What to Do With the Kids When Camping

A few of my suggestions

Keeping your kids from being bored while camping can sometimes be challenging. Here are some tips that should keep their minds and bodies occupied, which will also make your trip more enjoyable and relaxing.

Keep them busy!

There is a lot to do around a campsite. Setting up the tent/trailer, gathering firewood, and more. Don't let your kids just sit on the sidelines while you do all of the work. Get them to pitch in and make it a fun, family activity. Have a contest to see who can gather the most firewood. When there's competition between siblings involved, you'll be surprised how willing they are to help out.

I used to go exploring. If there was a woods or stream in the area, I found it and found all kinds of adventure. Go on a family hike. Take turns letting the kids lead the group (they love to be included and in charge). Turn exploration into a game and have a scavenger hunt. Whoever finds the items on their list first wins an extra s'mores.

If you have any crafty kids this is also a great opportunity to bring out the artsy in them. Let them get creative with what they've found. Bring along a bottle of glue, some craft paper and turn their imagination loose. You might be surprise with what they can do with a pinecone. Check ahead of time to find out what kind of wildlife you may encounter and encourage the kids to research those animals. Bring along books to help identify wildlife spotted while camping. Have discussions with the children about what to do when encountering wildlife. What do you do if you come upon a snake or bear in the wild? What do you do if you find an injured or lost animal?

What would camping be without a fire, story telling, and of course, food. Hot dogs roasted on a 'clean' stick, toasted marshmallows, or bring along a pie iron with a few ingredients and let them get creative making their own sandwiches. Fruit filling, pizza sauce, cheese, salsa are some of the ingredients you can use.

On rainy days, if you're forced to stay inside, make popcorn and play cards. Some of the best memories come from the family sitting around a table playing games and talking.

Kids may think of it all as work and avoid participating at first, but after a while they'll come to realize that anything is more fun that just sitting around and getting eaten by mosquitoes.

Roy began camping with his parents as a child and enjoyed taking his own kids camping when they were growing up. He is the owner/webmaster of http://www.anythingwisconsin.com Roy has written other articles on camping and also a few pontoon boating articles.

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By Roy F Brown