Motivator: Throwing Things Into Water

All the kids I’ve spent time with love throwing things into water. Rocks, sticks leaves. Ocean, great lake, stream, or puddle. 

It's easy for it to slow you down. “Come on, we need to keep moving!”

Or you can use it to keep them going “Throw 3 more things from this bridge, then let’s see where the next bridge is!”

It helps if you know that the next water is reasonably close. I’ve had luck encouraging her to find good things to throw into the next water. 

I try to camp near water, for a constant source of amusement. 

This works best with a slight change of mentality. Little kids don't understand hike for an hour then take a little break. All they see is you are being a boring adult and passing all the cool stuff. Most of these pauses can be pretty quick if the kid knows she'll get another chance.



What's your go-to trick to keep your kid going?