1. When you arrive at a national park, stop at a ranger station and request the Junior Ranger booklet. The booklets are free at some parks (like the Theodore Roosevelt Junior Ranger Program) and cost a few bucks at others (like the Yellowstone Junior Ranger Program- I'm assuming do to sheer number of visitors.)
2. The booklets are stuffed with all kinds of full-color, creative, educational activities related to the park. You can learned about birds, animal tracks, the unique plants in the park, how to preserve our resources and more. Based on age, kids need to complete a certain number of activities in the book. We never spent more than a couple hours total on one book. It's very manageable to fit in while you are hiking, touring or stopping for a lunch break. In fact, it was really easy to fit in a few minutes here or there, or even to hand the books back to the kids during a car drive through a park.
3. You must attend at least one ranger-led talk at the park. How fun is this? And it's probably something you were going to do anyway. We attended a talk on Theodore Roosevelt's cabin in that park. Yellowstone has about 40 ranger talks daily all over the park. We attended several, including two specifically designed for kids and Junior Rangers (one about the food web and one about bird bills/beaks). Just have a ranger sign the booklet.
4. Usually, you're required to hike a trail. Easy enough.
5. Bring your completed booklet to the ranger station. A park ranger will review the pages, ask your kids all kinds of fun questions about their time in the park, and share some stories with them as well. They will also lead the kids in a pledge to help protect the parks. The rangers we met were so incredibly kind and encouraging to the kids.
6. Finally, kids receive a pin or sew-on badge from the specific national park. While I'm not a fan of meaningless trophies and certificates, I think these badges are a great keepsake. We pinned ours on their hiking packs, serving of reminders to care for their environment and the wonderful parks they have visited. And it's free (or nearly.)
7. Yellowstone also has a Young Scientist Program. We purchased booklets for that too, but found it a bit much to tackle in our two days, while already doing the Junior Ranger. The good news is we brought the booklets home, can finish them this summer, mail them in, and can receive the badges by mail. It's also a good gateway for reviewing what we learned in Yellowstone. Win-win.
8. You can have even more fun with the program:
Here are some booklets you can access online:
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