5 Tips for Hiking with Kids Plus a TWIX Snack!

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{Hiking tips for kids including a great snack recipe}

With summer fast approaching, one of the things we’re most looking forward to is doing family hikes again! We did a ton of hiking last summer and plan to keep that up. We live in an area with a wide variety of hiking options, and we found a lot of good ones to take our kids on. We’ve also discovered a few tips for hiking with kids that I want to pass along as well.

1–Choose an appropriate hike

There are lots of resources out there to help you find hikes in your area.
Books and websites exist for finding hikes in all parts of the country, and they will usually tell you how difficult the trail will be. But you can even walk around a new neighborhood or park and call it a hike! Start with just 20 minutes if you need to.

2–Make sure everyone has good shoes
No need to buy fancy hiking boots, but closed toed shoes should be considered a must for hiking. Sandals can cause tripping and dirt and rocks can get stuck under toes.

3–Make it fun
Some kids love exploring in the outdoors, others get tired of it pretty quickly. As you’re walking, play I-spy, tell jokes, sing songs, tell stories, ask questions to make them think about what they’re seeing around them. Fresh air and quality family time? Bonus! Consider bringing friends along sometimes too.

4–Bring water and snacks
While it can feel annoying to carry water or food, especially on a short hike, it’s important to stay hydrated. Plus thirsty and hungry kids get grumpy pretty quickly (and me too!) and it’s easier to just not give them that to complain about 🙂 Children don’t have to be very old to carry a backpack or small drawstring bag for their own water.

This yummy trail mix has TWIX Bites (already unwrapped in the bag!) pita puffs, dried cranberries and mixed nuts.  

Grab all your ingredients at Walmart and take this coupon with you. Get $1.00 off  (2) TWIX, 3 MUSKETEERS and MILKY WAY Simply Caramel Bites. 

Or a coupon for the larger bags! Save $3.00 Off any two (2) MARS Brand Bites, 6 oz. or larger. Includes TWIX, 3 MUSKETEERS, MILKY WAY Simply Caramel, MILKY WAY & SNICKERS. 

Just mix everything together and portion out into some ziplock bags to take along with you. 

5–Keep track of your progress 
Make some kind of chart or timeline and mark it off or add stickers after each hike. We start out short and work towards longer hikes throughout the summer. By keeping track your kids can be proud of how much they’ve accomplished. You can even mark each half mile so that they can see progress quicker.

Click on the picture to download the file and you can print this one with pre-printed circles to fill in or add stickers to, or a blank page with just the title.

Do you like hiking with your family? Do you have any other tips to share? I’d love to hear!