The Chaotic Campervaners, on How to Keep Kids Occupied Whilst Camping
This is the second part of our collaboration blog with our friends, The Chaotic Campervaners. This post shares their suggestions on how to keep your kids amused whilst camping.
Keeping Kids Amused Whilst Camping
We; The Chaotic Campervaners; love camping and campervanning! But the first time that we felt brave enough to take our son camping was when he was 2 years old. The reason that we were so reluctant to take our son camping was that he is (and always has been) a very active child, who is always on the go and is full of energy! In fact, on this first camping trip, the woman in the next tent told us at the end of our holiday that she had thought that we had twin boys because she didn't think that it could be the same child running around the whole time! So you'll understand that the thought of keeping him amused and entertained whilst in a structure that has no sound proofing when there are other people in such close proximity did not inspire a feeling of a relaxed camping holiday! Very quickly we realised that to enable everyone to have an enjoyable holiday, we would need to be organised and keep our son busy! But keeping a child entertained whilst you're camping isn't always easy!
I believe that planning and organisation is the key to a great family holiday. Being organised is something that us Chaotic Campervaners constantly strive for but don't often achieve!
In this blog post we will be looking at some of the ways that you can keep your child or children entertained whilst you are camping. Therefore enabling the whole family to enjoy your camping holiday!
Campsite Activities
Many campsites have children's play areas, some have games rooms or playing fields and some of the larger sites even have swimming pools. If you want a campsite that is packed with on-site activities there are plenty of holiday parks around the country to choose from. But wherever you decide to stay, it is definitely worth having a few ideas up your sleeve to keep your child or children entertained!
The great thing about a campsite is that there are usually things going on, lots to see, friendly dogs to say hello to and other children to play with! We always seem to make friends with people. We enjoy walking around campsites exploring. On Camping and Caravanning Club Sites we like to see if anyone else has site pennants like we do.
There are some campsites that provide free activities for children to do. Charmouth Caravan and Camping Club site, Monckton Wyld has a nature trail and a flower quiz. Also, if you want to get out and about, there are lots of I-Spy books that encourage children to explore their environment.
There are also plenty of ideas for scavenger hunts on line or you could make up your own scavenger hunt.
Days Out
When we are Camping, we love to get out and explore the local area. For us, that is one of the reasons why we go camping. We also use our camping trips as a way to extend any school learning by visiting any relevant places locally such as museums (some of which have free entry). A couple of years ago, our son persuaded us to visit Mousehole whilst we were in Cornwall as he had been reading The Mousehole Cat at school. I'm so glad that he did as we had simply the best time explore this stunning little Cornish village!
If the weather is good, there are plenty of things to do at the seaside. This includes paddling and swimming, building sandcastles (kids can really use their imagination here) sand volcanos with seaweed as lava, also rock pooling and crabbing. Some UK beaches are perfect for fossil hunting. We recently booked to go fossil hunting with Lyme Regis Museum. The weather was awful, but because of the interesting and informative way that the guides (Chris and Paul) taught us about fossil hunting, we had such a great time and we even found some ammonites!
But the typical British summer weather can mean that endless days on the beach are more of a distant dream than a reality! Even if you do have days of perfect beach weather, you might want to do something else other than just go to the beach. Wherever you are in the UK, it is likely that there will be a good place to go for a walk nearby. Planning a walk with a stop for a picnic lunch is a cheap and easy way to get out for the day. You never know what you might find along the way! In some towns and cities, you may even find a free trail to follow, such as the Lyme RegisDiscovery Trail or the annual Salisbury Bear Hunt. Contact the local Tourist Information Centre to find out if there are any free activities nearby. Tourist Information centres are a great place to find out what there is to do in the local area. You may even find that some local attraction leaflets have discount codes or coupons. There are also some attractions that give a discounted entry ticket if you pre-book online, so it's definitely worth checking that out too. Also, find out if your campsite has any links with local attractions that entitles you to discounts or special offers.
You could also try Geocaching. Check out the CCC's Beginners Guide To Geocaching or the Geocaching website for further information. And don't forget, if you have National Trust, English Heritage or Historic Houses membership, there is very likely to be somewhere nearby that you can visit for free.
It is always worth doing a bit of research to find out if there are any free activities in the area that you are camping such as carnivals or festivals. By having a few cheaper or free days out mixed with a couple of days that might cost you a little bit more it could save you some money in the long run. But if it's raining and all else fails, stick on some waterproofs and go puddle jumping. Just make sure that you're not too far away from a change of dry clothes and possibly a warm shower!
But what about when you need to fill a bit of time at your tent? It is always worth having a variety of activities that will keep children amused.
Tent Activities
Like most children, our son loves his technology! But we don't go away camping just for him to spend time on his electronics. So; as we do at home; we have rules. Because our son is a very early riser, we allow him to have his tablet and headphones each morning to watch something that we have already downloaded prior to the holiday. This means that now that he is getting older, we're not woken up at 5.30am when he wakes up and so we're able to sleep until a more reasonable time! We set up his breakfast (so he only needs to get milk out of the cool box). Plus, he has plenty of art and craft activities to keep him busy within an arms reach.
When you are allowing your child/children to have their technology, there are also plenty of free educational games and websites available online (if you have WIFI). On our last camping trip, our son decided to start learning Japanese on Duolingo!
He also enjoys listening to music (earphones definitely needed for this) and podcasts. There are a good range of podcasts available for children and this is a great thing for them to do if they need some relaxing 'down time'.
Before we go camping, we always visit our local library or village library van to stock up on books. Many libraries have a children's summer reading challenge and this is a good way of encouraging children to read, whatever their reading level may be.
We also use the time and experiences that we have whilst we're camping to work towards any 'complete at home' Cubs badges. Cubs badges such as Book Reader or Photographer are ideal to work towards when you're camping and gives our son a purpose to do these things.
We have the usual camping games such as boules, quoits and velcro tennis.
But it's also useful to have plenty of games (particularly card games) and activities. We always take a supermarket 'bag for life' filled with pens and paper (always a winner with our little artist), activity and puzzle books, craft activities, origami, sticker books and stickers to make pictures with etc. This means that there is always something for him to do.
There are so many different things that you can do if you have pen and paper. Games such as naughts and crosses, hangman, dots and boxes and picture consequences are easy to play for the whole family. Children could even make up their own secret codes using numbers or icons to write their own secret messages. When I was a child, I would spend hours with a piece of A4 paper and pens or pencils designing my own campsite/holiday park or fantasy island.
If your child/children enjoy writing, drawing and crafts, why not give them a note book or scrap book and help them to make a 'travel journal' about their holiday. They could write diary entries, draw pictures and doodles to show what they have been doing on holiday and stick little mementos in too. They could even leave spaces to add photos at a later date.
Another activity that children might enjoy is writing a postcard for friends or family back home. There are always postcards to buy at the seaside, there are 'colour your own' postcards available to buy on line or you could buy some blank postcards for your child to draw their own picture on.
On our recent camping trip to Charmouth, we found mini magnetic chess and draughts sets for sale very cheaply in the campsite shop. So, as well as spending time playing chess, I also taught our son how to play draughts. These sets were magnetic (so we didn't easily loose pieces), small and compact and were easily stored in our games bag.
Finally, don't forget to slip a pack of cards (such as Uno) or an activity or sticker book in your bag for those times when you eat out and are waiting for your meal. There is nothing worse than a child who is hungry and bored!
I'd really love to hear about how you keep your child or children entertained whilst you're camping. Why not tell me by leaving me a comment on our blog or social media pages.
The Chaotic Campervaners blog
