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Post by nepean on Jul 27, 2015 16:58:49 GMT
I discovered this program, 3 weeks ago as I was planning our trip to Washington D.C. I had never heard of it before. We just got back from our trip and we visited many national parks in the Virginia, D.C. areas, and had a blast doing so. The kids picked up the junior ranger program booklets and earned about 7 badges.
They earned; National mall and Memorial Park, President's Park, the White House, Great Fall National Park, Prince William Forest Park, Cowpens National Battlefield Park, and George Washginton Memorial Parkway badges. They learnt a lot and had fun doing it. Now we are beginning some parks near our home. Sadly we live in the Southeast, and there aren't as many park here as in the west. My kids are excited to earn more badges.
Do you know, about the program?, What do your kids think? I would love to hear about your (your kids) experiences with different parks around the nation.
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gsquaredmom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,091
Jun 26, 2014 17:43:22 GMT
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Post by gsquaredmom on Jul 27, 2015 17:10:19 GMT
My boys loved it when they were younger!
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johnnysmom
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,684
Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Jul 27, 2015 17:12:53 GMT
Oh, thank you for the reminder! ODS did it when he was 6, I think, at Great Smokey Mtns. We go down there every few years and while he's 14 now and even if he could still do it wouldn't want to, we're going again in a couple weeks and I need to see if YDS is old enough, he's almost 5.
DS did enjoy it when he did it, I think little things like that are great programs for kids!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 28, 2024 13:39:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2015 17:32:29 GMT
We like it, too.
Something else that I didn't know about for a long time is National Park Passport Stamps. You by a little book and get it stamped at a ranger station.
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gsquaredmom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,091
Jun 26, 2014 17:43:22 GMT
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Post by gsquaredmom on Jul 27, 2015 17:33:23 GMT
We hit a lot of national parks when the boys were younger. I think we also had a national parks passport to collect stamps for all the parks. I don't know if they still do that but it was fun looking for the station in each place.
Ha! That's it. ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️
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pudgygroundhog
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,648 
Location: The Grand Canyon
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Post by pudgygroundhog on Jul 27, 2015 17:34:41 GMT
My daughter has done the junior ranger programs at various parks and has always enjoyed it. The one at Bryce included a plastic glove to pick up trash - she was so excited about that (she was four or so at the time).
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SabrinaP
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Busy Teacher Pea
Posts: 4,404
Location: Dallas Texas
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Post by SabrinaP on Jul 27, 2015 17:36:53 GMT
My boys just went to a state park in Oklahoma and got a state park passport and a stamp. I thought that was pretty cool. We will have to look into one for the National parks before we make a trip to DC or one of the other parks.
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Post by nepean on Jul 27, 2015 17:44:51 GMT
We like it, too. Something else that I didn't know about for a long time is National Park Passport Stamps. You by a little book and get it stamped at a ranger station. I just learnt about the passport too, and bought one just before we left on our D.C. trip. We gathered a bunch of stamps during the week we were gone. I almost wish we lived in Virginia, it is so rich in history and national parks. |
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Post by ntsf on Jul 27, 2015 18:15:14 GMT
the programs have been around for at least 25 yrs. the Girl Scouts just started a new partnership with NPS, so there are special programs for them in the parks...check out the websites.
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oaksong
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Jun 27, 2014 6:24:29 GMT
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Post by oaksong on Jul 27, 2015 18:28:46 GMT
My kids did it when they were younger. It's a great way to get them involved in the outdoor experience and see what is unique about each park. I love our National Parks! DH and I were just discussing how awesome it would be to see all of them. We have quite a few already checked off.
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Post by Basket1lady on Jul 27, 2015 18:52:07 GMT
We like it, too. Something else that I didn't know about for a long time is National Park Passport Stamps. You by a little book and get it stamped at a ranger station. My kids had books like this. I wonder where they are now? They are stamped with NP all over the US--probably 35 plus states. And when we lived overseas, they would stamp those places as well (not just US NPS.) I liked it because the kids were excited about a place and it was a good overview of where we were visiting. |
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zztop11
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,537
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Post by zztop11 on Jul 27, 2015 18:55:37 GMT
We like it, too. Something else that I didn't know about for a long time is National Park Passport Stamps. You by a little book and get it stamped at a ranger station. I love this passport book. I'm 60 and I use it. Not just for kids. It's so much fun to go back and talk about where you've been and when you were there. Just returned from an Alaskan cruise and had it with me. Stamped it with the "Tonga National Forest" stamp. It's nice to have a souvenir that's not a piece of junk. I highly recommend it to anyone!!! |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 28, 2024 13:39:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2015 19:12:01 GMT
My kids did it when they were younger. It's a great way to get them involved in the outdoor experience and see what is unique about each park. I love our National Parks! DH and I were just discussing how awesome it would be to see all of them. We have quite a few already checked off. I started counting how many np we have been to when someone told me that same thing( and made a scrapbook with a page for each park.) So far we have been to 31. (I only count parks, not the other"protected units" There are 59 parks but 408 "units". And I'm not trying to get to all of them.) |
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Deleted
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Sept 28, 2024 13:39:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2015 19:20:24 GMT
We have done it at both Yosemite and Sequoia. It's been quite a few years since we did it but DS still remembers things they taught him.
