Music festival camping with kids (and cross-country plane travel too)-- any tips? (x-posted in...

[acupuncturemomma]

We'll be camping for four nights at a music festival with DD (4.5 yo) and DS (21 months). We've done it once before, so are not total newbies, but would love any tips on what to bring or camping with kids in general. Oh--and snack/food ideas too. We will have a cooler, but no way to cook.

Thanks, mamas!

Here's what we are planning on bringing for them to play with:

- cardboard playhouse for them to decorate and play in (a HUGE hit with all the kids last time!)

- markers, crayons

- rocket balloons

- glowsicks

[ellairiesmom]

We haven't done an overnite festival yet, but I can't wait till we get that chance.  What has been awesome for us at all day shows/fests are bubbles.  Lots & lots of bubbles.  Different kinds of bubbles.  Bubble guns.  And a spray water bottle for misting to keep everyone cool.  Plus they just love it regardless.

In terms of snacks...I don't know what your kids like but mine are a little picky so with no way to cook, here is what would fly for us. 

PB&J

Yogurts (not sure if you will have access to additional ice throughout the time?)

Cheese & Crackers

Berries/Grapes

Dry cereal (our kids really like the Kashi Heart to Heart Warm Cinnamon)

Cheddar Bunnies (I know they are kind of crap, but they are good for certain situations)

Fruit Strips (out whole foods carries their own brand of fruit strips that my kids will often eat)

[Birdie B.]

We've taken our daughter (2.5) to several overnight camping music festivals now, and it's a blast. But honestly, we don't bring a whole lot of stuff, because the festival itself provides enough entertainment.  We usually camp with some other families, and the kids run around together, playing with sticks and making mud pies and stuff.  The music and just walking from place to place usually keeps her pretty happy.

One of the families we camp with has 3 kids, and they do bring a bunch of little toys: coloring books/paints/crayons, favorite toys, balls, hammocks, bikes/trikes, and I think they have a small TV or DVD player in their camper.  Glow sticks are a huge hit! Musical instruments are good too, small shakers or tambourines.

As for food, it sounds like sandwiches or wraps might be the way to go if you can't cook.  I usually make a couple of quiches too, since they are good cold.  Muffins or bread, cheese and crackers, cut up fruit and veggies, and some quiche - I'm not too creative at camp food!

Have fun!

[MovnMama]

Originally Posted by acupuncturemomma 

We'll be camping for four nights at a music festival with DD (4.5 yo) and DS (21 months). We've done it once before, so are not total newbies, but would love any tips on what to bring or camping with kids in general. Oh--and snack/food ideas too. We will have a cooler, but no way to cook.

Thanks, mamas!

Here's what we are planning on bringing for them to play with:

- cardboard playhouse for them to decorate and play in (a HUGE hit with all the kids last time!)

- markers, crayons

- rocket balloons

- glowsicks

We've had some fun festival camping, and sounds like you've got great ideas and gotten good feedback. We like to take a very "participative" approach and bring tools that help DS be part of everything. So a basket for helping collect sticks for kindling the campfire. Also a bucket for rocks (21 mos DC can load up with rocks, unload, repeat...) A shovel for the ashes, etc. I just think, what will we be doing? and bring stuff that helps him mimic that. A wind up flashlight. etc.

Also car/digger type toys that are small enough to fit in a backpack.

Sticker books are great and self contained. It could be cool to get one on plants, hopefully ones in the area, and then you could go around identifying them?

IDK if it's too noisy (it's a festival, yes?) but small thrift store musical instruments, hand drums, tambourines, harmonica etc. could be fun.

Ooooh, bring rice and sparklies and recycle some water bottles for sale there. Use glue after they've filled the bottles halfway to seal the cap on, and they've got shakers! So fun and not very noisy around the music.

Make an eye spy book (const. paper and staples, before you go) for the 4.5 yo, knowing the kinds of items you will see. Blue tent, red bandana, big sunglasses, a tarp, etc. See who gets the most items by the end of the fest!
 

You can always go classic as well. Soccer ball, bat and glove, etc. A set of jacks? Jumprope? Bubbles, yes to the previous poster, so true. Bubbles!

I find that, once you turn a kid loose outside, it's shocking how little they need to actually "play"! Drawing lines on the ground with sticks is fun at that age. You just need to be the one to show them how to play with rocks and a stick!

Have fun! We're festing/camping this next weekend (first of july), and so looking forward to it!

