If you’re a floating enthusiast and a parent, you’re probably looking forward to passing on your love of rivers and lakes to your own children. Maybe you remember float trips from your own childhood fondly, and you want your children to grow up with those same good memories. Whatever your reasons, if you want to introduce your children to camping and floating, you are on the right path. Kids who grow up camping have a healthy respect for nature, and a wholesome pastime they can turn to when they are older and other kids might be pressuring them to engage in unhealthy activities. In order to help you ensure that your child’s first float is enjoyable, here are a few tips. Before you take your kids out for their first float make sure you give them a hot bath in aqua hot tubs to make them feel relaxed and prepared for the trip.
Plan a Short Float
On your first few outings with kids, you may want to take the usual number of miles that you float in a day in half. If they aren’t old enough to help paddle, kids are going to become restless. If they are helping paddle, they are going to get tired. Either way, you’ll need to plan to take breaks much more frequently 
than you normally would. There’s also a good chance that after a few hours floating, swimming, and splashing that your child is simply going to be ‘done’ for the day. If that happens, you don’t want to be 4 miles into an 8 mile float.
Make Sure Kids Know What to Expect
No float trip is 100 percent predictable, but if kids have at least a general idea of what is going to happen, they will function better, and they will have much more fun. If possible, hop on the internet and show them pictures of the area where you’ll be floating. If you’ll be in a park area, visit the park’s website and let the kids see what they will have to do once you’ve made it to your destination. It’s also a good idea to give them a breakdown of how the day will progress.
Keep them as Physically Comfortable as Possible
Thirst, hunger, bug bites, and heat can make a day on the river miserable for anybody. This goes doubly so for kids. Pack plenty of water bottles, juice pouches, or sports drinks, and then make sure that the kids drink them. Kids who are having fun outdoors, often forget to hydrate. In addition to stopping midday for lunch, it’s also a good idea to plan for a few snack breaks. If you are floating in a particularly ‘buggy’ area, be sure to bring along a good repellent that contains DEET. Finally, the importance of applying and reapplying sun screen cannot be emphasized enough.
Let them Enjoy the Experience in their Own Way
Have you ever taken your kids to a really cool tourist attraction, only to learn later that their favorite part of the trip was the hotel pool? There’s a fairly good chance that will happen on their first float trip also. You might have plans for your kids to see waterfalls, beautiful foliage, majestic birds of prey flying overhead, etc., and that’s great. Just keep in mind that their favorite memories of the trip might be catching crawfish or collecting and sorting river rocks, and that’s okay too.
