Walk and No Talk

A teenager’s dream, right - to go for a walk but NOT talk?

But they’re also not allowed to use their phone’s while out either (even to take photos, which is a hard one, for me too!).

But the point of this exercise is that you encourage them to LOOK - to NOTICE what’s around them. And while it’s tricky to go for a walk and ‘point things out to them’ without a dismissive remark back, what you can do is give them the space to notice things for themselves (and remember they might not admit to ‘noticing’ anything, but they will have!)

It is difficult to walk and not talk - it takes a bit of getting used to, especially when there’s more than one of you doing it - but it’s worth trying. When it becomes less uncomfortable, that’s when the noticing will start… sounds, sights, smells - they’ll all become more to the fore.

And when you start talking again maybe they’ll have so much to say that you can’t shut them up! (Or maybe not!!)