camping with young kids

[michelle1k]

Anyone have any good camping activities, games and / or books about camping activities to share? We took our 5-year old ds camping last year and he was bored out of his mind. He says he wants to do it again this year, so this time I will be prepared :

The campsite is near the beach, so we'll do lots of swimming, building sandcastles, riding our bikes and hiking, but I am looking for lots of other fun things to do that this mama just can't seem to think of!

Warmly,
Michelle in NY - mama to ds (6) and dd (22 months)

[mojomom]

When we go camping we do alot of hiking and are gone most of the day, when we get home for dinner my kids are exhausted and just like to play in the dirt.lol and blow bubbles or catch bugs.

We play catch with those velcro balls and mits, we bring my ds's cars and his sister and him build roads for them.

The campground you are vsisting sounds like it has alot of fun stuff to offer, we also plan one trip into town to get ice cream, walk the downtown and maybe play putt putt. Most of the places we backpack and camp are out there and only have a small town.

[kazmir]

We camp alot with our 4 yr old DD and she likes to play in the dirt/sand with her cars/horses/dolls and loves it when we get a big tray of water to add to the mess. We got a cement mixing tray from a hardware store, its black and the water heats up. Its also good to transport firewood to the site in our truck. We camp in State campgrounds mostly so we can get water from the spickets. We also bring our bikes and she now has one so we can bike around the campground. Another idea is a wagon to haul everyone/thing to the beach/bathroom or just go for a walk.

I bring crayons and new coloring books/tablets to break up the day and for nightime.

A bug catcher to put the more "interesting" finds in and keep overnight (outside of course!)

Look for museums/trains/horserides/historical sites in the area you are camping. We usually hit a winery, DH and I get some wine tastings and DD likes to run around the gardens and they usually have cats/dogs to pet....

Hope your son has fun. As long as there is water and dirt my DD loves it!

Robin

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

Our best option has been to team up with another family with kids to go with. We get side-by-side sites and then the kids have playmates. Also, it means that the adults can trade off "watch the kids" duties and get some time for themselves and/or one set of adults can cook while the other set is entertaining kids and keep them safe from the fire and stoves.

My DS had the biggest blast playing with his usual toys in a new (dirtier) environment. He packed up a bunch of sturdier toys that could get dirty (like trucks and Rescue Heroes -- his curent obsession) and played pretty constantly. For a surprise, I bought a set of dinosaur bones molds. You can make "bones" from mud or sand, or, as I did, bury them to set up a dinosaur dig. A great big hit! Sand toys also work well in the dirt.

[momsgotmilk4two]

My kids are the opposite, they LOVE camping and never get bored. They are the types who like playing in the dirt with rocks and sticks though:LOL We also bring bubbles, those velcro mits with the balls, regular beach balls, sand toys, and maybe a board game or two. A couple of books for down time maybe. A paper bag for collecting treasures that they find on walks. We do a lot of hiking, playing at the beach, running around in meadows, roasting marshmellows by the campfire at night.

[steff]

If I were to go camping with my children I would bring one of those inflatable toys you blow up. It has balls and stuff to go with it do you know what I am talking about.
I would also bring alot of stuff to do crafts when they are around the camp site. I am curious myself what everyone will suggest. Do you think bringing a 3.5, 2.5 and 12 month year old camping is too young. I would Love to go camping this year??

Steff

[NorthernLight]

You could try a scavenger hunt, nature bingo, make a treasure map (if you have a map of the campground in advance), snorkling, ghost stories

[momto l&a]

When we go camping the only toys we bring are toys for inside play in case it rains otherwise they are to busy playing with whatever they find out in the woods.

Of course this summer we will take along our donkeys for the girls to ride.

[singermom]

Steff: I don't think the ages you mention are too young at all, but I am a born camper--my folks love to tell the story of how they first took me camping when I was six weeks old! (Although truth be told, it wasn't much fun, they just wanted to prove that they could do it...).

