Hunting can quickly become a controversial conversation if you aren’t sure how everyone in the group feels about it. And, if you’re on the fence about taking your kids hunting with you, it can be hard to get a second opinion. If you just can’t seem to decide, here are a few reasons why hunting can be a good experience for your child:
Time for Bonding
If you are a hunter, then hunting probably is a tradition that was passed down from generation to generation in your family. It may even be that you have a genetic connection with the hunters of 5,000 years ago. You may want to pass this bond down to your child and hand down your wisdom that can’t be received during everyday life full of fast food and texting. Since research is showing that bow and arrow use is part of our DNA, look at crossbow and bow hunting as a safer way to spend time with your child.
Lessons in Responsibility
True hunters live by a code of responsibility, safety and respect for the people around them. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources specifically addresses the concept of responsibility in its hunter’s training course. Teaching your child to hunt is a good time to address responsibility from responsible shooting all the way to responsible living. This can help your child mature and reach the next stage in his or her development.
Alternative to Video Games
There is a lot of talk about the violence in video games and how it might desensitize young brains, according to the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The constant images of death bombarding the child’s brain might actually change its neural structure. The reality and importance placed on hunting is a way to create sensation again. Unlike video avatars, a deer is a living creature, and the consequences of its death are real. Whether you look to offer thanks to the animal for giving its life or look at it like a sport where you are pitting your skills against nature, hunting is a stark lesson to be contrasted to video game death.
First Steps Toward Conservationism
Political rhetoric aside, hunters are some of the greatest conservationists and have been since the beginning of the 1900s, states the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF). President Theodore Roosevelt, well known as a hunting enthusiast, famously set aside 230 million acres of land for wildlife protection. You can use this time to teach your children this important piece of history.
A Class in Physics
For the intellectual, firing a gun, a bolt or an arrow is all about projectile motion. In a high school physics class, one of the typical thought problems is called the monkey shoot experiment where a monkey that is hanging from a tree lets go exactly when the hunter shoots the gun. Because the force of gravity is the same for the monkey and the bullet, the shot hits without leading. However, when hunting on a horizontal plane, the physics are different, so your child has to learn how to target a moving animal and learn the projectile motion of his or her weapon.
