06/15/2010
Acadia for kids 8-13. Find a focus for fun.
Just what does your middle age child like to do? There are so many choices, that i recommend finding a focus and sticking with the theme for your vacation adventure.
Here are 4 focus adventures that can create that favorite vacation time.
Focus 1 – photography. Camera’s ready.. Find a theme. Nature, from a kids perspective (everything looks big), rocks around you, trees and people. Who lives here. Have fun, develop ideas and let your kid choose the shots, or take them – depending on interest. Maybe it’s funny faces – people, animals, dogs. Perhaps just creating a story about your trip. Have them start out at home, getting ready, then the actual getting there – has to be documented. Where are you staying? What are the big things you will be doing. Think about scrap-booking the trip for a permanent record of your treasured trip.
Focus 2 – art and nature. It”s interesting what kind of things art is to 
different people. For some, its pen and pencil, others colors with crayons or colored pencils. Paint is easy to bring along and can be used to make all kinds of creations. Often rocks make good canvas, but sketch books work well too. Art can also be modeling clay, the kind you shape and bake. Model what you see around you, whether it’s natural or man made. Model different modern things, like cars and photograph them in natural surroundings. Make a stop action movie, with tiny characters hanging around giant trees, or in perilous situations. Oh no, watch again as clay annie and andy get caught in a rock slide.
Focus 3 – the animals around us. The park has many places to view and visit and learn about the creatures that we live with on MDI, Here’s an incredible video of two baby raccoons at Seawall campground at Acadia National Park. You can find them in books, movies, and out in the wild. Sometimes you have to be willing to be out in very early morning, or late evening to get a chance to see some wildlife around Acadia. Other times you have to be willing to get out where it is a bit unusual, like a cave mouth at dawn, or a beach or on the ocean in the middle of the night for the best sights. Places to go to – Ed’s dive in starfish enterprize, the Oceanarium, Anenome Cave, The Northeast Marsh, the Oven caves, Somes Sound, the top of the mountain. Who lives around the ponds, how about the forests, how about the ocean.
Focus 4 – the active life outdoors. Get out and about. Challenge yourself to hike farther than you ever have before. Start with a half mile hike. Increase your distance and time out on the hike by half mile every day. 
When you have mastered a 3 miles hike, start adding vertical challenges. Have your hike climb up higher and higher. Celebrate when you reach the top of Cadillac mountain, the highest peak on the eastern seaboard. If you’d rather, this challenge can be on bicycle or it can be out on the water in a kayak. Just pick some adventure, and start slow and small. Build up to your goal and get there. Don’t forget to write about your adventure, so that you can remember each step.
Don’t forget about the junior ranger program at the visitors center. It’s free this year, there is a great activity book that the park provides to guide you in your adventure vacation.
Under the guidance of experienced naturalists, you will delight in the wonder and adventure of the outdoors as you sight humpbacks and seals on your whale watch and nature cruises, hold sea creatures on the Starfish Enterprise, dip your hand in warm tide pools, hike the trails of Acadia National Park, visit beaver lodges, put together the bones of a Minke Whale, and delight in the tales of the “Bug Man.” You will share all this and more with other families, who will become your life-long friends, in one of the most beautiful vacations spots in America. Suitable for adults and children 5 years and older.
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Filed under Acadia, Bar Harbor, Day trips, Sand Beach, Things To Do by on Jun 15th, 2010.
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