of themselves away from teachers and parents, in a safe, but open and accepting environment, away from imposed adult expectations.
Of course, not all camps are like this--there are elite arts and sports camps, as well as tutoring camps, day camps that are an extension of daycare, etc. which all have different sorts of agendas. The value of these camps lies in other areas, and these are not the camps I refer to.

Another aspect of the summer that I anticipate with enthusiasm is canoe season.The kids have spent hours floating tiny stick boats behind the canoe, and dropping rocks into the lake as we travel. We spend much time singing together as we paddle too, and we go through several kilos of gorp each trip. For dawn and dusk paddles, we try to be as quiet as possible as the kids point out wildlife. Since their eyes are keener than ours, they often see things we'd otherwise miss.

At the campsite, they have spent hours exploring the water with their snorkels and the land with cameras, binoculars and magnifying glasses. If we have a site with a slope to the water, the use their buckets to create waterfalls and stick/needle dams. They collect firewood on our fire night (we traditionally have one small camp fire each trip if there are no fire bans on), and search for animal burrows and pick up any garbage left behind by previous campers. It becomes like a scavenger hunt.

The kids also enjoy setting up the tents while we hang the food ropes and start getting supper ready. Soemtimes one of them takes a bread to pump water and look for loons.

Even if back country camping isn't your thing, you can still spend time as a family enjoying the nature around you by going for nature hikes and playing in the sand at the beach with the kids. Let the kids lead the way, but encourage them to try new things and leave their toys and gadgets at home. The best and most creative play comes from the environment. Aside from a couple of buckets and shovels, nothing from home is needed to create a magnificent walled sand city, or a vast interconnecting canal system.

If you do spend much of your time in the sun, be sure to clothe the kids in SPF clothing and broad-rimmed sunhats. Research your sunscreens before buying--some create more problems than they solve. We like Badger sunscreen and Mexitan, although we found that Mexitan tended to go a little crumbly after a while. Check out this link for a sunscreen comparison chart: http://www.ewg.org/cosmetics/report/sunscreen09/findyoursunscreen?&overall=g&&showall=1

If your family spends most of their time exploring the forest, be sure to wear lightweight long sleeves and pants for insect protection. Some swear by deet, others by citronella; some say eating extra garlic and increasing your B vitamins helps. I have tried all of these, but the only thing that works for me is clothing coverage. You will need to experiment to see what works for you. Be sure to minimize your use of deet if you do find it works for you as it absorbs into the skin and can be fairly toxic, esp. for kids. It will also melt various plastics on contact, and may react with synthetic clothing and cosmetics/sunscreens. Try spraying it onto cotton socks and sweatbands and the brim of your sun hat instead of directly onto your skin.

For more camping tips, tricks, recipes etc., see the Lemonade camping pages: http://greensim.com/lemonade/camp.html
Copyright note: this is a friendly reminder that all images are the property of the blog owner and may not be used without prior consent. If you want to use an image posted here, send me an email and tell me why you want to use one of my images, and wait for and respect my response please!

Canoeing, Nature and Needs

Today we went to see the Paddling Film Festival.

My favourite was called "Finding Farley" in which a couple, their two year old and their dog paddled from Canmore, Alberta to Hudson's Bay, then from Quebec to Newfoundland and eventually to Nova Scotia to visit Farley Mowat, while visiting the settings for many of his books along the way.

I was reminded of the importance of keeping a connection with nature. We are increasingly "nature illiterate" in our society, and we suffer for it. We forget that we are part of the greater ecosystem, and in denying it, often serve to destroy it without even being fully aware of doing so.

I truly believe that a stronger cultural connection to nature and its rhythms would go a long way in alleviating depression and over-consumption in our society. At least, it works that way for me personally. I am never more at peace than when I am standing in the protective shadow of an ancient tree, or paddling down a pristine river. How many more sunrises and sunsets I enjoy when camping than when following the urban rat-race!

Kids have a natural pull towards the outdoors. We would do well to listen and nurture the connection. Their future may well depend on it.