My dh and I have taken our older dd on a memorial day camping trip twice--once at 18 months, and a year later at 2.5 (when I was five months pg with my second). We would have gone last year with the two of them, but the weather was iffy, so we stayed home--as it was, it ended up raining ALL weekend long, and that was more than we could have stood, I think. This year we plan to take both of them (again, weather dependent).

In terms of things to do, most of what people have said sound like the right ideas--we take the usual assortment of balls, pails and shovels, and things that are sturdy and that won't be a huge tragedy if they get lost or wet...craft supplies are okay, but choose wisely--I mean, how much time do YOU want to spend picking up little pieces of paper off the ground when you are trying to strike camp? We also do a lot of music when we camp, and this year will bring a few of our percussion instruments (I got a new drum for my birthday, a lot smaller than our conga, so we have room to bring it with us! Yay!)

In terms of camping, I also think it is kind of a matter of the adults needing to be the family spin doctors--if you are having a good time camping, chances are your kids will, too, because they see you enjoying it.

good luck!

Mia

[beaner&tiegs]

Originally Posted by steff

If I were to go camping with my children I would bring one of those inflatable toys you blow up. It has balls and stuff to go with it do you know what I am talking about.
I would also bring alot of stuff to do crafts when they are around the camp site. I am curious myself what everyone will suggest. Do you think bringing a 3.5, 2.5 and 12 month year old camping is too young. I would Love to go camping this year??

Steff

we love to camp, and I think we just needed to "prove" to ourselves that kids wouldn't change anything, so we took our first daughter camping at 5 weeks! It was awesome, and since then we've gone camping lots - even backpacking to a cabin where we had to carrie everything on our backs. She sat in the backpack for 6 hours at 2, playing with a couple of little dolls, eating snacks, spotting birds and waterfalls, singing and napping. However now that we have two, backpacking is that much more complicated - however this summer we're attempting a 5 week bike tour (heavy on the hanging out at beaches for days, lighter on the actual biking) so I'll let you know what works after that! Our kids will be almost 4 and 9 months at that point. I think life in general is hectic with that many kids under 4, but camping could make it easier in some ways - everyone is on vacation mode, nothing else you have to do, and the kids have tonnes of stuff to do that's new and exciting! Anyways, just my thoughts on the subject!

Erica

[Dov]

Ours just play in the dirt. We gave up when dd was on her second camping trip and she spent most of the time encrusted in the earth. Now she's six and she has little dinosaurs she plays with in the bush and dirt. Still largely encrusted although now she enjoys a solar-heated rinse-off after dinner. Her brother is 4 and he's really into doing "digs." He insists he's going to make a big archaeological discovery one of these days. (I secretly fill in his half meter deep holes on the way out of camp)

In car-camp grounds we've played schmerltz golf (softball or tennisball inside a tube sock), done treasure hunts (so glad someone else mentioned that one... great minds think alike), and who can nail the biggest mosquito (full of blood). While we're cooking a lot of times we'd do a running story... you know parent starts with a plot and characters and each person contributes a new twist. If you win the randomly induced rock-paper-scissors you get to add a new character or a bizarre twist. Played with 3-5 year olds, this can get outta hand fast and usually ends up with people rolling on the ground with splitting sides.

Beaner's mom, how'd you juggle the gear when backpacking? We're planning to start ours up this summer but we're still schlepping their gear. They're carrying a water bottle, snacks and raingear in their little rucksacks. We're thinking of base camping off trail somewhere and doing day hikes. How'd you do backpacking? Pre-small-humans we were avid mountaineers and off-trail backpackers (Sierras mostly, year round, mostly to go climb something technical). We were very much into minimalism and the thought of carrying tent(s) makes my back ache already (we only ever did bivy sacks and a rainfly in spring-fall). We're wondering how this is done with smaller beings. Since it's someone else's thread you can PM me if you want. I don't wanna hijack this one cause it's really great.

