It’s hard to imagine a more wholesome family activity than hiking. Exploring the outdoors boosts physical and mental health, promotes creativity and calms stress, says Heidi Magi, lead teacher at Pioneer Springs Community School, a nature-based public charter school in Charlotte.
“As a middle school teacher at a nature school, I see the ways in which a deep connection to nature helps kids feel more grounded in the world,” Magi says. “Studies show that because the natural world is less structured than the electronic and indoor worlds that children spend time in, time in nature tends to increasing creativity, self-confidence and imagination.”
Ready to get moving? From choosing baby’s first trail to motivating hesitant hikers and keeping kids safe, here’s what you need to know at every stage.
EARLY YEARS
Tiny Trekkers
The first step (pun intended) toward happy hiking with tots is making sure they’re safe and comfortable.
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
The Covid-19 Legacy
How will this generation-definind event affect our children?
Three Charlotte Murals
An art critic and his 5-year-old daughter offer their thoughts on public artworks found around the city
Growing with Grace
Everyday etiquette for children and teenagers
The Pint-Sized Foodie
A visit to NC Red
GET TO KNOW: Rhonda Patterson, the “Queen of Custody”
She’s an attorney, arbitrator, and owner of The Patterson Law Office, where she specializes in family law.
Best Friends in the end
You can be friends with your child…just not yet
Four fun things to experience with your kids this month
Four fun things to experience with your kids this month
Autism Diet Do's and Don'ts
Autistic individuals often have difficulties with sensory processing issues, sometimes called Sensory Processing Disorder, or SPD.
A Cool Girl's Bedroom
WHEN DESIGNER JACY PAINTER KELLY, owner of Jacy Painter Kelly Interiors, took her family to New York City last summer, her 10-year-old daughter Lucy went crazy for the cool urban vibe of their downtown hotel room. It gave Lucy the itch to makeover her own bedroom in their Fort Mill home. She wanted more mature accents like silver wall sconces and velvet pillows, paired with punk rock elements like a graffiti-inspired bed frame and pink neon sign. Luckily her designer mom knew exactly how to tie it all together.
Therapeutic Riding
Teaching confidence, focus, and friendship, one ride at a time
Drop Weight
The old backpacker’s adage is that the lightest gear is what you carry between your ears: your brain. Ultralight gear often requires more know-how than traditional gear. Here’s how a Triple Crowner approaches her packing strategy.
Boot Camp
Even if you log thousands of vertical feet at your local mountain beforehand, heli-skiing can wreck you after one day. Here’s how to beat the bonk.
Warm Up to Winter
Backpacking is so many things. It’s a leisure pursuit, a way to connect with nature, an athletic feat, a means of forging bonds with your friends and family, a problem-solving game, an escape, a subculture . . . Realistically, it’s something unique to every hiker. Because, above all, it’s a pull from within to get out there, and that’s a very individual thing.
Who's Afraid of Winter?
Two fair-weather enthusiasts tear down their fear of the fourth season.
Bone Up on Bone Loss
What do chairs, hiking, mineral flow, and estrogen have in common? They all play a role in whether or not your bones deteriorate with age
The View at The End
Three scientists chronicle life, death, and the last stand of the Grizzly Glacier.
Fall From a Cliff
When Shaina Maytum was 21, a slip in the desert left her broken, alone, and unable to move.
Dayhike a Marathon
Does “go big or go home” hold up on a dawn-to-dusk mission?
The Living Forest
We know our forests are special places. But for the Native Americans who have lived among them for centuries, they are more than that. Trees are family members that give, heal, provide, protect, and nurture. Trees are sacred. Listen to the trees.
Save The Desert
Bears Ears is a desert paradise. It's up to all of us to keep it that way.