Being a father to two children under the age of 4 years old, I struggled with my ability to introduce them to the wonderful world of nature. It wasn’t from a lack of effort as my oldest son became the most intense 3 minutes fisherman I had ever seen, but 3 minutes is all his attention span would allow. Shed hunting, a preconceived notion of an enjoyable walk through a corn field, turned me into a pack mule, carrying both children and their backpacks, and ended with an exhaustive back ache. I was fearful the loud sounds of a shot gun during squirrel hunting would create a shyness of guns early on, and the idea of them hanging out in a pop up blind during a bow hunt for spring turkey seemed like a horrible rendition of being stuck in a cage with two hungry tigers. Then I turned to trail cameras.
Trail cameras were a natural fit as it combined technology, something that I am still amazed at how quickly children pick up, and the understanding of nature and the movement of animals. It became a perfect combination that was able to hold their attention, and gave them the ability to explore and learn.
Buying a Child a Trail Camera
On his 3rd birthday, we purchased my son his very first trail camera. He was filled with excitement, as he had seen the many trail cameras I had floating around the house, and knew instantly that this was his very own.
Buying a trail camera for a child is not as easy as it seems though. Through much deliberation we had come to the conclusion that the camera must have 5 things:
- Ease of use- Children have small uncoordinated hands. A trail camera for a child must be easy to open and close the housing unit, and should have an easy to use buckle and strap for hanging the camera. There is nothing more frustrating for a child, than not being able to use their trail camera without help from an adult. It is their toy, and they want to do it.
- Limited technology- As good as children are at using technology, and in many aspects they are better at it then we are, they do not need to get into the weeds with megapixel counts, delay settings, and photo burst. In fact the more simplistic the better. In general a child just wants to set the camera and move on. Hanging the camera, switching it to on and walking away is all they desire.
- Reliable – A trail camera must be reliable. It doesn’t need to take the best photos, but it does need to take photos. There is nothing more devastating to a child than waiting two weeks to check the camera, only to find out that it didn’t work properly. (In fact, that is pretty devastating when that happens to me too).
- Durable- What we have found out is that my children do not want to place their trail camera safely in a bag, until they get to the tree, THEY want to carry it. This means slinging it over their shoulder, dropping it in the mud, and dragging it along the ground by the straps. You need a camera that is durable enough to withstand the rough play of children.
- Cheap in price- At no point were we going to spend $200 on a sophisticated trail camera, only for a child to play rough with it. This is designed to be a learning tool for the kids, not an exercise of burning cash for the parents.
After a considerable amount of research, talking with manufacturers, and picking the brain’s of other professionals in the industry, we found that the Tasco Low glow 12MP trail camera was the best fit for a young child. It met all of our criteria:
- Ease of use– It has two small easy to open latches on the side, and the strap comes with a plastic buckle similar to a backpack, something they have experience operating.
- Limited Technology- There is literally no options for this trail camera. Other than setting up the time stamp from your computer on to the SD card, this camera is literally fool proof.
- Reliable- It doesn’t take the quality of pictures you would personally buy for yourself, but it does take pictures. In fact, over the 8 months my son has owned this camera, it has never malfunctioned. From a camera who’s only option is to take pictures, it does its one job sufficiently.
- Durable- It is about as durable as you can expect from a trail camera. Having a hard plastic shell, it can take the abuse of a young child. Also, from a little experiment of getting too close to a creek, this camera is also waterproof.
- Cheap in Price- coming in at under $40 you can’t ask for much cheaper
Getting Your Child Excited About Trial Cameras
One of the things that we quickly realized is that once we gifted my son his first trail camera, he didn’t want to wait until my next trip to our hunting property to use it. He was determined to use it that day. So, we hung the camera outside in our yard.
While we were never going to get amazing photos of bear scratching its back on a tree, or a monster buck working a scrape, he was perfectly content with getting photos of mostly squirrels, birds and the occasional neighbors pet. In fact to this day, his favorite photo that he continuously wants to see is of Matt, the neighbors cat.
Hanging the camera around the house lent to be a great exercise in moving the camera around to get the most amount of pictures. While the neighbor’s fence post looking into their backyard was a continuous disagreement, it did give him the fun task of moving the camera around the yard, and the ability of checking every day.
