10 Ways to Have More Adventure With a 3 Year Old

The sprog is 3 years old and is growing up fast...

It is my wish… No, it is my duty to bring her up with an appreciation of the world around her and for the people that inhabit that world. I want her to be the sort of bold, bright and engaging person that has the audacity to carve her own path in this world without having to conform to the expectations of others.

And that’s not to say that I would be happy if she set her sights on being a waitress for the rest of her life.

Not that there’s anything wrong with being a waitress. Some of the nicest people I know are waitresses. Oh dear, I may have dug myself a hole here.

What I mean is that I want her to have ambition to be the best that she can be in whatever field she chooses. And if that is food delivery then I want her to aspire to own a chain of cafés or have an award winning restaurant or something like that.

So how can I inspire my daughter to be the best that she can be and also give her the courage and self-belief to achieve her (for want of a better word) dreams?

The answer lies in ADVENTURE.

What other community encourages self-worth like the adventure community? What other course of action will develop confidence than achieving adventures you never thought possible? What other medium teaches the importance of goal-setting, the value of time over money, the reward of hard graft, the euphoria of completing a difficult challenge or the introspection that not achieving a challenge brings?

I’m telling you, adventure is the best thing to achieve all of these things.

And I’m sure you would want the same for your kids too.

So how could you bring more adventure into your sprog’s life?

1.       Start Small – Just a trip to the park can be an adventure for a sprog. Remember that they are little and are experiencing things for the first time. So finding woodlouse under a rock is a perfect introduction to wildlife and the world around us. Will they have the confidence to hold a woodlouse in their hand? Yes – Amazing. What does the sensation of having the creature crawl on their palm feel like? No – Never mind. We can build our confidence so that next time they can have another go. Maybe even just seeing the creepy crawlies is a brave thing to do.

2.       Be a bird expert – Take a different walk to town / swimming / ballet. Walk through a park. Walk through a housing estate. What can you see? What type of birds are in the sky? Get them to mimic the sounds of the pigeon or magpie. You don’t need to know all the bird names to copy their voices.

3.       Be a tree expert – What types of trees are overhead? You will seem like a nature genius if you just learn 3 or 4 types of tree. Go for Oak (acorn), Sycamore (helicopters) and Chestnut (conkers) to start with as they are the easiest to identify (and have the most fun underneath.

4.       Eat a meal in an adventurous location – Otherwise known as a picnic. Pack a small bag with some sandwiches and some fruit and go and sit in the local park and have lunch under the big blue sky. Just doing normal things in different places is adventurous.

5.       Go to a forest – There is nothing more adventurous than a forest! Build a den. Play hide and seek. Walk along fallen logs. Jump in muddy puddles. There is something really childlike and exciting about running around a forest.

6.       Visit a river – along the same themes as a forest. You don’t have to go in the water (in fact I actively encourage you not send your offspring in unless you know the patch of river well!) but you can still spot fish, play pooh-sticks on a bridge and catch critters in a net or bucket. Hours of adventurous fun!

7.       Get the kids to plan the adventure – When we have an adventure day, I like to involve the sprog in the planning. Whether it is giving her a handful of options or just letting her find her own way. Is it going to be a walking adventure or a bike adventure? Do we need a picnic? If so, what’s going to be in the sandwiches? (Hopefully not ham and strawberries like last time!) Which way should we go out of the front door? Left or right?

8.       Share your experiences – whether it is meeting reindeer or rowing across a loch or dolphin spotting or summiting the 6th highest peak in the UK (all of which the sprog and I did on a recent trip to Scotland) make sure you share the experiences with your little one. They may not remember everything you achieve together but they will remember the feeling of enjoyment that they felt growing up experiencing and spending time with you as their parent. Go on, enjoy your time together.

9.       Camp out – This is starting to get a bit more involved but I cannot express to you enough how much enjoyment the sprog has got out of camping. We really do not do it enough and we definitely didn’t start early enough. She was probably 18 months before she slept under canvas and she could have done it a lot sooner. I’m not saying it will be easy and you almost definitely won’t get a great night’s sleep but, oh man is it worth it!