[beaner&tiegs]

You know, basically we sought out cabins that you can hike to, so we could avoid the tents and such, and then we have a great backpack carrier that took Kea and her stuff, and then the other person carried the big pack with everything else (ironically, J used to always carry the bigger pack, but I guess I was always carrying Kea and he was sitting in an office and driving to work, so when we started backpacking again, we noticed a shift in that his knees hurt unless he was carrying the smaller pack!) Around here, there's quite a few cabins in the mountains, so that's a nice option!!! I'd like to try cross-country skiing next winter, to get to some of those cabins, but we also have a Chariot carrier that we can attach to skiis - a gorgeous family Christmas gift!

I was quite pregnant last summer, and now we have two kids so we're not sure how to continue. Which is why we're sticking to stuff like bike touring and canoe camping for now, until our kids are older. I think you basically need to carry more stuff yourselves, and that's hard when you have to carry the kids as well. Some solutions we've come up with so far for when they're able to walk are as you say, hike in a bit, set up a base camp and do day trips from there (I think you just want more creature comforts when you have kids - like a tent!) AND to find a friend or two who would be willing to slow down their pace and help carry the stuff - I would LOVE to do the west coast trail next year, so if you come up with more solutions, let me know!!!!!! There needs to be more books about this type of stuff!!! I also have to say, I've spent more time at car/walk-in campgrounds since kids then ever before, just to even camp!

Best of luck......I always love to read about how others have managed to maintain their active lifestyles after kids, so I can hopefully learn a few tips too!!!! After a few canoe and hiking trips, I've decided that I LOVE taking the kids as they have to come face to face with boredom and deal with it - and it's amazing that once you pass that 15 minutes of complaining, and they realize that you're stuck in the middle of a lake and really can't do anything, the most imaginative play comes out. There's not enough of that in our day to day lives!

[boysrus]

I cant imagine a kid eing bored with camping. My were born for the dirt. I am really stumped for activities, bc we have never had to give them. I am not condemning you at all. I am just no help.
However, for Steff, I can chime in! When my kids were 5, 3 and 12 months, we spnet THREE MONTHS camping!! In a tent. And we had very limited camping experience. And we were camping during peak season, so we had to move around alot, sometimes as often as every two days, sometimes as long as every two weeks. I was sad that my littlest guy spent so much of his time in a playpen(for saftey reasons) but otherwise, it was a blast. We took them all again when the littlest was closer to two, and then we spent two months camping when he was two. They were great. When he was older, I was definitely more comfortable with him playing and out and about. But, having him in a sling or a backpack or a stroller or a playpen would not have freaked me out so badly if it was just a weekend camping trip. It was the extended nature of it that had me worried. But, he is now close to three and the most active and coordinated boy I know, so it didnt seem to damage him And he was out and about as often as possible, of course. I dont want it to sound liek he was trapped in his playpen all day long.

[mojomom]

I actually think backpacking with kids is easier then car camping. They are kept occupied all day because of the hike in and they get a new area to explore and help set up camp. You bring less stuff with you, unless you want all that extra weight to carry. Anyway with less stuff your camping is simplified and more focused on where you are. We have done the hiking into a cabin and hiking with a tent and setting up at a couple diffrent places. My dd was 5 months old our first camping trip and 18 months our first backpacking trip.

Recently friends of our have a pop up and my family has camped with them and it to me was a lot more work, I like the simplicity of camping. We are doing a big group camping trip where the # of kids will out # the parents. Should be a blast!

[annethcz]

LOL mojomom- I agree with you that a pop-up is more work. But it's the only way I can get DH to take us camping We got ours last fall, and I'm still trying to get used to it.

