John Boe - Bushcraft - A Family Guide: Fun and Adventure in the Great Outdoors

Copyright Liat Hughes Joshi, 2015

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, nor transmitted, nor translated into a machine language, without the written permission of the publishers.

Liat Hughes Joshi has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Disclaimer
Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for any loss or claim arising out of the use, or misuse, of the suggestions made herein. Parental supervision is recommended for all the activities in this book.

CONTENTS

Screens are part of life, but shouldnt become life itself.

Technology is thoroughly ingrained in all our lives and our children are no exception. From an early age, screens are a key source of entertainment and, like it or not, highly effective at keeping them occupied. By the school years, theyre needed for homework and are being used ever more in the classroom no longer just for ICT/computing lessons. Once our offspring reach the teenage stage, their social worlds would surely stop spinning without social media and messaging on whichever app is the hip thing of the moment.

But sometimes it can all get too much. Sometimes wouldnt you appreciate a little downtime from the technological torrent that eats into our offline relationships? To actually talk to each other and do things together that dont involve texting and messaging, tapping and swiping? If this is how you feel, this book might just help to unglue their eyes from those screens a shade more often.

No one is suggesting turning those gadgets and TVs off altogether or banning them this would likely be impossible anyway as we need them for so many everyday activities but its certainly wise to keep a lid on their use.

How much IS too much then?

Other than for the youngest children, recommending a set daily time limit isnt especially helpful when there is such diversity in what theyre actually doing on their screens nowadays. Kids online time can be recreational, educational, social and functional and theres a huge contrast between watching a wildlife documentary or researching your homework and playing a frankly mindlessly violent game, plus plenty in the middle of these extremes.

Its surely more sensible to discern between good and bad screen activities and then limit these specifically. Define what they can do by category and roughly for how long daily so for example youre allowed to use the games console and/or apps for an hour and can have 30 minutes of TV. Keep an eye on things; look out for signs of overload and let them know that if they push it or start getting too obsessed and addicted, you can and will reduce their access.

The early years are a crucial time for emotional and verbal development, so its especially unwise to take any chances in the baby and toddler years. Although the American Academy of Paediatrics recommends no screen time at all for this age group, realistically toddlers find some TV and apps entertaining and there are moments in life when we parents need screens to give us a short break so we can get on with things. Its wise though to limit babies and toddlers to no more than an hour a day and keep that hour to decent quality programmes, designed specifically for this age group.

Try not to let handing a smartphone or tablet over become your default keep them occupied activity every time youre in a cafe or pushing them in a trolley around the supermarket no TV programme or app can be a substitute for talking to your baby or toddler.

And for teenagers?

At the other end of the age scale, this phase deserves special mention too, as the challenges of getting them away from screens magnify considerably, partly because they have their own gadgets, their social lives rely on messaging and it can be difficult to police their time online when theyre not with you. Plus, as well as using gadgets for longer spells, teenagers have a tendency to frequently nip onto their phone to message a friend or fleetingly check Instagram.

Set ground rules about sensible usage e.g. not after a certain time at night, during homework unless directly relevant and not at the dinner table.

On top of that, watch for warning signs that screens are causing problems limiting social skills in person or stopping them sleeping and cut back accordingly if they are.

And of course this book has ideas for offline activities with teen appeal, some so good they might even want to Tweet/Facebook/Instagram about them afterwards

How to use this book

This is all about reminding the kids that you dont have to be stuck to screens to have fun, but equally you probably have neither the time nor the inclination to turn yourself into some sort of jolly, home version of a Butlins Red Coat. Nor do you want to be spending a fortune buying special kit.

All of the activities in this book are free or require fairly minimal equipment beyond what would normally be found in a typical family home. Some of the ideas do need parental input but how much will depend on your kids age and skill levels.

A few of them involve some internet or gadget usage beforehand as a kick-starter realistically that is the quickest way to get instructions but the heart of all of these activities is very much offline.

Some activities will be one-offs after theyve done it once, your child probably wont want a repeat run, but we hope others will become firm favourites.

Some handy things to keep at home

If youre really going to get stuck into this book there are a few activities requiring common kit thats worth stocking up on or keeping next time some comes your way:

craft scissors

large cardboard boxes

strong glue

coloured paper and card

blank greetings cards

COMPUTER

IMAGINATION

DIFFICULTY:

Learning basic sign language is relatively easy, a useful life skill and surprisingly appealing especially if your child does so with friends and they can then use it to communicate together. Fingerspelling is an undaunting starting point single signs for individual letters that can be used to spell out words. If they get into this, they could progress onto learning whole word signs.