The roots of AdventureDad.org took hold 19 years ago as I dreamed of taking my soon-to-be-born son on adventures with me. As he grew, I was able to create a flexible work schedule that allowed us time for all sorts of adventures. I would frequently hear from other parents, “You do so much cool stuff with Alex, you should write a book about things to do with your kids!”
Today, I find myself with the opportunity to blend our father/son experiences with my 30 years as a child/family therapist and create AdventureDad.org.
The goal of AdventureDad is to help dads build deeper, more meaningful relationships with their kids through time spent together on exciting, fun and unique adventures in the great outdoors and other venues.
You can’t microwave parent/child relationships. Building relationships with your kids requires time together where you can develop a rhythm while exploring the dynamics of your relationships.
Many of the dads I meet don’t know where to start or fear that the adventures won’t work out. AdventureDad will provide how-to tips for various adventures and help dads understand the various stages of child development and how to negotiate the emotional side of their relationships with their kids in order to build a deeper connection with them.
AdventureDad fits perfectly with today’s trends in fathering. Research shows that every decade more fathers are directly involved with their kids. New research into father/infant relationships demonstrates how babies respond with excitement to their dads and how dads, in turn, challenge their children’s physical, intellectual, social and emotional growth.
Advances in 24/7 technology and increasing changes in America’s corporate culture allow many dads to take time away from work and thereby participate more fully in their children’s lives. There has also been a rise in male, single-parent families, as well as, the number of stay-at-home dads.
Because of the sedentary lifestyle of many children/teens, with endless hours each day spent in front of screens, childhood obesity is on the rise. Many government and private agencies are recommending more outdoor time for kids and promote the positive physical, intellectual and emotional health benefits of time spent in natural settings.
My son Alex and I will demonstrate outdoor skills and take other dads and their kids on adventures that will inspire your own family outings.
In the adventures ahead we will host dads and kids of all different backgrounds in tackling a variety of activities. We will cover adventures that you can do in your own backyard, around your state, or even in other parts of the world. We will find adventures for every pocketbook; from free, to low cost, to once in a lifetime adventures.
You will find AdventureDad.org to be fun and engaging, while stimulating ideas for adventures for you and your kids. We welcome your comments, questions and ideas as well. Our goal is to create a site where dads can share and learn from the experiences of other dads, thereby increasing everyone’s adventure opportunities and connections.
While our site is geared toward dads, we welcome the many AdventureMoms out there to visit us too.
“But the love of adventure was in father’s blood.” Buffalo Bill
About Your Hosts
Craig A. Knippenberg, LCSW, M.Divinity is a child/family therapist with 30 years experience working with children/adolescents and their families. His practice, Knippenberg, Patterson & Associates is one of the largest private practices in the Rocky Mountain Region and specializes in social/emotional development groups as well as help for children/adolescents with neurobehavioral disorders such as ADHD, LD, ASD. He also consults for St. Anne’s Episcopal school in Denver and is on the board of Denver Academy, one of the country’s largest schools for students with differentiated learning needs. He is also on the board of Creative Adoptions. For a complete listing of Craig’s lectures, published articles and his treatment services, please visit www.craigknippenberg.com.
Craig is fifty-two and became a single dad when Alex was 7 years old. In 2009, he married Lisa who is the mother of two adult children. Raising Alex as a single father gave him invaluable experience for understanding the full range of a child’s needs and provided the opportunity for him to be involved in every aspect of his son’s life. In addition to loving the outdoors, Craig is a lifelong believer in volunteering. For his community volunteer work, he was honored with the 2008 Minoru Yasui Award as well as the 2009 Hero’s in the Fight Award from the Colorado National Alliance for Mental Illness.
Alex Knippenberg is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys spending time acquiring new skills and knowledge about nature. He relishes summiting Colorado’s highest peaks, fly-fishing in pristine waters, backpacking and camping in the West’s remote wilderness areas in all seasons, and he owns practically every outdoors accessory available. Alex goes on an annual winter backpacking trip and an annual summer float trip with his best friends and their dads. He is a certified SCUBA diver. As a skilled photographer, he focuses on capturing the natural world. In his spare time, Alex listens to Country music and the Beach Boys while creating functional steel art pieces.
