Ladies,

What are your methods for keeping your kids engaged in fishing, hunting, camping, etc.?  How do you keep them safe but still make sure they enjoy the outdoors?

A couple things that come to mind for me from this past weekend:

1) I use a backpack for my son who is 8 months old.  I used it this past weekend when fishing and he had a blast watching but it still gave me the freedom to cast.  He fell asleep after awhile but I could still fish so we were both happy.  :O)

2) My daughter has a kids fishing rod and was having a blast casting until the plastic fish on the end got stuck in some rocks.  We were a little worried about her having a hook on the line since she was just learning how to cast and she wanted to hold the end of the line.  We ended up putting a leader on her line, followed by a couple weights and a plastic worm.  We put the worm right in the leader hook and squeezed it inside so it wouldn't break off and so she could see it.  The weight helped her to cast better, she got pretty good at it by the end of the day and we didn't have any major injuries from hooks.


For hunting:

1) I have also used the backpack for deer and pheasant hunting.  I do not carry my gun in those cases but it at least gives me the opportunity to get out and walk on those nice days and still take in some hunting.  I always have the kids wear their orange and carry cheerios in my pocket.  :O)