This week I’m doing something a little different. Normal I find an interesting research article or topic to bring to you and give you tips to live as healthy as possible. This week I want to share how we spent the time off putting all that advice into action.

We spent the first part of the week camping in Acadia National Park. We don’t do “glamping”, this was four of us in a tent in a campground in the park. We don’t bring stacks of batteries to power the kids electronics. They are left home and instead we have stacks of books and games for downtime or if we get stuck in the rain.

Every night we would start a campfire and cook over it. Since we are car camping we can bring coolers full of real food. Even camping we don’t rely on processed, packaged food. If you do some planning and prep work there is no reason to not eat healthy, even while camping.

We spent the days exploring tide pools along the coasts of Maine, climbing on the rocks around the ocean, biking on the carriage roads through out the park, and hiking the trails.

All of the national parks and monuments have programs that kids can get involved in to become junior rangers. My boys got their workbooks from the welcome center when we arrived and spent the week working on projects in it. They had different things they had to look for in the park, had to interview one of the park rangers and attend one of their presentations. These are great opportunities for kids to learn more about our parks and the world around them.

Even if camping isn’t your thing you can do all of these things close to home. There are plenty of open spaces and parks all around us here in NH. No matter where you are you can find some patch of green to go play in. Google “nature scavenger hunt” and you’ll find plenty of options you can print out and bring with you. These are great because they encourage kids to slow down and really explore and look around their environments. It also generates great discussion on the interesting things they find. I just printed one out that I will be using in a few weeks when I take a bunch of Cub Scouts out on a hike. My favorite thing listed on this hunt for them to find is “A Treasure (to you)”. I can’t wait to see what they find as a “treasure”.

You can also do alot of these things right in your backyard. Set up a tent, get a fire ring and do all these things with the safety of the house right there for anything you forget. Just make sure you forget the electronics on purpose. One of my favorite sayings “Out in nature you won’t find WiFi but you will definitely find a better connection.”

And after all our adventuring and sleeping on air mattresses I went to see my Chiropractor to get adjusted and be ready to serve all of you!