How to Teach Your Young Ones How to Handle A Boat

15 May 2023

A family of three riding a blue moving boat with a blue Bimini top.

Bundaberg has many beautiful beaches that you can explore and have fun in. It’s also a great place to bring your family along and enjoy the pretty white sand and the crystal-clear aquamarine waters of the long coastlines of the many beaches in Bundaberg. This gateway to the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef is a great place to expose your little ones to the joys and wonder of boating.

Not only do you and your kids get to spend quality time and make precious memories but you can also teach them a valuable skill that they will be grateful for when they grow up. If boating in Bundaberg is your idea of fun and a great place to teach your kids about boats, you can head to Bargara Beach, Elliot Heads, and Woodgate Beach, just to mention a few.

While you’re perusing places to go in Bundaberg, you also need to strategize on how you can introduce boating to your children that will make them look forward to it. Here are some approaches you can do on how to make your kids fall in love with boating:

Ask Your Kids On What They Want To Do

First of all, you need to ask your kids what they want to see and do. If they feel like they have some autonomy and control over the activities you do, they're going to be much more engaged and excited to spend time with you. They’ll also be much more likely to develop a lifelong passion for boating so letting them start at a young age is a great time to do it.

Keep All the Activities Light and Short

When you're first starting out, try to keep the experiences as light as possible. Children don't always have long attention spans, and they don't always take the new activities right away. Because of this, don't take your kids out on an eight-hour marathon voyage the first time they ever go boating; it's usually better to take them on a few short trips first to see how they feel.

Similarly, you don't want to overwhelm your kids with information or novel activities. Focus on one thing at a time and work on building their interest and knowledge gradually.

Find an Activity They Love and Incorporate It In Their Boating Duties

So, you’ve convinced your kids to go boating with you. Great! Now you’ve completed the first task of this mission. To make this experience fun and enjoyable, incorporate the things they love to do during your boating trip. If this is quite tricky, you can also expose them to as many different activities as possible so you can gauge their interest in each. Do they seem excited at the idea of fishing and landing a big catch? Are they interested in exploring new coves and beaches? Do they want to go swimming? Do they prefer learning to do watersports? Whatever activity they seem excited to do, include it on your itinerary for your boating trip.

Keep Them Engaged in Interesting Activities

Kids usually have limited attention spans, so it's important to keep them engaged with activities that stimulate their minds and body. Get them involved in boating directly by giving them small, but important tasks, such as fetching certain boating equipment, helping to turn on the boat engine (and steer it if you’re using a motor engine stiller) or letting them steer the boat in open water where there is plenty of space around you and there are no other boats or obstacles nearby. They will surely feel exhilarated to play pretend to be the captain of the boat.

Study Aquatic Life

Most kids are interested in animals. One easy way to get them more interested in boating and the open water is to help them better understand the aquatic life around them. You can teach them about the various species that live in your nearby oceans, lakes, and rivers, and potentially show them real examples of this life in action.

 

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