Acadia Park for Kids Seven and Younger

Maine is a special place for all visitors, but it can become wonderland for kids seven and younger.   A forest just is so much more wonderful when seen from small eyes.   Every tree, plant and creature becomes magical and special.  Bringing kids seven and younger on vacation can require some advance planning, but with an effort, it can become an unforgettable vacation for your family.

The woods.   Start with what’s around you: a forest of pine and oaks, maple and beech trees.   Maine’s woods present an exciting environment to explore.   We have a very good naturalist book for you to use when you explore the woods around us.   You don’t have to come with prior knowledge, just a willingness to learn and observe.

The shore: Watch the tides come and go, the waves that crash, the animals in the tidal zone.   Explored with a good book.   Searockets ,  sea pickle, sea heather and seaweed, are all interesting to identify and collect.    Eat a few seaweed products for the complete experience.     We have 11 foot tides here, so it is a wonderful thing to watch.   A lot of folks cannot believe it.

The water and the animals that live here:  Andre the Seal, the  movie, is a wonderful introduction to aquatic mammals of the area.   Just the other day when hiking on Great Head we saw two dolphins swimming about in the bay off Sand Beach.    If you know where to look, you will also see seals in our bay.   Of course, the more time you spend on the water, the more chance of seeing something.

The sky:  Study the stars at night.   A Park Ranger program is available.   Study the moon and planets, invest in a telescope, or use ours here at Seacat’s Rest.   It’s really dark around here with a big ocean without artificial lights.   In addition there is a “see like the animals” program at the park where you get to use night vision to walk through the woods.   It’s a very different place in the dark (your eyes see differently).

The birds. All around Acadia birds make a show.   Eagles, crows, gulls and cormorants, ducks and crows, thrushes and song birds.    All of these creatures are easy to find and listen to.   Loons, ducks, sea gulls and other water birds live all around the island.   They dive under the water to find food.    Others fly up overhead like  osprey, hawks and eagles.   Wading and water  birds like egrets, herons and  kingfishers prefer calm fresh or brackish waters.

The flowers and small plants.   Plants native to Maine are easy to find and can reinforce observing skills in your young ones.   Show them what a blueberry plant looks like, then try and find a whole field of blueberry plants.   In different seasons the blueberry fields in Maine have different colors.    In Spring there are the white flowers, later in July and August, the blueberries, and in the fall, the plants turn rosy red as the leaves shimmer in the sunshine.    Other places and plants to find include wintergreen– you can identify it by the smell, and don’t forget aromatic ferns, like the cinnimon fern with it’s stalk or the ostrich fern, where fiddleheads that you find in the supermarket here in Maine come from.    Seasonal flowers like lupine in late june, or wild raspberries or strawberry flowers.    Lilacs and poppies.    For very young folks, focus on just the colors in the plants.   How many red or pink flowers can we find today….how about blue ones,   white ones.

FDR's birch bark canoe

A History Tour, The Mystery Tour.   The carriage trails, history of the Native Americans and others who lived here in past times.      If we didn’t have a car, how would we get around.   Water is easy to move on, but we could also walk, or ride a horse around.   It took a long time to get from one place to another, explore just like you were here 100 or 200 years ago.   How far would you get in one day.    Would it take you two days to get from one side of the island to another?