My wife and I started with a 2 week honeymoon and then 6 - 2 week trips together before the kids came along. We said "why leave them home?"
So for the next 10 years we had 5 kids and never left one of them home.
The youngest we took was 4 months old. It was a blast teaching them about the woods and fishing and the outdoors. We did all of our trips as 2 weeks to the Q except one 2 weeker to Woodland C when our youngest was 4 years old. Kids are amazingly adaptive and if thought is put into caring for their needs first, you can still travel some, ( although less than before ), but keep it simple stupid really works with kids. Don't try to do too much, or go too far, or set too high a travel bar, and things will be fine.
Funny stuff... 2 kids in diapers, 2 weeks + 80 to 90 degree days = 70 lb smelly diaper pack that no one wanted to carry. ( It was triple bagged so it really didn't smell except when you had to open it up to make a deposit )
Good stuff... my girls and boys have all caught fish over 10 lbs and love fishing. My youngest was 10 when he caught a 10 lb W a 12 lb N and a 4 lb B and a 10 lb LT all on the same trip.  Put all of us to shame.

When my kids each have turned 21 we figured out that they have spent a total of 1 year of their life in the Q.

The moral of the story, start them young and help them to have a good time and it will be a life long love affair with the wilderness.

Gene M

I took my kids as soon as I could... but two were already in their teens (hey!  I was in the Navy, and we didn't live anywhere near Lake Country).  But now I'm a new grandfather, and would like to take the wee one (and her mother would love to go as well!).

Practical question:  How does one ensure the safety of a toddler that doesn't swim yet?  Are there such things as pfd's for such small critters?

I too brought a couple of my kids in at three years old. And now the PFD's are so much better. My oldest is now 27 and at three I got a picture of him with Dorothy up there on Knife Lake... That's twenty five years ago. Then a few years later I brought my young family up when my one daughter was three and my other daughter was two months away from being born. My kids still have memories of that trip over twenty years later... especially my second son who caught a five pound northern on his brothers mickey mouse fishing pole... He's quite the fisherman today. I just wonder if two months befor you were born is too young. 

Woodstripper, they make good PFD's for kids and/or you can modify them as well.  My wife and I did some of each.

Things to look for -
1 Make sure that they have a head flap or pad that helps keep their head out of the water ( this is mostly for infants ).      
2 Make sure that they will turn the kids face up if they go in the water.    3 Make sure that there is a grab strap near the head so that you can pluck them out of the water if needed. 
4 Make sure that there is a strap between the legs so that the PFD doesn't slip up over their head.
Some of our kids PFD's we added these things, some of them we got most of what we wanted right out of the box.

One of our rules for our kids until they were about 7 or 8, and could swim well on their own, was that when they were out of the tent they had their PFD on PERIOD. Then it is a lot less hassle trying to keep track of them and worrying if they are near the water or not. If you heard a splash, they were too close, but they learn fast that way. Wearing their PFD's full time also acted like body armour for the inevitable falls they took. We also allowed each of our kids to "fall out" of the canoe before they were 2 years old. You can only tell them so many times to quit leaning over the side so far. None of my kids fell out more than once. 

My wife was pregnant to some degree on a lot of our trips in those early years. 7 months was the farthest along she ever was. That was a 16 day trip with 20+ portages including the 950m out of Brent and the 1000m into Pond. We also swam the Brewer Rapids that year for fun.
I know - we are crazy - but man do we have so many great family memories from the Q, and all of our kids have turned out so far...no damage other than a craving for the wilderness each summer.
Gene M

Outstanding info all!  Thank you for the pointers.

I'm a transplant from So. California where I grew up (I left as soon as I could... can't stand the crowding, pollution, and politics!).  What surprised me is how few people in the midwest can swim well.  Out there, learning to swim before reaching kindergarden age seemed to be the norm.  While it was a desert with no good lakes to speak of, there was the beach.  I was body surfing and bobbing in waves as young as I can remember.  In grade school I was on swim teams.  Yet here in the midwest, it seems few youngsters learn to swim beyond a feeble head-up dog paddle.

Everyone on my trips wears a pfd whenever they are on the water.  I've had a canoe "turn turtle" a couple of times (overloaded and unstable, or hitting a submerged rock in wind/waves).  Even though I'm a strong swimmer, that's been enough to make a believer out of me.  Doubly so for any youth or kids in the group.

Other good uses for pfds:  pillows, seat cushions on hard rocks / logs, wind shells on cool days.  They are actually quite useful in the BW/Q beyond just keeping you upright in the water!

ws