[Ruby2]

Can I hijack this thread and ask how your kids do with sleeping in tents/on air mattresses/with festival noise, etc? Do any of you have some type of white noise that you use?

I like to think I'm a pretty relaxed mom in general, but I hesitate to bring dd (18 months) camping because I'm terrified of sleepless nights (for us and maybe the people around us!)...

And my contribution to the actual original thread is - hammock! Always a hit with the kids at festivals if there are trees to hang one from.

[MovnMama]

My view on camping and festival kid sleeping is that it's a vacation. Just as much for kids as it is for us. Which means that I'm not at all as rigid on schedules as I usually would be at home. It's a crazy environment, and keeping it fun means just making sure everyone gets as much of what they need when they need it.

So, for example, I don't fret about an early or late dinner, as long as everyone is happy and not hungry. If DS snacks all day and doesn't eat a "real" meal, that's fine, as long as food groups are represented choices available.

Same goes for sleeping. I'm not about to enforce a bedtime when camping, but I'm all about meeting DS's needs. This means that, DS gets tired but doesn't want to go to bed. Too exciting, too much activity, and I KNOW as mama that it's time for him to sleep. But okay - stay up. Not a fight - no crying, no big deal. Eventually he wants to sit on my lap and play, eventually I bounce my legs gently or rock and the sound of my voice talking to other people has always lulled him to sleep on my lap. I make sure a friend or someone is there for me to have a conversation so that this happens and I'm not bored or frustrated that he's not asleep yet. (so my needs for fun and such are met too). This means he's on my lap for, oh, like 2 hours or more. So I plan - I pee first, when I see signs of tired so I don't have to get up. I make sure DH is there to get me a beer  so I don't have to get up. When he's REALLY out, I move him to his sleeping pad. He'll sleep for A LONG time, and wake up well rested.

Is my baby/toddler/preschooler goingt to bed at an outrageously late hour? Yes, absolutely. Does this happen at home? Of course not! (We are pretty scheduled at home, and schedules work well for us). But once he's out, he'll sleep his requisite amount, and I'll sleep in. It's vacation. I'm not going to worry about it. I know he's not going to stay up all night - that's impossible. He'll fall asleep at some point. I just encourage and support him and let him decide.

ETA: about the white noise. For DS, background noise has always served that purpose. Like in a restaurant, with constant hum of voices and clinking of plates and clicking of shoes  - as a baby he passed right out. I play background ambient music when he's asleep at home, because I really like background noise. My assumption is that you are at a campsite, not right at the festival music stage, and I think it's a fine noise level to zonk out too - music a little farther away, hum of voices, crackly fire, cracking beers open - it's all good background noise already. I've never had a need to drown it out.

[Mal85]

Originally Posted by Ruby2 

Can I hijack this thread and ask how your kids do with sleeping in tents/on air mattresses/with festival noise, etc? Do any of you have some type of white noise that you use?

I like to think I'm a pretty relaxed mom in general, but I hesitate to bring dd (18 months) camping because I'm terrified of sleepless nights (for us and maybe the people around us!)...

And my contribution to the actual original thread is - hammock! Always a hit with the kids at festivals if there are trees to hang one from.

We've done a lot of camping with DD and taken her to a music festival... she was 15 months at that time. I just didn't stress about sleep. It's a vacation and she slept when/where she passed out. The noise didn't seem to bother her, aside from the first night when our neighbor decided to start blaring his car radio at about 3 in the morning. We asked him to turn it off, said we had a sleeping baby and he was totally cool about it. She'd fall asleep at the show or in the Beco while we were walking around and I'd just lay her down in the camper when we made it back to our camp site. She napped the same way. 

We didn't take many toys for her. I think I picked up some sand buckets and digging toys, she also had her own little flashlight and glow sticks. That seemed to be enough for her. 

Food: I brought lots of easy sandwich fixings... pb&j, lunch meat, sliced cheese. I also brought string cheese, fruit snacks, crackers, fruit, etc for snacks. We prepared a few meals ahead of time to cook over the fire. Marinated some meats and had veggies cut up and ready to go on the grill. A also prepared potatoes with onions and peppers ahead of time, in meal sized packages (I think I bought some aluminum bread pans for this and covered with foil). Wrapped up corn on the cob in foil so we could throw it right on the grill. Preparing ahead of time makes things MUCH easier when it comes to camping and food.