Camping with Kids - Creating Astounding Adventures in Nature

A Family Camping Guide

Kids are an unpredictable variable in any activity. Regardless of the time and energy that goes in to planning the “perfect” kid friendly vacation there will inevitably be hiccups, the trick to overlanding with children is to set the bar low. Picture this, you spend hours upon hours planning your family camping trip from meals to activities you’ve got it down. You arrive at your preselected camp site and everything is just as you imagined, except now your two year old who, up until yesterday, loved nothing more than a good hotdog has expressed her thorough disgust at the sight of a roasted weenie and nothing you’ve planned for dinner is good enough. Ok, you think, we’ll skip to s’mores - perfect, all is right with the world. Except now that very same two year old has nothing but sugar in their belly and is supposed to SLEEP?! How dare you?

We won’t pretend to know what you’ll encounter on your adventures BUT we can help with a couple tips to hopefully help things run a bit more smoothly.

Planning

What makes camping fun for kids? Well, in part, anticipation! Think of when your birthday was coming up as a kid, nothing was more exciting than the anticipation and the planning. Make overlanding and camping something your kids can participate in from the start. Any way to get them involved and help them get excited for the journey. The level of involvement they’ll have is of course dependent on your flexibility and the age of your littles but here are a couple things you may be able to plan with your kids.

1. Location - narrow it down to a few ideal locations that you know are doable for your family. If your kids are old enough allow them to research and suggest a pick. If they’re a bit younger show them pictures and explain how long it will take to get there, where you’ll be staying, and what you’ll be doing in each spot. Let them help make the final decision
2. Food - this is a great one if you’re anything like me and find meal planning to be a tedious chore. You can give them full range to select or help by narrowing it down to a few options to chose from but having your kids help select meals and snacks is a perfect way to get them involved and excited while also letting you take a bit of a brain break.
3. Activities - More suggestions on what to play below but it’s also a great idea to keep your kids engaged in what you’ll be doing. Maybe they want a little hammock time with a good book or perhaps they’re ready for a big adventure like rock climbing. Again depending on your flexibility, experience, and equipment you can talk to your kids about planning an excursion or even a game night at the camp site.

Playing

In this day and age children crave constant entertainment, it’s difficult to go more than a few minutes during day to day life without some form of technology being forced upon them. Being outside is a wonderful way to allow them to disconnect from those pressures and reconnect with just being kids. There are countless ways to have children engage in nature and make it a game.

1. Leave no trace - During your first few overlanding and/or camping adventures it’s important to get your kids acquainted with the concept of Leave no Trace. This will become an integral part of their life and relationship with nature. The more we teach out children, the healthier our planet will be. Here are a couple fun ways to incorporate Leave no Trace into you overlanding adventures
1. Create a guide that walks your kids through the seven principles of leave no trace and help them find examples as you travel. Make up hand motions for each principle to help them remember.
2. Have your kids sign a “Leave no Trace” pledge
3. Give examples of behaviors that may or may not follow the principles of leave no trace and ask your kids to identify them
4. Find coloring pages prior to your trip to help educate and prepare your kids to understand and follow the principles
2. Scavenger Hunts - Alright so this may seem pretty obvious but I’m telling you, kids love a good challenge.
1. Seen in nature Bingo - Create your own bingo board before you go, include things commonly found outside (certain types of leaves, animal tracks, etc) on the board. This will not only help your kids engage in the environment it sets you up for some fun learning as well. When’s the last time you’ve had to identify leaves? You can take the opportunity to learn together.
2. “Hide and Seek” - This one takes some preparation. If you have time to investigate the area where you’ll be traveling you can find some things commonly found there and create a challenge for your kids to find them first. For example each kid has a list of ten things commonly found in your destination, they must find them and check them off the list to win. The list will need to be modified based on location to keep things interesting but for smaller children this can be done more generically as well (think tent, tree, stream, etc.)
3. Nature Rainbow - Ask your kids to tell you (or remind your kids if they’re a bit younger)  all the colors in a rainbow and then set them loose to try to locate at least one thing in nature of each color. Some colors are usually pretty easy to spy, others present more of a challenge, all of them allow for learning. It’s a great way to help them recognize different kinds of plant and animal life and even opens the door to discussions about food sources in nature (if they’re ready for that lesson).

Sleeping

 Here’s the big one, most camping trips with kids are really enjoyable, until bedtime when you realize you’re all piling in to one small area to try to sleep. Every family and every child is different, maybe yours are little angels at bedtime and curl up and pass out. Lucky you. Mine are not.

1. Keep the sweets to earlier in the day, who doesn’t love a s’more after lunch? Maybe only my kids turn into banshees when they’re hopped up on sugar but we try to avoid it if we can, if you wouldn’t feed it to them right before bed at home, best not to when camping either.
2. Bring blankets. Sleeping bags are great but nothing makes a tent feel more homey than a few cozy blankets. If you’re not backpacking, they’re worth the extra space.
3. Consider nightlights, I hear you, you’re outside under the stars, who needs a nightlight? My kids. I prefer pitch black, they prefer to keep me up all night if I try it. Bring a sleep mask for yourself if needed but try to find a small and subtle nightlight in advance that’s bearable for all.
4. For car camping a foam mattress beats a sleep pad 9 times out of 10. You put a two year old  (or even a five year old) on a sleep pad they will inevitably roll off… over and over and over. Get a large mattress pad and your sleep will be much less interrupted by the constant need for repositioning
5. Select your spot carefully. Overlanding makes it much simpler to locate a nice quite spot to camp but if you do elect to stay in a campground, consider where you’re located and the noises that may keep your kids awake. Being close to a restroom seems convenient for those midnight potty runs, but do you want to hear everyone else going for theirs as well? 

All in all, camping with kids is amazing. It’s an experience they will carry with them and a great opportunity to create memories as a family. Just remember, there is no such thing as a perfect camping trip, no matter what instagram tries to tell you. Embrace the chaos and enjoy the wild.