Summer Outdoor Challenge
Jonny’s Summer Outdoor Challenge
The most anticipated days in any childhood are momentous holidays such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Birthdays, and oh yeah, THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!! Since you just spent the majority of the last 8 months inside your school building, gazing outside, wishing to be free, lets act upon those feelings and explore all there is to do outdoors through Jonny’s Summer Outdoor Challenge.
Jonny’s Summer Outdoor Challenge is a challenge to yourself to experience new activities, sports, animals, insects, fish, bugs, foods, events, festivals, or so many other things that are part of the outdoor experience. The Outdoor Challenge is open to anyone and everyone who cares to participate. The challenge begins the day you get out of school and will end on the Tuesday after Labor Day.
Jonny’s Summer Outdoor Challenge will be offering a signed copy of the newest Adventures with Jonny book Roadtrip to the Parks, A parent and child hiking / camping guide to the National and Federal Parks, to a random selection of five of the most active children who participate in the challenge. The books will be available upon conclusion of the summer challenge, in September of this year.
In order to participate and officially enter the Jonny’s Summer Outdoor Challenge, please go to www.adventureswithjonny.com, and sign up for the e-newsletter. Each week, you will receive new challenge ideas for you and your friends to experience via the Jonny E-newsletter . You can follow us on Facebook, become a fan, post pictures or stories and discover new challenges. Keep us posted on your Summer challenges and other outdoor activities by sending us an email and a picture of you, or you and your family, or you and your friends, participating in any summer outdoor activity.
Take Travel Jonny along with you by printing him off of the website and packing him along on your outdoor adventures. Include Travel Jonny in your pictures so that he becomes part of the fun.
Look to the Adventures with Jonny website throughout the summer months to get new ideas or to share your ideas with other kids.
Outdoor Challenge Activities
Fishing. If you have never gone fishing, get out and try it. If you fish regularly, try fishing for a new species or try a new fishing technique, like fly fishing. Or better yet, try a new technique for a new species altogether. Even better, take someone fishing who has never been fishing before. Before you go, collect your own worms by watering the grass in the evening and searching with a flashlight once it gets dark. You can also collect worms on the street or sidewalk immediately after any big rain. Make it a challenge within a challenge by having a contest with your friends to see who can pick the most worms or who can pick the biggest worm.
Oh Shoot!Only with the help and instruction from a qualified adult, learn how to shoot a bow. Go a step further and learn how to bring the Mathew’s sponsored National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) to your schoolat the beginning of the school year so that you can introduce the fun of archery to your school next season.
Catching. Catch a frog, catch a turtle, catch lightning bugs. Take a close look at them to see what you can learn about them and gently set them free. Catch a ball, catch some rays, catch an outdoor movie, catch some Z’s under the shade of your favorite tree.
Other Water Activities. Go canoeing, kayaking, boating, jet skiing, sailing, swimming, wading, stone skipping, water skiing, wake boarding, knee boarding, floating, diving, snorkeling, splashing or tubing on the water. Just be sure to do all of them with a lifejacket on!
Hiking. Slap on your shoes and take a hike, through any of the National, State or local parks. If you can’t get to a park, take a hike in the area where you live. To make it fun, try to pay attention to things you never noticed before. You can even set a goal of how many miles you want to hike in a week, a month or over the entire summer vacation.
Wildlife. The entire circle of life happens right outside your door. If you spend all of your time indoors, then you’re missing the whole big circle. Open your eyes and your ears to all the animals and birds that live outside your home. Get a bird book and see how many different species of birds you can identify where you live, where you play, where you go on vacation. Stay outside as night falls upon you and the animals begin to speak their native tongue. See how many different sounds of the night that you can identify to the animal that made them. Imitate the call of the coyote, owl, pheasant, turkey, loon or coon and see who most sounds like an animal. Take a census, of how many different kinds of animals there are in your own backyard, or your own block or your own farm. If you are travelling away from home or out of the state, try to find as many animals as you can that you don’t normally see at home.
Increase your awareness of everything that goes on around you when you are outside.
Insects. There are many of these, everywhere we live, but most of us cannot name more than one or two at most. Try to discover how many different insects live around your home. If you live near a creek, river or stream, take a scoop from the bottom and see just how many things live below the surface. Do a little research ahead of time so you will know what the different aquatic insects look like when you find them. Research a little more and see what some of these aquatic insects turn into once they evolve from their nymph stage of life.
Plant a Garden. One of the best ways to learn the affects of weather on plants is to grow a garden. You can plant a flower garden or a vegetable garden and either will reward you with a quite an education. There are few things in life so rewarding as providing for your family’s meal with the food that you have grown with your own two hands.
Spend a whole day and night outside. (except for bathroom breaks). See what it’s like to be an animal for just one day, by spending the whole day outside and camping out for the night. Challenge yourself to stay away from electronics for the entire day (except a flashlight for night time). You will gain an appreciation for all the conveniences that you have and more importantly, find out that you can have a great time without any E devices to provide the fun for you. Enjoy a sunrise, sunset and moonrise all in the same day!
Play the Cloud Game. Lay on the ground with your friends and family and gaze up at the clouds above, looking for shapes or figures that the passing clouds take on in their travels over your head. If you are going to play for awhile, make sure to throw on some sunscreen!
Play in the Rain. It’s okay. You won’t melt and clothes will dry again. Splash in a puddle, get muddy, splash your friends, look up at the rain and let the drops wash your face. Catch a drop on your tongue.
Heck, why don’t you even try singing in the rain!
Play Outdoor Yard Games. Running races, frozen tag, TV tag, Red Rover, Red Light / Green Light, Kick ball, Frisbee, Horseshoes, Volley Ball, Badminton, Croquet, Lawn Darts, Jump a Rope, Sidewalk Chalk a Portrait, and oh so much more.
Keep a Journal and draw or write about your Summer Outdoor Experiences and the awesome memories that you have created.
To some, these activities may not present a challenge. But to those who are new to outdoor recreation, they are challenging themselves to leave their comfort of the indoors and to explore the world outside. Remember, you will reach your greatest successes in life when you challenge yourself.
My name is Jonny and this is my Summer Outdoor Challenge!