When planning your kid’s birthday party, it is the activity choice & location that defines the experience and getting that right means staying on top of the trends and booking in early!
With headlines trumpeting child hood obesity and increasing risks to children from prolonged screen time, mothers longingly recall simpler times and birthday memories from their own childhood and wonder how to recreate those unforgettable times. With Sydney’s enviable weather and stupendous outdoor settings, kayaking with Paddlecraft on Pittwater in Sydney’s Northern Beaches offers an unforgettable mixture of excitement, outdoor water activities and old-fashioned fun that is guaranteed to produce memories of a lifetime.
With excessive screen time, and the inactivity that goes with it, kids as young as 15 are at greater risk of obesity and chronic disease, research shows from a Sydney University Pediatric study. Only 1 in 5 Australian children move enough to meet the national guidelines of 60 minutes moderate to vigorous activity a day. Aussie kids spent an average of just 25-30 minutes doing moderate activities and only 5-7 minutes a day in vigorous sporting activities. For 8- to 12-year-olds, the average daily time spent using screen media was 4 hours and 36 minutes, according to a 2015 Common Sense Media report, with tweens spending 6 hours daily with all media, including reading and listening to music. Our kayaking birthday parties will provide a 1 1/2 hour on water paddling session with a Paddlecraft instructor for a minimum of 6 kids, 8 years and older with an additional 1/2 hour of free play. We generally provide double sit on top kayaks and offer an additional free single kayak for another adult to accompany the group.
Coupled with this reliance on technology and time spent indoor, there is a worrisome decline in the younger generation’s exposure to nature, appreciation of the outdoors and time just generally spent outdoors. Only about 10 percent say they are spending time outdoors every day, according to a new nationwide poll from The Nature Conservancy. And it shows! In 2014, America’s national parks attracted a record-setting 292.8 million visits, but the typical visitor to the country’s biggest parks is edging closer to retirement age, with the average age around mid fifties years old.
Exposing kids to nature is a crucial step to getting kids to care about environmental issues, the poll finds. However, those with personal, positive experiences with nature were twice as likely to view themselves as strong environmentalists and were significantly more likely to express concern about water issues, air pollution, climate change and the overall condition of the environment. “That subset of youth is markedly different from those who have not had personal experiences with nature,” says David Metz of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates. “They are almost twice as likely to say they prefer spending time outdoors and more than twice as likely to strongly agree that protecting the environment is cool. Clearly, getting kids meaningful experiences outside is key to getting them to care about the environmental issues of our day.”
Be the first in your group to introduce your son or daughter and their mates safely to an on-water activity, like kayaking on Pittwater and book a party with Paddlecraft. Bordered on the western foreshore of Pittwater by Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Paddlecraft is located just under an hour from Sydney CBD. Fostering a healthy way to celebrate a birthday and enjoying themselves with friends can help to create a life long commitment to outdoor appreciation and a physical life style that will be a birthday present that they will never forget! Click here for more information and to book a party with us this season.