Teaching Your Child About Nature
Once we were able to get up to our hunting property, and had convinced our son to bring his trail camera, the magic combination of using the technological device, and inserting basic understanding of looking for deer sign in nature, finally took hold.
We let him loose, with the trail camera slung over his shoulder banging it on passing trees and dropping it in the lightly snow covered ground. We let him run ahead of us, grabbing sticks and banging them up against trees. Finally, something caught my eye, and I yelled to him who was playing up ahead of us, “Hey buddy look! Deer Poop!” (Kids love anything that deals with poop).
Within a split second, his eyes turned as large as quarters, and he came running toward us “Poop?” I showed him the excrement laying atop the bright white snow, and he was hooked. I showed him the deer track of the mystery bandit as well, and then we spend the rest of the entire afternoon having him pointing out every pile of feces and every deer track on the entire property.
Finally, I asked him where he wanted to hang his camera. Without a second of hesitation he said, “By the poop!” We let him lead us to where he wanted to hang the camera, and let him choose the tree. Within a few short visits, over the course of a couple of months, we introduced him to other things than just poop and deer tracks, and he was able to point out runways, deer beds, buck rubs and turkey feathers. His interest with hanging his trail camera, became a passion for the outdoors.
Throughout our experiment with introducing our child to the wonder world of nature through the use of trail cameras we found a few things that work extremely well:
- Trail Cameras are just a tool- As someone who is absolutely enthralled by trail cameras sometimes its hard to remember the ultimate goal. The trail camera, as much fun as they can be has nothing to do with the overall lessons that nature can provide, it is simply a tool to help create excitement. It doesn’t matter to the child if it isn’t hung in the perfect spot or even straight on the tree, those are our personal preferences, what matter to them is the experience.
- Allow your child to explore- When I am hanging trail cameras for my own personal use, I am on a mission. I have specific locations, or signs that I am focused on to create the most relevant intel I possibly can. To a child, it is all about the process of getting there, and less about the end result. Allow your child to stop and explore. Sometimes, like myself who is so goal orientated, it can be down right painful to watch as they need to throw the 100th stick in the creek, or point out every ant on an ant hill, but that time to explore allows them to create their own excitement of the outdoors.
- Teach in small increments- As a seasoned outdoorsman it is simple and easy to pick out every scrape, dust bowl, bedding area, birds nest, and chewed on sapling in the woods. Pointing out each and every one of these to a child is information overload. Start small with a deer track or deer poop (again, children love poop) and allow them to get comfortable identifying them, before you introduce them to something else. Keep it simple, and remember that learning in the outdoors is a gradual progression, you didn’t learn everything in one day, and there is not expectation for them to either.
- Allow them to be in charge- Allow the child to determine where they want to go and where they want to stop. Express the expectation that they choose the tree to hang the camera, and allow them to hang it themselves.
- Bring a snack- As we all know kids love snacks. Take the time to eat a PB&J under an old apple tree or to snack on some cookies in your old deer blind. Surprisingly, this tends to be the highlight of a trip for not only the kid, but you as well.
Looking at Photos
Once your child finally gets to change SD cards on their trail camera, I find that it is important to wait until you get home to look at them. Looking at photos on an SD card reader has a completely different feeling for a young child than being able to sit down and scroll through photos on a computer. Also, this brings the excitement you had shared together back home, only increasing the child’s interest.
Load the photos you have collected on the computer and allow them to scroll through them. You will be amazed at what pictures you would have just skipped passed, but they found interesting. In fact I remember the first buck my son got on his trail camera. I was so excited for him, and praised him for his ability to pick the perfect spot. His response: “Can we see Matt (the neighbors cat) again?”
Set up a special folder for all of their trail camera photos. This gives them not only a sense that what they did was important, but it is an easy way to find Matt the cat every morning when they wake up and ask to see it.
One final thing that I have done is find their favorite photo and make it the wallpaper on your desktop or cell phone. Every time they see that photo it brings back an instant memory, and you will often get responses like, “I took that with my trail camera Dad.”
Final Thoughts
As a mentor sometimes it is down right difficult to spark an interest, and show them the beauty of nature. You want them to experience the same joy that you have every time you slip on your boots and get lost in the woods. The truth is every one has a different experience with nature, and as a mentor giving them a tool like a trail camera, and allowing them to create their own experiences, their own memories, and their own excitement, is all a child really needs.
