This may come as a complete shock, but we’ve never been camping as a family. It’s not that I don’t like camping; the chance just hasn’t really come up. Admittedly, the last time John and I camped together was twelve years ago. We fought the whole time and he threw my stuff and I out of the tent at 2am.
Now do you see why we’re a little gun-shy?
Throwing all those wonderful memories behind us, the whole family is headed for the woods and we can’t wait. Two friends and I have formed a team to do a 32km adventure race, biking, running, and canoeing. Their families are coming too! Meaning ten kids hanging out on the beach, running around in the fresh air and …
…and what?
I’m a bit green about all of this. What do kids do while camping? Some tips and tricks here would be fantastic. Give me some meal ideas, games, and how to get them to bed so that we can have some adult time by the fire (with beer!).
As an aside, the Adventure Race we are doing is for an excellent cause – The Canadian Cancer Society. Send us some good thoughts as we kick some cancer butt!
[tags]kids, children, camping, entertainment, parenting, interesting, fun[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by Mr Ush, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
4 responses so far ↓
Summer // Jun 22, 2007 at 6:21 am
Sounds fun. And with other families around you’re less likely to get tossed out again. LOL I’m sure the kids will have a great time on their own exploring the area, investigating, and playing around. With any luck they’ll wear themselves out and sleep all night.
Michelle // Jun 23, 2007 at 4:43 pm
We just did this today: backyard bingo. In the morning we made an alphabetical list and colored pictures of things we might find in the backyard such as acorn, bee, chickadee, etc. Then after nap time we went exploring, checking off each thing as we found it. My son loved it! You could even make the list and pictures on the drive to the campsite as a bonus car-time filler.
Have fun!
beta mum // Jun 24, 2007 at 9:52 am
I’ve just got back from a weekend camping in the rain in Devon, with about thirty other people.
There were lots of kids, and we were camping in a country park with assault courses and slides and things - so we didn’t see the kids much.
They came back when they got too wet or too hungry to continue with whatever they were doing.
They went to bed horribly late, but they didn’t bother us much as they were too busy. So we just had to take a break from eating and drinking to scrape the mud off them, get them to brush their teeth (we do have standards) and tuck them into their sleeping bags.
We’re home now, and I’m onto the third load of washing.
We did a trasure trail - which they loved.
Nan // Jun 25, 2007 at 5:17 pm
A few hints: one mom organizes food for everyone per day. (I am assuming 3 families, 3 days.)we have this down to a fine art, with each of us bringing the same thing every time. No planning necessary! No one gets bored, in fact I have heard “oh boy, aunty Debs lassgna!” a hundred times. Make breakfast late-ish and huge; everyone must eat breakfast. Then, if they are too busy to eat all day, they will not die. The minute they have had breakfast, sunblock goes on. PLENTY of it! We have one rule: do not enter the water unless there is a grownup. That is THE ONLY rule, so it cannot be forgotten. We take lots of extra kids with us, and anyone who even thinks of breaking that rule goes straight home and is never invited again. It only happened once, and it is the one thing that must be tattled on immediately. Ask every morning: what’s THE RULE?? Don’t panic about grownup time, if you stick to your regular bedtime routine you can get them to sleep early. They will be exhausted. If all grownups agree, let everyone stay up an hour later. But we are evil women, and put everyone under 10 into bed very early. Like, by 7.00. Unless there are fireworks.
Don’t forget: marshmallows and saussages for toasting, sparklers for the late night, burn cream for the sparklers and the toasting. Sunblock.
Have FUN!!
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