Enjoy Canoeing With Children With These Top 5 Tips

A lot of parents wait for their children to grow older in order to take them out for canoeing rather them leaving behind and going for a canoe themselves.  But there are many ways and method following which you can easily canoe with your children and that too without having to worry about their safety.

Canoeing With Children

 

The following are the 5 best tips for canoeing with children:

1. Properly Fitted Life Jacket

The first thing to remember before taking your child out for canoeing is to get them a properly fitted life jacket of their body size.  Life jackets of all sizes are available in the market and even for children below the age of 1 year, there are life jackets available.  You will first need to let children wear the life jacket in a pool so as to give them a hang of it.

2. Get them Accustomed to Being in the Canoe

Another important tip which will make it very easy for you to take your children out for canoeing is to let them get accustomed to being in a canoe. So get them in the canoe a few times and teach them how to get in, get out, and sit on it etc. so that when you actually take the ride, it doesn’t feel uncomfortable or new to them.

3. Own Paddle

For children who are at a school age, you can get them their own paddle so that even they can participate in riding the canoe and enjoy the trip. You can easily purchase a paddle from the market. Even if the child paddles for 10 minutes, it will help him/her to develop a confidence and look forward to canoe trips in the future.

4. Plan Portaging Carefully

If you child is just an infant, then you’ll need to do some research on portaging carefully before heading out for the canoe trip.  You have to use a backpack which is especially designed for a child in this case and make sure there aren’t very long portages in the length of your trip.

5. Carry First Aid

It is really important to carry first aid on your canoe to make sure you are well equipped if any kind of injury or accident takes place. Carry extra life jackets, important medicines, pain relievers, bandages and other useful and relevant equipments on your canoe trip. Also pack electrolyte replacement crystals.

Photo Credit By: geograph.org.uk