Camping Tips for Families

by Resa Heart

It’s easy to go just a bit crazy when your kids are home all summer long. One of my coping strategies is to keep them busy. There are organized sports I enroll them in and today there are choices for kids that range from softball to swimming to tennis and golf. Enrolling them in a sport keeps them active, improves their coordination, engages their team spirit and wears them out. Beyond that, at least once a year our family will take a camping trip. This is a tradition in my family where my parents took their children on camping trips and my husband and I are continuing it with our kids.

There are so many summer activities that we look forward to when the temperature rises – swimming, softball games, trips to the ice cream parlor. Another highlight for our family is camping. Since I was a kid, many of our family vacations were spent in a tent or camping trailer, and now we have started that tradition with our own kids.

A full fledged camping trip might be a bit much if your children are young and/or you’ve not had a lot of camping experience yourself. In that case, start small. An overnight or weekend camping trip in your backyard is a great way to begin because food and bathrooms are always convenient. Just make sure that there is no use of electronic games or portable TVs. Have a deck of cards and teach your kids games you learned when young.

I’ll begin with a word of advice for the novice camper. Start in the backyard. The bathroom and food are handy, but sleeping under the stars will create memories for a lifetime. And if you insist that the electronics (MP3 players, electronic games, DVD players) stay in the house, you just might reconnect with some of those old fashioned activities like Go Fish and ghost stories.

When the time comes for the first real camping trip, make your life easy by a little pre-planning. Yes, a little work first, makes the whole vacation much more relaxing for you later. First check out if a reservation is required. It’s best to know you can stay before you go. Then check out campground facilities to be sure if you need bathrooms with running water, you’ve got them.

The more you camp the more efficient you become on packing. For the first few trips you should plan extensively with a set of lists so you don’t forget important things. Even what you will be eating and where you will eat it is important. Also a backup plan for an unexpected turn of weather is a good idea. Catching an afternoon movie when it’s going to rain all day long will go a long way to brighten everyone’s mood.

There are all kinds of websites that will give you lists of things to pack. But a few of the must-haves are a pocket knife (they’re handy for everything from food prep to tent set-up), a cooler with ice (remember there are no refrigerators in the great outdoors), matches or a lighter to get that campfire going, and a deck of cards. That deck of cards provided our family with hours of fun when we had to sit in the tent while it poured rain outside.

You can make camping as simple as being in your own backyard or go on a bigger trip but whichever route you go, be sure to relax, focus on family and have fun. When you do that, you’ll be making memories everyone will cherish forever. Now that’s summertime fun!

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