10.   Put it all together – This is my next aim. To have an overnight expedition together where we have camp out somewhere and complete some sort of experience either on a river, or in a forest, or on a mountain. But I want it to be planned by her, doing what she wants to do (from a list of options I give her). I want her to take ownership of the challenge that she will be setting us so she has fulfilment of our success or understanding of our failure. This will be where the true life lessons will be learnt.

If I had one final viewpoint about adventure with a sprog, it would be this. It isn’t always supposed to work out the way you planned. That’s part of the adventure!

Good luck, have fun, be adventurous!!

Let me know in the comments below if you can think of anything else that you need to consider when taking a 3 year old on an adventure. Apart from bringing a pack of baby wipes. Always bring a pack of baby wipes!

#BlogPost

#30DaysWild and the #YesBus

It seems like creating Hashtags by ramming short words together to make longer more exciting words seems to be the order of the day. So today I'm going to write a #SuperBlog and my #StuffAndTings.

I wonder how hard it is to get a # noticed on Twitter? Maybe I should start one. OK, I want all of you to get on board and tweet the hashtag #jondoolan. Let's see if we can get it trending!

Ok, back to the blog. Other than getting my books published (woohoo!!!) on various platforms including Amazon, Kindle and Kobo (which is an anagram of 'book' don't you know, and is apparently massive in Canada) I've mostly been spending the week supporting 2 causes.

#30DaysWild

30DaysWild is an initiative run by the Wildlife Trusts, one of the key protectors of wildlife in the UK. Each June they encourage you to go out and do something wild each day. It could be something simple like putting up a bird house that you made yourself...

Or something more advanced like going on your first pony trek EVER...

Either way you've got to do something wild each day in June, like some sort of weird wilderness advent calendar, only with less chocolate.

It's not too late to get involved. Sign up here.

#YesBus

The brainchild of the indomitable Dave Cornthwaite and his engineering buddy, Chris Barnes. Like beavering wizards they've been converting an old Isle of Wight bus into a multi-use eco-friendly co-working hammock-slinging mobile space. It's even got a wood burning stove!

It currently has some really cool robo dinosaurs all over the outside but for some unknown reason they're going to paint over them. *sob* 

Anyway, this week they launched their crowdfunding campaign to raise enough dough to finish the job. Hopefully they raise just enough to get all the trimmings done but not enough to have the dinos re-painted!

Definitely check out Dave and Chris' video.

I've donated, but if YOU can help in anyway definitely go along to the crowdfunding page and drop a few quid their way. Cheer m'dears!

That's about it for this week. See you on the flipside!

(note to self. You definitely over used the exclamation mark with week!!!)

How to Create a Book Cover on the Cheap

So this week has mostly involved me attempting to make book covers for the two books I have written.

I didn't know you have written two books?!

I know! It's amazing isn't it. You may think that designing book covers is just a way of putting off writing my most recent one, and you'd be only partly right. I'm being all crafty and designy (which is clearly not a word) this week because I want to get my books out onto the Amazon market before the 28th June.

Why the weirdly specific and tight deadline, Jon?

Because, dear brain, on the 28th June I've been invited to give a talk at the next YesStories!!!

No way! Where can I get tickets?

You can get tickets HERE.

What are you going to be talking about?

Well, probably my cycle across Thailand (and maybe why I keep talking to myself). But that is why I want to get my first 2 books, Sardines and Jon and Harry's Year of Microadventure, republished and shiny on Amazon just in case anyone feels generous enough to part with some of their hard earned cash. So that's why I've been redoing the covers, to make them more attractive.

So what does that involve?

Well first of all, I needed to drape white sheets all over my living room, set up the timer on the camera and don a blue morph suit.

What's that?! A Visible Pantie Line. That just will not do!

And it looks like my leg is disappearing behind my side table / plinth. Nothing for it but to strip down. Yes, that's right. Underneath the morph suit I was NECKED! So I took many, many, many more photos until I could find one where all of my gangly limbs are in the photo.

Now I had a photo all I needed was a little Photoshop jiggery-pockery hocus pocus and I could make the background disappear.