Our kids have been camping since birth. They mostly entertain themselves with rocks, dirt, etc. But, we're planning a 2 week camping trip next month, and I have a few activities planned. Here's my list so far:

1. Special 'trip bags' My mom made these for us when we were growing up. They had invisible ink books, small toys, books, etc. that we could play with ONLY in the car.
2. LeapPads. We're going to be spending days upon days in the car. Each of my older kids have a leap pad- I've bought a couple of new books for each, that I'll hand out after a couple of days.
3. Bubbles!!! Enough said
4. Balls. for use at the campground OR at rest stops
5. cooking. Just as at home, the kids help me cook. We tend to eat simply while camping. But they make their own PB&J or boil noodles.
6. Coloring/ activity books.
7. Read-aloud books. That I can read to the kids at bedtime, in the car, or for quiet time during the day. (long chapter books)
8. We do LOTS of hiking. At least one hike every day. If sightseeing, we walk to the destination if possible.
9. Take advantage of interpretive programs. If you're staying at a state or national park, nature centers are often open. And at night, there are sometimes ranger talks or programs.

Good luck, and have fun

[mom2kbeth]

we camped a bunch of times last year with dd (who turned 3 at the end of the summer) and will be doing it again with her and ds (now 12 weeks old). being bored was never an issue - we camped with a bunch of friends evey time we went last year, and are doing the same this year. It was great - the kids all had each other to play with, and the adults got to sit and talk. We also planned cooperative meals, which was great! We never had any organized activities, except for a couple of birthday parties where we all came together for cake, and when we got all the kids together to paint a birdhouse for a mama having a birthday. The kids just did their own thing, or hung out with an adult while s/he was working on something (fighing was popular, as was having an impromptu lesson on how to gut a fish).

I highly reccomend camping with friends!

Activities that we do that would lend themselves easily to camping would be:
1 - we have a set of molds called Beach Bones - you use it like sand castle molds, but they are bones that when put together form a t-rex
2 - collecting things on a nature hike. You can make a collage, or you can make a bracelet while hiking (just weat a circle of masking tape, sticky side out, around your wrist and add to it as you hike)
3 - telling stories by the camp fire
4 - cooking activities (making s'mores, trail mix, etc.)

[mama-aya]

I totally agree with mojomom.
The simpler the better (and the more hiking the better, too!).
I would try to keep anything you bring in keeping with where you are, and seriously, the less you bring, the more fun everyone has. We've done lots of car camping, but we always go places where we have to hike in, at least a tiny bit, from the car, even places like overflow campgrounds. DH thinks its just because I'm trying to be a frugal good wife, but honestly, its because I'm afraid if we could set up the tent right next to the auto we'd fill the thing with stuff. I like to have the camp set up quickly, taken down quickly, and not spend half the time keeping track of everything. This way we're able to go on little weekend trips quite often.
If you feel like you need to bring things for the kids, these are my suggestions:
1- magnifying glass of some sort (bug viewer is good), whistle, binoculars
2-plain paper and big crayons (block crayons or even crayons melted down in muffin tins) for doing rubbings of everything in reach-trees, rocks, tent zippers- and also for making little scavenger hunt sheets with (draw pictures or make a list of things to search for)
3-little guide books-birds, insects, plants, rocks
4-multiuse things- pails that the kids can use for gathering sticks, pinecones, rocks with, bringing water for the fire or washing up, playing in the dirt or sand with, trying to catch tadpoles in, etc..
5-little shovel
6-glowsticks just for fun at night
7-a little flower pressing kit
8-squirt bottles-for squirting water all over everything
9-a couple little trucks or cars at most
10-bubbles
I would never bring all of those things on one trip, though.
And just as, if not more importantly I would banish (at least to the car) gameboys, walkmen, etc..
And I almost forgot the most important thing of all for camping kids- a little headlamp, $6.00-10.00. Seriously, the only thing we always bring, besides sunscreen and bug repellant!

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

All due respect, but collecting things on nature hikes is NOT good stewardship of the earth. "Take only pictures, leave only footprints". If every family picked stuff up for art projects, the forests would be bare in no time. Besides, its illegal in most state and federal parks.