Camping with kids is great family fun. We are all kids at heart when it's
time to go camping, but when your camping trip includes young
children some extra planning and precautions will make the trip more
fun and memorable. Here are some tips to help you start thinking
ahead about camping with children.
- Teach young children to stay within eyesight, and older
children within earshot.
- Teach children to stay where they are if they discover they
are lost. Instruct them to find a nearby tree and stay with it
until they are found.
- Children over the age of four can carry a simple survival kit,
or at least a whistle around their neck to call for help when
lost. The standard distress signal is three blows to indicate "I'm
lost" or "I need help."
- Sort and pack each day of your children's clothes within
individual small plastic grocery bags in his/her suitcase. This
way your child can grab a bag in the morning and have a full set
of clothes for the day, and at night he/she can stuff the dirty
ones back in the bag thus not mixing up the rest of the
suitcase.
- Children get cold faster than adults. The key to comfortable
camping with kids is to dress them in several layers, which can be
peeled off as they get warm or added on as they cool off.
- Provide each child with a flashlight. To prevent any
arguments, make sure each one has their own.
- Children love to play with the flashlights, and having one
also makes them more at ease after dark.
- Flashlights are also handy when making trips to the restroom,
for making shadow puppets on tent walls, and for reading before
bed.
- Bring along a game you all like to play at home. Playing it
outdoors with a lantern or flashlights will add to the fun.
- Teach your kids to treat the outdoors kindly. Make sure all
waste is disposed of properly when camping or hiking along the
trails.
- Camping with children is more fun when you bring a playmate
along. Two or more children will entertain themselves for longer
periods than will a single child.
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