Now to put it on a background of sardines swimming the wrong way (must put in the copyright so the right people get the credit for the photo © Alterfalter | Dreamstime.com). Couple of bits of text and voila!

And that is how I make a book cover on the cheap. Maybe I should pay a professional to do it (like I've been advised by countless websites) but I just can't bring myself to pay someone to do a job that I could do in an afternoon.

You should have a go. It's actually quite fun.

YesStories May 2017

My name is Jon Doolan and I'm a YesTriber.

There, I've said it.

Phew! Feels like a weight off my shoulders.

No, this isn't Yes Anonymous or some confessional with the priest. I just wanted to get it out there.

The movement that I am a member of, the YesTribe, is a collection of wonderful, zany, crazy, enthusiastic and like minded individuals who all want to get the best out of life by saying 'YES!' to any and all exciting opportunities that come their way. It is the brainchild of adventurer Dave Cornthwaite and has spawned a whole load of YES related activities and events (more I'm sure I will cover in later blogs).

Last night, however, was YesStories May 2017. YesStories is a chance for a variety of people in the YES community to come together and share their stories and adventures to a room full of strangers. At each event people weave a web of tales of dramatic highs and soul destroying lows. Each one I walk away from with a sense of awe and inspiration ready to tackle the next adventure that comes my way.

Andy Bartlett

First up was Andy Bartlett, the self depreciating organiser of the evening. I've met Andy a few times but I didn't know much about him until he had finished his sometimes comic, sometimes tragic story of finding a career in event management, then realising he was missing something. He quit his career, left his partner, moved house and has found life so much more enjoyable by taking up the opportunities that came his way. His message was that fear of the unknown beyond your next step is not an excuse not to take that step.

Jaqs Leui'i

Following Andy was Jaqs, a wild, spirited lady with greying hair but a youthful sparkle in her eyes. She described her challenge to walk the Great Himilayan Trail in Nepal in stages and the ongoing love affair that she has with the country. And the intense relationship that she had with Ibuprofen after one serious accident which has left her unable to run. She now organises marathons in Nepal in aid of her charity Unite for Nepal. What an excitable and bubbly lady!

Stace Martin

Next up was Stace Martin. Stace is a real honest soul among the YesTribe. A shy character who obviously has to climb great mountains just to stand up in front of people, but he does it anyway. He battles those difficulties just so that he can share his story from the heart. And you can tell he has just the biggest heart. His tale was of a bikepacking adventure down the Rhine that was cut short by his mother becoming ill. His message was that if you open yourself up to people then you will realise that everything will sort itself out.

Riz Board Shorts

2 scruffy looking lads stood up, which is weird as they were meant to be promoting men's fashion, which is also weird because you wouldn't expect that at an adventure talk night. However, these 2 guys were a little different. Ali and Riz, from Riz board shorts, were promoting an item of clothing with a difference. These men's swimming shorts were made from recycled bottles (a big item on the YesTribe agenda. More to follow in a future post). They informed us about the quagmire that is responsible retailing and the difficulties they face in producing a product and encouraging others to buy into the moral lifestyle and make conscientious decisions.

Lindsey Cole

Just before the break we had the delights of Lindsey Cole, who is recently completed the brilliant Rabbit Proof Fence walk in Australia and is currently hitchhiking around Oz with truckers, as you do. Her video message was delightful and full of her insane humour. Seriously, go and check out some of her previous videos. She's nuts (in a good way)!

Emma Karembo-Taylor

After the break we had the delights of Emma Karembo-Taylor, who showed us a whole different side of adventure travelling with Dave Cornthwaite. His daily vlogs had all been sunny and funny and full of humour and giggling. She recounted a trip of ant bites, bruises and rain. Lots and lots of rain. But the humour was still there as we had the pleasure of surreptitious videos of Dave's wonderful caterwauling. Her message was that you could always look at life from one perspective and see all the boring, mundane things. Or you could look at life from a different angle and see sunsets and adventure and fun.

