Teaching your children how to hunt is not an overnight affair. The process of teaching children about hunting is serious and ongoing. Instilling ethics in a child is a process that takes years of guidance and teaching. You have to take time to choose your words and lessons to your children wisely. Here we will cover the steps needed to teach your children the ethics of hunting.
- Encourage Outdoor Exploration
The prerequisite for hunting is a genuine love for the outdoors. This is done by encouraging your children to be outdoor enthusiasts. They should be encouraged to explore your land, meadows, lakes, rivers, swamps, and forests. For the genuinely enthusiastic hunter, there is hunting land for sale in Michigan.
By catching insects and scouting for birds, squirrels, rabbits, frogs, and other wildlife, your child will gain a natural affinity for the outdoors. Once your child becomes enthusiastic about the outdoors, you can introduce them to fishing—one step closer to hunting. - Enlist an Apprentice
Once your child has become an avid outdoor enthusiast, you will need to get them involved in the process of the hunt. This is done by first recruiting them as your apprentice on hunting excursions. They can begin by scouting, skinning, and freezing the meat. Your child’s maturity is the factor that will determine when they are ready actually to hunt. You do not want to force your child outside of their comfort zone. - Teach the Seriousness of Hunting
Explain that your family does not consider hunting to merely be a game or sport. Detail the history of hunting for survival and the sacred nature of the process of hunting for food and not entertainment.
Inform them that while your family doesn’t need to hunt for survival, you have respect for what hunting has meant to your family for generations from the past. Remind your children that you are hunting in memorialize a process that kept your family alive for centuries. - Make a Ritual Out of the Process
The entire process should be done in a precise manner. Make the whole process is a ritual from start to finish. Assure that everything has a sense of purpose. From the first time they are able to wear their first hunting cap; they should have a sense of respect and honor to participate in such a sacred event. - Licenses, Tags, and Courses
When it comes to regulations for children hunting, the codes are determined by separately by the state. Your child may need to get a license and a team even if they may not be handling a firearm at first. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has a directory of each state’s licensing regulations. Most states offer a discount for youth license for children between the ages of 12 to 17.
Hunting is a very serious affair that takes time and care to introduce to children. Learning to become an outdoor enthusiast and nature lover is the real goal. The desire to become a hunter will naturally develop with time. The primary objective is to make the experience fun while also making it a sacred affair.
I went hunting one time in my life, not as a kid, but growing up my dad was always going hunting. I would have loved to go once as a kid to see what it was like.
Do you hunt with your kids?
