Day packs for kids

[buck1032]

Heres a little something I have been working on. LOL The background is back in the late 90's I taught SERE (West) with the Navy. At the time we were issued medium ALICE packs. Lets just say they were a little too much for our needs. We really only needed a day pack set up. Well I made my own. Fast forward to this summer i have been taking my 6 y/o son in the woods and teaching him things, ie IDing plants, making and setting traps and snare, firecraft, and basic orientation. So after one walk in the woods he asked me to make him a pack like mine, so I did. He then started asking me to make his friends packs also. I finished pack #7 last week and its for a 9 y/o so its larger. My sons is on the left with the very dulled up aircrew survival knife LOL

I have also been making the 223 survival whistles that was addressed in a thread that I cant seem to find right now, but heres a link

http://www.instructables.com/id/223-Survival-Whistle/

[TGO David]

Awesome stuff that he'll remember for his lifetime!

[UncleJak]

That's awesome. My son has been using a messenger style bag lately. I finally convinced him to get a hiking backpack, but that smaller pack is perfect for day trips.

[peejman]

Good stuff. My 4 yr old wears a kid sized backpack when we go hiking. Either it's empty or has his kiddie binoculars in it. I don't want him to get tired carrying any real weight. He enjoys the novelty of it. I look forward to teaching him more stuff as he gets a little older.

[buck1032]

When I first started this I didnt concern myself with the seams, ie if the bobbin tensioned messed up I didnt cut it and re-sew it. So as you can see on the left pack there are some issues. LOL Since the list of packs has grown I started taking my time to make sure the thread and seams are not all jacked up.

[buck1032]

Good stuff. My 4 yr old wears a kid sized backpack when we go hiking. Either it's empty or has his kiddie binoculars in it. I don't want him to get tired carrying any real weight. He enjoys the novelty of it. I look forward to teaching him more stuff as he gets a little older.

That is a very real concern with me as well. The younger kids packs are very light weight, as in not reinforced and not padded with 2 inch webbing as straps since they are not load bearing packs. The small pouch contains 4 lenghts of 550 cord, a small signal mirror and the whistle. In the main pocket he carries a 2 quart water bladder only filled to about a 1/3. As he gets older and more resposible he will also start carrying a mag block as well and wire for setting traps and snares. Right now he has only helped set a two pin twich up and I dont wont him setting anything until he can set it, check it and remove it. LOL

[sigmtnman]

Very cool. See you are not far away over in Cleveland... Where do yall go exploring?

[buck1032]

On our property. We have right at 4 acres and my inlaws have a few acres to our East so for now we have more than enough area to crawl around in. LOL Probably next Spring we will start walking some trails in your (sigmtnman) neck of the woods.

[sigmtnman]

There are plenty of them out here. If you don't mind company, drop me a line when you decide to head out this way and my 7yo boy and I will see about joining you. We'd love to do some learning.

[buck1032]

That would be very cool and I will drop you a line. As I mentioned earlier I doubt I will be able to do anything this Fall, but in the Spring we should be able to have a bit of fun.

[Caster]

Glad you mentioned this. I don't have kids but I got to get to work on one for my dog. If he's coming he's gotta carry his own food and water.