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Post by vronigarmisch on Jul 27, 2015 19:28:40 GMT
Ohhh I loved doing the junior ranger program when I was younger I am a junior ranger at Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Mesa Verde, Yellowstone and a couple others my mom sewed all the patches I earned on a backpack - i loooove that backpack I even brought it to germany when we moved :-)
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Post by nepean on Jul 27, 2015 21:57:04 GMT
the programs have been around for at least 25 yrs. the Girl Scouts just started a new partnership with NPS, so there are special programs for them in the parks...check out the websites. Yes, Since learning of the programs 3 weeks ago, I now know they are not new, they are just new to me and my kids  I have been checking out the NPS website, and it is FILLED with information on the programs for each park. I think it is a very neat program, and love that it excites my kids. I almost became a park ranger as my career, but they I learnt how rare the positions where and how I would most likely have to move far away. I was in Australia at the time and we have National Parks, but positions where I wanted to be were rare. So I LOVE visiting national parks, and am thrilled there is such a program to engage not only my own kids, but all kids. I guess my question here, was for more personal experiences with the program. |
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Post by nepean on Jul 27, 2015 22:00:13 GMT
My kids did it when they were younger. It's a great way to get them involved in the outdoor experience and see what is unique about each park. I love our National Parks! DH and I were just discussing how awesome it would be to see all of them. We have quite a few already checked off. I started counting how many np we have been to when someone told me that same thing( and made a scrapbook with a page for each park.) So far we have been to 31. (I only count parks, not the other"protected units" There are 59 parks but 408 "units". And I'm not trying to get to all of them.) 31! that is impressive! I too would love to visit many (all) of the national parks, we have made a good start, but there are a lot on my bucket list! |
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theshyone
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,422
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Post by theshyone on Jul 27, 2015 22:52:26 GMT
I discovered this program, 3 weeks ago as I was planning our trip to Washington D.C. I had never heard of it before. We just got back from our trip and we visited many national parks in the Virginia, D.C. areas, and had a blast doing so. The kids picked up the junior ranger program booklets and earned about 7 badges. They earned; National mall and Memorial Park, President's Park, the White House, Great Fall National Park, Prince William Forest Park, Cowpens National Battlefield Park, and George Washginton Memorial Parkway badges. They learnt a lot and had fun doing it. Now we are beginning some parks near our home. Sadly we live in the Southeast, and there aren't as many park here as in the west. My kids are excited to earn more badges. Do you know, about the program?, What do your kids think? I would love to hear about your (your kids) experiences with different parks around the nation. Back in 2009 my kids did the program and got the badge & hats in Yellowstone. Really enjoyed it. I think it is a great program and wish Canada Parks had it too. |
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akathy
What's For Dinner?
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Jun 25, 2014 22:56:55 GMT
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Post by akathy on Jul 27, 2015 22:59:51 GMT
I discovered this program, 3 weeks ago as I was planning our trip to Washington D.C. I had never heard of it before. We just got back from our trip and we visited many national parks in the Virginia, D.C. areas, and had a blast doing so. The kids picked up the junior ranger program booklets and earned about 7 badges. They earned; National mall and Memorial Park, President's Park, the White House, Great Fall National Park, Prince William Forest Pa, Cowpens National Battlefield Park, and George Washginton Memorial Parkway badges. They learnt a lot and had fun doing it. Now we are beginning some parks near our home. Sadly we live in the Southeast, and there aren't as many park here as in the west. My kids are excited to earn more badges. Do you know, about the program?, What do your kids think? I would love to hear about your (your kids) experiences with different parks around the nation. My late DH and I picked up that Passport book way back when we started doing car trips. We had a ton of stamps in it and DH was very proud of his book It's one of the few things one of my DDs wanted of her Dads after he died. I can see why it interests kids, we loved collecting the stamps |
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Deleted
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Sept 28, 2024 13:39:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2015 13:56:57 GMT
We are visiting Black Canyon of the Gunnison in a couple of weeks. We visited there before it was a national park a very long time ago.
DH remembered taking a boat trip there so I looked it up in my scrapbook and sure enough, we had a pic. This was before we were so interested in photography and scrapbooking.
That happens to us often. DH will remember doing something and I won't, so I'll go look it up in a scrapbook and sure enough, he was right.
We are doing the boat trip again, and taking a granddaughter with us. We have 12 grandchildren and are taking them them on trips with us one at a time.
This is really at btt post, hoping someone else wants to talk about national parks!
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Post by nepean on Jul 28, 2015 16:10:55 GMT
We are visiting Black Canyon of the Gunnison in a couple of weeks. We visited there before it was a national park a very long time ago. DH remembered taking a boat trip there so I looked it up in my scrapbook and sure enough, we had a pic. This was before we were so interested in photography and scrapbooking. That happens to us often. DH will remember doing something and I won't, so I'll go look it up in a scrapbook and sure enough, he was right. We are doing the boat trip again, and taking a granddaughter with us. We have 12 grandchildren and are taking them them on trips with us one at a time. This is really at btt post, hoping someone else wants to talk about national parks! Enjoy Black Canyon! we went there about 10 years ago now and it was beautiful! have your granddaughter ask for the junior ranger booklet. If she completes it, she can receive a cool badge or patch. I would love it if you update us after your trip on how she liked the booklet etc. |
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I have been checking out the NPS website, and it is FILLED with information on the programs for each park. I think it is a very neat program, and love that it excites my kids. I almost became a park ranger as my career, but they I learnt how rare the positions where and how I would most likely have to move far away. I was in Australia at the time and we have National Parks, but positions where I wanted to be were rare. So I LOVE visiting national parks, and am thrilled there is such a program to engage not only my own kids, but all kids.
