How to Entertain Toddlers on a Fishing Trip

We have been slowly working away on our Summer Bucket List. Honestly most of the fun things are done and now we are on to finishing up our summer projects, but looking at our calendar those won’t get done until September. Every weekend this month is booked with something. We have two camping trips, a church picnic event, wedding, anniversary getaway {two whole days  and nights with no boys!} AND the thing I am most excited about: we’re going to a concert in Interlochen at the end of the month. The Piano Guys. It will be incredible.

Back to the Summer Bucket List. One thing that was on our list was to take the boys fishing a couple of times. And we have done that in the past couple of weeks. They usually do really well if we are pulling fish in at a pretty decent rate but when the fishing is slow we have to entertain them somehow.

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1. Take selfies with them.

They always say mommas need to be in pictures with their kids instead of just pictures of the kids or kids and hubby. Here is the perfect time to get into those pictures. It will keep your little one entertained for a long while. And people who follow you on Instagram will love 50 bazillion pictures of you and your adorable child on a boat. 🙂

2. Let your child take the camera over.

I only recommend this for those with older littles. Ones who can be trusted to keep the camera in their possession at all times and not start looking for fish through the view finder.

3. Bring LOTS of snacks.

Or your dinner. And with whatever you bring dole it out slowly. The last time Ben took the boys out while I wasn’t with them I sent a bunch of finger foods for the boys’ dinner. Lunch meat roll ups, hardboiled eggs, plums, carrots, celery and cucumbers with dressing to dip them in and a bag of chips. They ate most of it and it did keep them busy and occupied which was good since Ben was the only adult on the trip.

4. Look for other animals along the shore.

We like to find different ducks and birds. We’ve looked for deer and bears with no luck,  but they are both big animal groups around us. Last time I went with the family we saw a bald eagle perched on the top of a large pine tree. That was incredible. I wish it was a little closer so that I could have taken a picture.

5. Take some books.

Ones that you own. I don’t recommend library books, because who wants to pay a $35 replacement fee for a book that went swimming with the fishies? Any of your child’s books that you don’t mind getting wet are good to go.

6. Technology.

I hesitate to use this as an option because I hate entertaining littles with any kind of technology. But momma, sometimes it can be a lifesaver. I know. So keep it as a back up plan.

 

Two of the other things that we recently crossed off our Summer Bucket List were a trip to the zoo and a picnic afterwards.

We went to the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids a couple of weekends ago. We hadn’t been in a couple of years and we were pleasantly surprised with how the trip went. We got there first thing in the morning and were surprised to see the animals moving around. Last time we went it was after lunch sometime and the heat caused the animals to hide and sleep. This time the grizzlies were playing in the water, the lions were moving around and so was the rest of the zoo. We hadn’t been to JBZ since they got the tigers so we were really excited about the tiger exhibit. Sadly we couldn’t see them very well, but I loved the huge enclosure that they have. I think we made it through the zoo in about two hours. There were several things we didn’t do, because of extra cost, like the ropes course, camel rides and a train ride up to the top of the zoo.

After our zoo excursion we stopped at one of our new favorite parks for a picnic lunch. We grabbed a rotisserie chicken from Meijer and some chips for the boys. I brought fruit, a veggie tray and a salad for me. Yummy and easy. I LOVE Meijer’s rotisserie chickens. They are usually around $5, gluten free and always cooked just right.

Here is a quick look at our Summer Bucket List, what we have done and what we haven’t:

*picnics we have been on a couple in the last few weeks
*swimming yep! finally got our beach day in
*camping we went camping while in GA and we have another trip with friends planned for the end of August.
*fishing we have been fishing once and are going again tonight. The first time we didn’t catch anything so we are hoping for more luck tonight.
*trip to the zoo we visited the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids
*hiking
*beach day yay!! I’ll be sharing more about our favorite beach later this week.
*fireworks we went to see fireworks on the Fourth of July. The boys loved them! I thought I lost my phone which was scary ’cause it had almost all my pictures of Cameron since birth and I hadn’t saved them all to second location. My SIL found my found the phone the next day and all was well. I learned my lesson and bought a new SD card.
*National Baby Food Festival sadly the parade was canceled because of storm threat. But we did get to a few of the events.
*pick berries
*put as much fresh produce away for fall and winter as we can
*siding on the house Yay!! After being an advertisement for a local hardware store for a couple of years we finally got our siding up. 🙂 I LOVE it!!
*kitchen counters
*curtains and pillows for the our bedroom
*spend the summer enjoying the last summer as a family of four
*run a couple road races
*workout DVD’S 2-3 times a week
*school with Seth because we will be taking a couple of months off after BabyT#3 is born
*reading program at the librarywe just finished our local library’s reading program last week. The boys loved picking out there prizes. I loved seeing how much reading we actually do around our house. We didn’t have to try at all to get all of our reading minutes done. 🙂

Do you take your toddlers or preschoolers fishing? How do you keep them entertained when it is slow?

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