This works much easier when you are traveling through the West! We embarked on this journey to see what life has to offer and what we’re missing. Two years ago when we were leaving Yellowstone my 7-year-old son stared out the window looking for animals all through the drive from Yellowstone to South Dakota. There were animals everywhere and he was mesmerized, my daughter joined in and they kept trying to outdo each other as to how many animals they could find.
Treasure hunts and printables are so much fun, but looking out the window and taking it all in is what it’s all about. It is amazing just how good they get at spotting all kinds of animals from distance AND they start to pick up on a lot more as well. After some success at spotting critters, they want to find even more, so “look out your windows” becomes a GOOD thing.
We were at Glacier one day on the bus riding up to Logan’s Pass. The kids were sitting together in the front seat glued to the window looking for animals and enjoying all there was to see.
Suddenly I saw my son look at the seat behind me where there were two kids staring at a tablet playing a game, on the other side sat the father staring at his phone. Nobody was taking in the beauty that Glacier has to offer. Their intention was to head to Logan’s Pass to do a hike, but they were missing everything in between. Conor was very unimpressed, which made me very happy :).
Of course, as all good things come to an end, soon comes the inevitable “Are we there yet?” That means it is time to pull out some time-consuming activities. Here are a few of the ones that have worked well for us.