Hunting rabbits with kids is a great winter past time.
 

Youthful Opportunities

Hello friends,

I have to apologize to you for not putting any time in the field for this week’s column. Generally I base each week’s story on time spent in the field. This week a last minute illness with my daughter and another setback, kept me out of Wisconsin’s woods and waters.

I had to think of something to write about and I think I may have come up with something that is near and dear to each of us. I am talking about kids and being active with them and it does not matter if it is your own, the neighbors or a friend or relatives.

Something that I have done for the last four years that has actually become a hobby for me is volunteering at Selina’s school. I try to help out at least three times a month and when I leave Necedah Elementary School I always have an incredible feeling. I am not trying to brag, have never mentioned this in my column, but the reason that I am volunteering is because it is so easy to do and should be done. Generally I read and give a prize each week to the youngster that can answer the question of the week. The question of the week pertains to the subject I just read about and I believe it really helps with kids listening skills.

Something else that I like to do is actually teach a class, such as trapping, duck identification, hobby farming and next is fish identification.

For my fish identification class, I bring in a northern pike, perch, walleye, catfish, crappie and a bluegill. I give a brief description of each fish and then teach the kids how to fillet and then show them the anatomy of the fish.

When I taught the trapping class, I bought in an otter, a muskrat and a coyote as well as some traps. I tried to explain how much of the United States was first explored by trappers and how important the fur trade use to be to our country.

If you are wondering where I am going with this my point is that most adults could pick out an interesting book and read it to kids. A lot of adults could teach children for a half hour about a subject that some teachers may not be familiar with.

Probably the best reward that I receive is the “Hi, Mr. Walters” and the barrage of hugs that I get when I am in the school.

On somewhat of the same subject, Wisconsin’s Youth Turkey Hunt is coming up on April 10th and 11th. Please check the DNR website but here is what I know, if there are tags left in the zone you would like to take a 10- to 15-year-old hunting in. You can simply purchase one and hunt on that weekend. The young hunter will either have to have passed Hunters Safety or being under the Mentored Hunting Program.

In other words, if you did not mail in a turkey hunting application last December, you can still take a 10- to 15-year-old hunting on April 10th and 11th. You just have to make sure there are tags left for the final weeks of the turkey hunting season.

I have more fun helping a person harvest a turkey than I do shooting one myself and I believe that opinion is shared by many veteran turkey hunters.

Another really cool subject concerning kids is my own daughter Selina who just turned nine. Next year, when Selina is 10, I will be passing on my bear tag for Zone C to her. I am currently more excited for that hunt which is still something like 18 months away, than any other outdoor experience in my upcoming future.

Anyone over 30 knows that the way a lot of our youth are growing up is much different then the way we grew up. What I just wrote about are some simple ways that we as adults can make a difference. The simple reality is that by partaking in outdoor experiences with kids or volunteering at your school the adult is just as much of a winner as the children that they are spending time with.

I have a never-ending supply of new friends that at one time were kids that I played in the outdoors with. If you read this column on a regular basis you will see that my stepsons who I have shared hundreds of outdoor experiences with, are proof that if you play with your kids in the outdoors, they will be your friends as adults.

Please check out the

Youth Turkey Hunt!

Sunset