Make Camping Fun For Your Kids
Children want a place where there’s something do. When planning for a child’s first venture into nature, make sure you pick a park where there is something to do besides sit around the camp fire. A park that produces a large amount of wildlife for viewing is a good place to start with children of all ages. If your child is a little bit older try to find a park that offers hands on activities like fishing or even a shooting range. Children want a place where they can get into it all, not away from it all.
PERSONAL TIP: The National parks website, www.nps.gov, has a calendar of events for each park on their officially web page. Check this out before you leave to see if there is anything fun going on. BE EXCITED
You can’t expect your child to be excited about your trip if you aren’t. Make sure to be overly interested in everything you see and do.
Show your children that it’s fun to be outdoors. Create games like who can spot the most animals or who can catch the most fish to keep kids busy and having fun through out the day.
GET TO EYE LEVEL
Children loose interest quickly when they feel like people are looking down at them and giving orders. So when you are teaching a child something new like how to fish or shoot a gun, get down to there level. The will appreciate this and pay you much more attention than if they feel like they are being forced to do something.
PERSONAL TIP: Some activities that make getting down to your child’s eye level include shooting from a bench, fishing in a boat, and other basic outdoor skills. It may sound strange but children enjoy being involved in all activities. Teach your child how to pack their day
pack, or how to filter water. Anything that can involve them is a good thing.
TEACH THEM WHAT YOU KNOW
If your child feels you are lecturing them or forcing them to do something they are going to zone you out before you even finish your first sentence. If you teach them how to do something, that’s another story. Have the kids involved in every activity and duty around the camp site. Children will love to do anything adult like or the everyone else is doing. Get the children to help unpack the car, setup the tent, look for fire wood, wash the dishes, or anything else. To an adult it may seem boring but to a child it seems grown up.
LET THE KIDS BE
Children can be interested in the most random things. If you have a hike planned for the day and then half way down the trail your kids want to chase some butterflies, let them. A day full of things that interest the child will be a much happier one then forcing the children to do certain preplanned activities. Most kids would much rather spend time getting wet and dirty beside a small stream then waiting around to catch fish in it.
PERSONAL TIP: Ask the child what they want to do. Tell all the different things there is to do in the park and see which one they want to do first. A child will enjoy something a lot more if they felt they had some say in the matter.
DEALING WITH BOREDOM
No matter how exciting you try to make the trip there will always be down time. Try to keep this down time to a minimum but be prepared for it. Keep items like candy or small toy camping gear around for these times. Don’t let the children know you have or what you have. This way each item will be a surprise and create something to do to pass the time.
PERSONAL TIP: A fun activity to keep around for some down time is to make G.O.R.P. (Good Old Raisins, and Peanuts) A.K.A Trail mix. Keep the ingredients around and when the nativesstart to get restless pull out the supplies and teach them how to make their own trail mix. Some good extras to include in the mix are M&Ms, dried fruit, and skittles.
TAKE PICTURES
How much do remember things from when you were a young child? Not much. Your children are no different. They can forget about how much fun they had camping in no time at all. So when your camping, make sure to take get some good close up photos of your child. Take some great action shots of them fishing, holding there bulls eye from the shooting range, or setting up the tent. These pictures will give
you some great photos and the children an easy way to remember how much fun they had and show off to all their friends.
PERSONAL TIP: Avoid posing pictures. Most kids hate being told to stand still and smile. The ones who do usually put on their cheese smile that drives mom and dad mad. Try to capture more candid moments. These will make for more unique pictures and not be so intrusive to the child.
SLEEPING
Make sure that your child’s sleeping bag is dry, comfortable and clean. A child will be in a much better mood after a good nights rest. Let them pick out their sleeping bag. They will be more enthusiastic about going to bed in a sleeping bag they picked out.
PERSONAL TIP: If you are going car camping it cant hurt to carry an extra sleeping bag just in case your child’s bag gets rained on or if you child has an accident during the night.
