Camping With Little Campers

I’ll be the first to tell you I’m not a big fan of camping. I am however a real big fan of hotels – with hot tubs. But, that’s not quite as much fun for the kids.

Perhaps one of the reasons I didn’t like camping with little kids was that I never seemed to be prepared for stuff. I remember one of our first camping trips with kids. We lived in CA and decided to go camping to Mt. Shasta. It was June, how was I supposed to know it was going to SNOW??? I spent the whole time snuggling my little 6 month old, worried I would suffocate her, while continually telling the 3 and 2 year old to not play in the snow. They were awfully cute wearing those giant sweatshirts though.

As I matured, I began to become a lot more organized. This really helped to make the camping trips more fun – because honestly, there isn’t much fun about something you dread doing.

We rarely went camping close to home. It usually meant we also would have a long car ride before we would arrive at our destination – usually after dark. Yes, go ahead, imagine putting up a very large tent in the dark, with 8 children who slept in the car on the way. They want to go exploring! I want to go to sleep – in my bed.

For the car ride I would pack a small bag for each child. There would be a snack (which they were allowed to eat at certain intervals) — digression - on long car rides I planned a stop every hour and a half. Snacks and drinks were given out after an hour. If they didn’t want their snack or their drink – that was just too bad! This actually worked great, because when we stopped at an hour and a half, everyone was ready to use the bathroom, and I could sweep out the van.

I would often make snacks for the trip the day before. Each child would have their snacks in zipper bags inside their other bag. They would have a zipper bag with a homemade granola bar, one with popcorn, another with homemade fruit leather, and another one might have a treat like trail mix with m & m’s. I would simply announce that it was snack time, and they could take a bag of snack to munch on. Then we would pass out juice packs, or water bottles.

Rather than taking large bags of stuff, I would often give each child their own bag with their own stuff. This also made carrying easier. They carried their own.

Each child had their own little backpack and their own little fannypack for camping trips.

In the backpack there would be things like,

• a nature notebook
• colored pencils
• an identifier book (different ones in different packs)
• a bandana
• sunscreen
• bug spray
• a magnifying glass
• extra pair of socks
• flashlight 
•  The older kids carried first aid kits and walkie talkies.

An older child was always paired with a younger child.

In their fanny packs, they would have

• a whistle (only used for emergencies)
• a snack
• a bottle of water
• a book of matches
• a quart and a gallon zipper bag 
• and a plastic grocery bag (pick up trash along trails)
• map of the trails (give one to each of the older kids)
• personal identification information with phone numbers and numbers of relatives. (this was before we all had cell phones)

The goal was not to separate, but if it did happen, we wanted them prepared.

What are some of the things you’ve done on a camping trip to “be prepared?”

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