10 Things to Teach Your Kids in Banff, Banff Safety
We have been travelling to Banff with our kids every year since they were born. There are a lot of lessons they can learn in this environments that they may not learn anywhere else.
Some of these lessons are for survival and others are for respecting nature.
These are lessons I really want my kids to pass on to future generations of our family.
I find it really distasteful when a parent does not teach their kids the basic lessons of survival and respecting the land. You will often see it come out as a person gets older into their teenage years.
Banff is a beautiful place and it is important that we preserve this place for future generations. Not to mention it brings in mad money for our economy and provides a lot of jobs.
10 Things to Teach your kids in Banff
So here it is…..
10 Things to Teach your kids in Banff, Banff Safety
How to build a fire
If you don’t know how to do it, I will have another article written just for you. There are several ways to start a fire. If you are hiking I would bring along a lighter or flint with you. To start teach your kids about collecting bark for starter, then building a small v or t-pee out of slivers of wood to get the fire started. Then ad smaller logs.
This is just the basics of it, but I would read more about this if you do not know how to start a fire.
2. Build a tent
Camping in Baff gives you the perfect opportunity to teach your kids how to build a tent. I have been camping with people that have never done this (other peoples kids) and they just stand around with their hands in their pockets when we are building a tent. It pisses me off lol
3. How to Ski
I have taught at least 6 people how to ski on these mountains. The mountains are the best place to learn how to ski, because of the longer runs and different terrains. Take your kids up the sunshine village strawberry run up to the top. Tell them to put their skis in the shape of a pizza, bend their legs and to turn left to write by putting weight on each ski.
4. Bear safety
Teach your kids to use a bear bell when they are walking in national parks to make the bears aware they are there. Stay at least 30 meters away from bears and to move slowly around bears. If they are being chased bears will run fast towards them, they can move perpendicular to a bear to avoid getting caught as they move side to side slowly.
Hiking Safety In Banff
5. Campground safety
Remove all garbage from the campground before bed. Lock out all of the food in a car. Do not throw food or bones in the fire. Stay far away from the campfire as it is really hot and sit in the opposite direction of the wind to avoid smoke inhalation.
It is also important to make sure your kids always stay in well lit areas. Do not let them out of the tent at night unsupervised.
6. Hiking safety
Wear a bear bell when hiking, take lots of water with you. Carry a compass and understand how to use it. Stay on the path to avoid getting lost. Do not allow your children to hike on their own.
On the last hiking trip I went on with my son, there was something growling at us on the path. We moved slowly in the other direction to show the animal we were not imposing ourselves in their territory.
7. Do not feed the animals
I remember one trip to Banff I took with a young kid, he was teasing a deer with a chicken drumstick and the deer kicked him right in the chest. His parent thought it was funny and he could have been hurt really bad. He got lucky, thank god. But it could have been much worse. If you feed the animals in Banff or Jasper they will follow you. It is not good for them to eat our food and they will start looking to humans for their food instead of hunting for it.
It is not good for the animal and a human can get hurt.
Skipping rocks in Banff, Alberta
8. Respect your surroundings
These parks need to be protected, and it is our duty to do so to preserve them for future generations. You are not invincible. Teach your kids to recognize that there are dangers in doing many things in the area and to follow the rules.
9. Do not litter
This is for obvious reasons. You can also teach the kids that leaving garbage can be harmful to animals as they could swallow the plastics and die.
10. How to skip a rock
This is a really beautiful place to learn to skip rocks. If you have never done it, the best rocks are the the flat ones and there are a lot of them kicking around in Banff. The waters in the lakes are perfectly still, this is also a part of the perfect recipe on how to skip rocks. After I taught my kids how to do this on our last trip, they were entertained for hours doing this. We make a game out of it to see who can get the most bounces in the water!
You can also check out the travel Alberta website with more cool Banff info.
Here is the actual Tunnel Mountain Website
If you have any more insight or questions about Banff or Romantic Places In Banff, please shoot us an email or comment. We want our Canadian Travel blogs to be the most comprehensive source of information about Banff on the internet.
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