Originally posted May 2019. May 15 is national Kids to Parks™ Day. Kids to Parks Day encourages children and families to get out and explore their local parks, including county, state and national parks. Two years ago, I hosted a Kids to Park hike. Having never hosted a “hike” in a park, I didn’t really know what to expect. How would I entertain the little hikers? How would we stay together given the range of activities the park had to offer? I had my energetic 3-year-old son and my stroller-bound 6-month-old, so parks could be a challenge to begin with. This hike, however, brought cold weather, a bit of rain and no other hikers. At first I was admittedly disappointed that I planned this hike and arranged my day around it when nobody else showed up. The benefit, however, was that I realized that a park hike could be a fun, social experience despite my original anxieties. During this hike, my son ran along the trail collecting sticks while I pushed his sleeping sister in her stroller. I can still picture him with his socks pulled up over his pants and a blue and white hooded sweatshirt. After exploring the small trail, he played on the swings, climbed a large spider web, looked for dinosaur bone replicas and ran around in plenty of green space. We were able to see dogs, a creek, birds, cloudy skies, worms, squirrels and other kids enjoying the park. I went on to host other hikes at parks. Exploring parks, whether at the local, state or national level, can introduce kids to wildlife, dramatic play and nature in positive ways. FUN PARK ACTIVITIES Looking for activities to do at the park? Check out these suggestions below or print our list of 30 things to find at the park and add some variety to your hike! Sinking vs floating Nature scavenger hunt Animal watch Animal compare and contrast Shell or rock collecting – can expand into bigger vs smaller or more or less and counting Leaf shading Measure and meander – take a ruler or paint stick and measure things as you walk Texture walk Build a fairy house Stone painting Climb a tree Follow the leader Scavenger hunts For free park resources that can be incorporated into a Kids to Park hike or even in your back yard, visit the National Park Trust and check out the featured resources at the bottom! INSPIRED? GREAT! NOW GET OUT AND ENJOY KIDS TO PARKS DAY! The best part about park hikes is that they don’t need to be formal. Kids can be imaginative and have fun on their own, with their families or with friends. Make a point to get outside and check out a park on May 15; or better yet, make it a habit your family can enjoy year-round! Want to join a hike to celebrate Kids to Parks Day? You can check out the Family Trail Guide to find a new trail with the family. If you can’t hit the parks on May 15, it's okay - Kids to Parks Day hikes can happen all month long! Don’t forget to join in on the fun on social media with the hashtags: #KidstoParks #togetherwehike ABOUT OUTGROWN OutGrown is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to create a world where everyone can enjoy the physical and mental benefits of spending time outside. We are focused on creating opportunities and removing barriers to access so families with babies and young children can take their first steps outside. We believe all families have the right to connect with nature, benefit from spending time outdoors and be inspired to a lifelong love of nature. Since its grassroots inception in 2013, OutGrown is a growing community of 280,000 families and over 300 volunteer Branch Ambassadors. More information on all of our programs can be found at WeAreOutGrown.org    EDITORS NOTE: We hope you enjoyed reading this article from OutGrown. We’re working hard to provide our community with content and resources that inform, inspire, and entertain you. But content is not free. It’s built on the hard work and dedication of writers, editors, and volunteers. We make an investment in developing premium content to make it easier for families with young children to connect with nature and each other. We do not ask this lightly, but if you can, please make a contribution and help us extend our reach.

Challenges of Opening In-Person Hikes We recognize that public spaces have begun to open and stay-home orders and other restrictions have begun to loosen in certain communities. We are currently evaluating what in-person hikes will look like and what systems we need to have in place to support safe in-person hiking events in the post-Quarantine environment. These are some of the challenges we face in making decisions around allowing group activities as an organization with over 300 branches in North America: Most guidelines are still limiting group size and requiring social distance. Maintaining 6 feet of separation is hard to expect with small children and on narrow trails. Mask wearing guidelines are varied and also not recommended for children under 2 years, which is a large portion of our participants, making it hard to establish safe and effective protocols that allow us to support in person hiking. Our calendar team is entirely volunteer-based and it is too much to ask of them to monitor and stay up-to-date with the various local guidance to approve or deny hike events case by case, so we need to keep our approach as simple and as global as possible. Many communities are seeing a rise in cases as they re-open, which leaves us wondering if allowing/encouraging in-person events is the best way to ensure individual families can stay safe and healthy. We are letting time help inform our larger decision making before re-opening in-person events. The Importance of Getting Outside However, we also recognize that time in nature is important to everyone's personal wellness and we do not want to get in the way of that. Some of our branches are in rural areas with very low risk and in states where larger group gatherings are allowed and we understand it may be frustrating to not have the HiB calendar as a resource. Our goal is not to stop you from hiking or being social. We do have a duty to keep our members and volunteers safe, so we ask that you extend patience and understanding while we navigate this new terrain. Please extend this grace to your hike hosts and ambassadors as well and know that ultimately, we all want everyone to stay safe and healthy. Keep it Local, Keep it Safe If it is safe and in accordance with local guidelines for you to meet in your area, please organize any meet-ups outside of the Hike it Baby platform as private, non-HiB sanctioned activities. This means not posting them on HiB Facebook group pages or on the HiB Calendar on our website.   Once we have guidelines we can apply universally we will look to opening up our calendar for events and hikes once again and we will continue to communicate openly and actively as we make these decisions. We appreciate your continued patience.   About Hike it Baby Hike it Baby is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to getting families outdoors and on trails across the U.S. and internationally, supporting, educating and inspiring families through their more than 300 communities across North America. Since its grassroots inception in 2013 in Portland, Oregon, Hike it Baby is now a growing community of 270,000 families and 500 volunteer branch ambassadors hosting more than 1,600 hikes per month. More information, as well as daily hike schedules, can be found at HikeitBaby.com, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.   Photo courtesy of Michelle Craig.