Spending Quality Time On A Family Camping Trip

Going on a family camping trip is one of the best ways to spend quality time with your loved ones. Unfortunately, with the hectic lifestyles that most of us have these days, this is an activity that not too many people are able to enjoy. The good news is that it is never too late to start your own family camping tradition. This coming summer, it would be a really good idea to take the entire family on a camping trip and spend some time to reconnect with each other and with nature. But before doing so, you should first learn a thing or two about the fundamentals of camping in order to ensure that your family will have a safe and memorable camping experience.

Basic Camping Equipment

As a first-time camper, you need not fuss with advanced and expensive camping equipment, but you do need to equip yourself with the basic gear before you set off on your family camping trip. These would include a tent, some outdoor cooking equipment, sleeping bags and camping backpacks.

Let’s start with the tent. The size will depend on the number of people you have in the family. You can either buy a big one and sleep all together or buy smaller tents and split up into groups of two or three. The tent material should also be appropriate for the kind of environment and weather that you will be camping in. If you do not have much camping experience, it would be best to invest in a tent that is quite easy to put up and to take down. Also, you will need to purchase an individual sleeping bag for each member of the family.

In addition to the tents and sleeping bags, there are many other smaller items that you would need to take with you in order to have a successful family camping trip. These would include insect repellents, flashlights, cookware, radios and so on. Many a family camping trip has been ruined just by forgetting some of these seemingly minor items. In order to avoid such a mishap, it is advisable to make a checklist of all the items you will need several days before your trip, and to go through your list carefully before you take off.

One of the very important items that you should include in your family camping trip checklist is a fully equipped first aid kit. Keep in mind that while you are camping, you will probably be miles away from the nearest hospital or clinic, so it would only be practical to have something to use in case of injuries or accidents.

Water is another essential item that should always be in your list. You should play it safe and pack some bottles of drinking water in your pack. If you are planning to make your family camping trips a regular activity, it would also be good to invest in a water filter so that you will always have potable water wherever you go.

A Family Camping Trip And A Five Family Activity Ideas

There is nothing more delightful and rejuvenating than spending a few days of camping leisure with your family. Add to that a hint of adventure and you have just what it takes to make a memorable, fun-filled vacation. A family camping trip is one of the most thrilling and sought after vacation choices for families to have a recreational time together. Spending a few days of fun and enjoyment in a family camping tent is a sheer joy for those with a passion for adventure. Apart from the usual drill, just what is it that you can do on your family camping trip to make it a memory you’ll cherish forever?

Five Fun Activities For Your Next Family Camping Trip.

1. Spot The Rock

Make sure you carry your supplies of art and craft for this one. This activity gives you a lot of moving around, tests your ingenuity and finally infuses some real action into your family camping trip. Earmark an area around your campsite within which you find it safe for the kids to move around and fix a stipulated time which will be allowed for this game. Now ask each one of the family members to try to draw the faces of all the members in the entire family tree on the rocks around, starting right from mom, dad and going up to the uncles, aunts and even the cousins. They can highlight any one conspicuous feature such as wavy hair or a crooked nose that makes the person stand out. After the time’s over, each one of the members is asked to try and identify the person on the rock along the trailheads. The activity is likely to be more fun if it organized around a novel locale such as a frozen lake. The one with the maximum number of correct guesses emerges as the winner!

2. It’s Story Time

Generations might have passed, but traditional ways still retain their glory. The charm of a nice and enticing story narrated by an exuberant storyteller sitting around a campfire still catches the fancy of the young and old alike. Ranging right from the age-old tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, going up to the scary Dracula narratives, the joy of a story session is something that you just can’t miss on a family camping trip. In fact, special sound effects introduced at various points in the story can also add that zing to the entire activity.

3. Nightime Fun

Planning a fun-filled series of nighttime activities is another great idea for having fun in your family camping trip. Start from stargazing and develop a theme around it. Each of the family members speaks something imaginative on stars. For instance, you can spot a cluster of stars that seem to be poised in a particular shape or a patch which has an unusually large number of them huddled together. You might even be able to spot a shooting star, if you happen to be just that lucky at the moment!

4. Brisk Gaming

Gizmos and gadgets notwithstanding, the sweat and thrill that goes into the energetic outdoor activities still remain a favorite family camping activity. This is perhaps the only activity that carries loads of advantages with it, right from robust physical activity to putting your team spirit to test. Try planning a tough Tug of War, but only after you’ve given due attention to the composition of each team, so that each of the sides possesses the same muscle power. For a lesser rigorous, but equally challenging game, go in for Frisbee Golf or the likes of Touch Football and Capture the Flag.

5. Paste A Collage

Now, this one will truly serve as a family memento and will bring a smile to your lips even years after your cherished family camping trip. You will need to carry a few things such as a canvass, glue stick and scissors for this fun activity. When on your family camping trip, look for small items that you can carry back home as a souvenirs of your trip. Things like tiny chunks of moss covered bark, feathers, colorful pebbles, pieces of driftwood and other small knick-knacks can be glued onto the canvass board to make a ravishing ‘Family Vacation’ collage. In fact, you can even leave a few spaces blank where you simply pin-on the pictures of your camping trip, once you have them with you later.