Nature is a great place for activities with your child. Outdoors, you can get fresh air and red cheeks go on adventures – together. You can talk to each other in a different way and strengthen your relationship when you go for a walk in the woods, look at small animals, run up and down hills or balance on logs.
Things to remember on a walk in the country
Shoes or boots that are comfortable for walking in.
Several layers of clothes, so you can adjust if you get hot or cold.
Sun cream in the spring and summer
Small snacks for breaks along the way, e.g. fruit, buns, crispbread and or small cartons of juice.
Water bottles for children and adults
Wet wipes and tissues
Discover nature together
You can have lots of happy times at a playground with your child, playing and getting some exercise in the fresh air.
If you want to take your child to a nature playground, you can find the Danish Nature Agency’s list here.
Spending the night outdoors can be an exciting adventure for children of all ages. You can find a list of shelter sites and places where sleeping in tents is allowed here at the Danish Nature Agency. You can also download the shelter app, which shows you shelters all over Denmark.
The Danish Outdoor Council shows you how to build a good camp fire and make a sensible bivouac, which is useful when you are out and about.
Guides to specific nature activities
Nature activities on film
Time out with nature is the Danish Society for Nature Conservation’s site where you can find easy video guides and recipes for green fun and activities.
Naturfreak is a series of videos made by the Danish Hunters’ Association, which invite you on nature missions.
Take technology into the wild
Try some of these exciting apps where you can go on an adventure, set up your own treasure hunts or perhaps play a have fun with a nature game.
Child-friendly apps about nature
Nature adventures are written specifically for the places where they happen. Go exploring and get out on adventures in the world of nature.
The Scouts Woop app sends you out to discover nature through adventure events that you organise yourself.
Bird Bingo is a nature game where you have fun and compete spotting birds. Try challenging some of your friends to a bird contest.
Natural Technology is a great guide to useful apps and websites that dad and child can use together to learn about nature.
Clubs for dads and children
If you and your child want to explore nature with others, you can start with a club. If you are active yourself in a club, organisation or museum and would like to organise activities for fathers and children, we recommend reading:
The Inspiration guide With Dad exploring nature.
There is also a film that encourages associations, organisations and museums to set up activities for fathers and children.
Go to nature activities together
Organisations that run nature activities for dads and children
Naturfamilier is a nature group that connects you with other families in your neighbourhood. In some municipalities there are special nature family groups for fathers and their children only
Danish Orienteering Federation has clubs where families can go orienteering, which is a great opportunity for fathers and children to get out and about.
Community gardens for you and your dad can be found here: Copenhagen School Gardens, Gardens to Bellies, Lersøgrøftens Integrationsbyhaver
Nature and Youth has branches all over Denmark. The associations organise a variety of nature activities for children, young people and their parents. Here you can watch a film “With Dad Alone in the Wilderness”, which was organised by Nature and Youth, Moving for Life and the project With Dad in Nature.
Traditions in nature
Annual nature events
Nature Day brings together exciting nature events all over Denmark. Search the list for a local event near you.
Waste collectionevery year, when thousands of people in Denmark help keep the countryside clean. Find a nature area near you where you as a dad can teach your children how to clean up the countryside.
Find more inspiration to get out into the country
These days there are many organisations, projects and campaigns that together focus on getting us to make more use of the countryside. Find more inspiration here:
- The Outdoor Council’s campaign Children Grow in Nature encourages families and children to get out into the country through the Children’s Nature Canon with 12 activities for children in nature.
- Green Sprouts has developed more than 350 activities that you can print out for free and do outdoors with your children.
- The Our Nature campaign has developed material to help children explore in the forest, by the coast and seaside, in open country and in our urban nature.
- The Become Natural project has developed the material Ask & Liv – moving out in the country which invites you into an exciting story and new adventures in the country where you live.
- Round the year with dad and nature is a calendar designed by the Forum for Men’s Health with activities for dads and children who want to enjoy going out in the country together.