After Em's video video, a bespectacled Dave stood up and showed his own video. If I'm honest I can't remember a lot of what was in the video apart from his last sentence. 'It seemed appropriate that I took a girlfriend with me on holiday and brought back a fiancée!' Congrats big man!

Darren Edwards - Strength Through Adversity

So how to follow that. Well, send in a comedian in a wheelchair! Joking (not joking!). Darren Edwards was for me the highlight of the evening. After regaling us with the horrors of falling from a mountain and breaking his back (and somehow making us laugh at the same time) he pieced together the story of how he rebuilt his life and is now trying out for the GB sprint kayak team. I will definitely be checking out his blog and website, Strength Through Adversity.

Nicola - RareRevolution

Last of all was another moving tale. This time from a mum. Nicola's boy has a rare disease called XP which means he can never go outside as he will be instantly burnt by the sun. But instead of letting this get to her she, along with some friends and family, has created a community of people called RareRevolution. She has learnt the skills of government petitioning, international sales and magazine editorial. A true inspiration for a mother of a child with a terrible condition. She is running a campaign #BearsforRare. Support it on social media if you can.

All in all a brilliant night. If you fancy coming along to a YesStories they happen pretty much every month and you can find out more at the website or Facebook group. You don't even have to be a YesTriber.

And as Dave says, 'It's definitely not a cult!'

The Beginning

First tentative steps...

I should feel like a dragon gradually awakened from his slumber ready to spread the news of his brand new website to the world with its firey breath. But I feel more like an awkward duck being suddenly scared into consciousness, clumsily staggering and quacking through the first tentative steps of an online presence.

I've got the website, which I've paid the annual fee for. I've got the Twitter account (@jondoolan1), I've got a new professional Facebook account (to distance it slightly from my personal account) and I've got Instagram (also jondoolan1 - I don't know who the other jondoolan is who keeps nicking my name!). I've climbed aboard this social media rollercoaster and hopefully I'll find a way of hanging on.

There are no seat belts. There are no instruction manuals. No one is going to tell me how to do this properly. In fact, there is no real proper way to live this online presence. All I know is that I'm ecstatic that I get to share all of the adventures and thoughts. I hope you enjoy them too.

Exposing myself

Not in that way, cheeky!

It's an interesting conversation on how much to expose oneself. My wife recently searched for me on Google and 2 pictures of my daughter that I had posted on Twitter many months before popped up. I instantly went back through all my old posts and deleted all the pictures of the sprog. Including the one that I had entered into a photography competition.

It's important that the little one doesn't grow up with this massive online presence hanging over her. She needs the chance to grow up on her own terms with her own wins and losses. She needs to make her own mistakes and have her own successes without 'Daddy's Stupid Adventures' holding her back.

I can see her now, defending me in the playground, stamping her little foot and screaming at the bullies, 'My Daddy is not a nutcase!'

Even calling her 'The Sprog' gives her an anonymity that she deserves.  

And it's not like my adventures will be holding her back. I'm hoping, with permission from the missus, to take the sprog on as many adventures as possible. I want to show her what an amazing planet we live on and how amazing the vast majority of the people are. I want to show her how easy it is to fill your life with adventure. I want to be a role model of someone who is able to live an adventurous, fulfilled and above all happy life.

So I will be sharing my life and snippets of the lives of my wife and daughter when it crosses with my adventures and challenges. But this site is about me, not them. Why are you so interested? Stop asking about them!

Living the dream

I truly appreciate how great life is at the moment and I completely appreciate how brilliant my wife is for enabling me to live the life I want to. She goes out each day to work to earn the money while I stay home, do a bit of tidying, take the Sprog to ballet or swimming and get on with writing my books.

The dream is that, with the sale of my books and with some other side line ideas that I've got lined up, I might be able to financially justify my role at home. But like a small bird it's difficult to just grab hold of. I know that if I catch it too quickly and too aggressively I'll crush it. So I know I need to build a fragile cage of creativity around it first. So whether it's bloggingin brief paragraphs (which I tried before and failed miserably), attempting to write 80,000 words for a book or 140 characters for Twitter I'll be creating content as often as I can.

Join me on the journey, why don't you?