Camping with your kids is a great way for the family to have fun away from home and to spend more time together. But to make the experience one that the family will enjoy and remember, plan some activities that will keep your kids entertained throughout the whole trip. Here are some really cool camping activities you can try with your kids:
1. Water activities
If you're going camping near a river, lake or pool, don't forget to bring your swimsuits and water equipment. You can skip stones, fish, swim, float around, or play water volleyball/basketball. You can also go rowing on an inflatable boat. Good inflatable boats can fit three people and come with oars, sturdy oarlocks, all-around grab rope, repair patch, tow ring, and other useful features. They're also comfortable and good on rough waters. If there's no water near your campsite, then consider a water balloon or squirt gun fight, swim in an inflatable pool, or create a makeshift pool by covering a truck bed with tarp and filling it up with water.
2. Sports and physical activities
Pick an activity that suits your style, including Frisbee golf, ring toss, lawn bowling, soccer, baseball, biking or hiking. If you'll be camping with many people, then games such as capture the flag, hide and seek, and tag would be fun for everyone to play.
3. Rainy day activities
On a rainy day, there are a range of activities you can do in the tent, like reading books or magazines, watching movies or playing games on your portable devices or making up stories.
4. Campfire activities
Campfires are the best part of camping, so have your kids help you with building the campfire. Gathering around the campfire at night with your family and doing fun things can be a memorable experience. Think marshmallows, damper, truth or dare, singing songs, playing an instrument, dancing and making coloured fire. One of the best things to do around a campfire is to tell stories. Have everyone tell a funny story about a family member or make up a story and have everyone add a sentence to it. You can also tell ghost stories, but only if you don't have younger kids!
5. Night activities
There are a lot of other fun things to do at night, like making shadow puppets, going for a walk or swim, playing flashlight tag or hide and seek, studying the stars, shooting fireworks, releasing sky lanterns and playing glow-in-the-dark bowling.
6. Make snacks
This will help your kids learn how to make food - and everyone loves to eat! You can make s'mores, a trail mix, ants on a log, or a pepperoni and mozzarella sandwich that you can cook over the campfire.
7. Create art
If the weather isn't favourable or your kids are tired from hiking, you can help them pass time by creating art. You can create window nature art with leaves, petals, wildflowers, small sticks, contact paper, a scissor, hole punch and ribbon. You can also create a stick vase with twigs, sticks, rubber bands, a Mason jar, ribbon and wildflowers. Or just head out to the sand or dirt and make patterns.
8. Play games
Playing games can help strengthen your family's bond and allow everyone to learn to cooperate with each other. Consider card games, board games, charades or I Spy, and playing hangman or tic-tac-toe.
9. Explore nature
Camping in the great outdoors allows you to get closer to nature. You can watch birds and other animals, catch fireflies, collect bugs or leaves, gather pine cones or flowers, or search for berries or nuts. You can also go on a scavenger hunt and hunt for things like pine cones, bird feathers, maple leaves, smooth rocks, and a cup of stream water. A photo scavenger hunt would also be fun for more tech-savvy kids.
10. Relax
It's important to find time to relax between your camping activities. Consider swinging in a hammock, watching the swaying trees, listening to the sounds of nature, reading, taking plenty of naps, daydreaming and stargazing.
11. Built-in entertainment
To make the camping experience more fun and enjoyable for your kids, choose a campsite where there are playgrounds for them to play in. Some campgrounds have pools, water slides, game rooms, horseback riding, miniature golf, movie nights, and many other amenities to keep your kids entertained. You can also consider camping at a tourist spot with an amusement park or close to an attraction where you can experience the natural wonders of the place. Camping with the whole family can be a lot of fun. So take your kids out camping and create memories that will last a lifetime.
Australia's best supplier for camping gears
Whether it's your first time to go camping or not, a good source of cool camping equipments is available online. Outbax ships products for free and offers some discounts. These gears also come with a 12-month warranty. Its website is very user-friendly and provides all the specs a camper needs.
