What do you do while camping?

[AimeeM]

Think about how much I'd rather be home - I've always hated camping.

 

Seriously, though, when we used to go as children, my parents would help my sisters (and me, if I agreed, lol) fish, take us tubing, skip rocks, explore the woods, etc. I sat there and read, most of the time :D

[SKL]

With my own kids, I've only done one overnight camping trip so far, but I'm hoping to do more.  :)  We went with a scouting group.  We set up the tent, and at that point it was dark.  We sat around the campfire with the group and the girls ran around playing and singing songs with the other girls.  Found the running water.  :P  Went to bed.  The next day we had to pack up and go to a soccer game after breakfast, but if we hadn't, we would have done some hiking and generally enjoyed the outdoors and cooked over the fire.  The campground we went to had canoeing and bb range shooting and some other things (including horse riding in the summer).  If the weather was warm enough, we'd do some swimming.  Fishing is another thing we'd do if the conditions were right (I haven't actually taken my kids fishing yet).

 

Camping with my family was one of my favorite childhood activities.  I'm an older parent and have a difficult work schedule, but I really want to create good camping memories for my kids as well.

[saraha]

Wow, I really REALLY wish I had asked this last summer.  Now I can't wait for it to get warm...

[alisoncooks]

Pinterest has a ton of camping "hacks" and recipes -- we like to try out a few new ones each trip. :)

[Lisbeth]

Suffer.

 

Sorry, had to.  Hate camping. :)

[chocolatechip]

Hike.

Bike.

Explore.

Read.

Play games.

Swim.

Sail.

 

Repeat. ;)

 

Last time we went camping, I was sad because I had to leave before we'd a chance to do everything!

If you camp at a place where there is a good general area surrounding, kids can spend hours exploring the trails connecting different areas. 

 

Maybe if you're feeling overwhelmed with the idea, just go for a couple nights so there's not so much dead time. Then after you kind of figure out what works best you could extend the trips. 

[HS Mom in NC]

We eat really well when we camp.  The secret to that is to only take meals you can almost completely food prep before you go.  I cook beef stew or sausage/lentil/potato soup the day before we leave and cool it down and double ziploc bag it in the ice chest.  I often take my dutch oven and couple of tubed biscuit rolls by Pillsbury or our favorite boxed mix of cornbread. I heat the dutch oven with coals or in the fire (with an oven thermometer in it to preheat) then I set up the propane camp stove on the stand.  While the stew/soup heats up in our pot on the stove I'm cooking the biscuits/cornbread in the dutch oven (with a dutch oven liner so there's no clean up.) We have hot biscuits and beef stew for dinner followed by smores, because that's tradition. I've baked a cherry pie (premade crust, canned filling) in my dutch oven while camping. The better the food on little to no effort and most people will enjoy camping more.

 

My brother brings a large propane tank and a large disc of polished stainless steel and cooks fajitas (all food prepped and ready to go) on it.  His wife cooks the pre packed, uncooked tortillas on the propane stove frying pan.  Sooooo good. He also makes what is affectionately known as "The Supai Special" from a famous hike he did.  It involves just heating up canned refried beans, queso fresco (packaged and ready to go ) canned pickled jalapenos and carrots, and packaged tostada shells.  It's the cheese and pickled jalapenos that give it the flavor.  It's a very tasty meal that's easy to do in more primitive conditions. Everyone can assemble their own.  Not everyone wants to eat sandwiches and hot dogs over and over. My nephew could eat a chili dog (easy to do camping) every meal. My brother also makes a very easy upside down peach dump cake in his dutch oven with a cake mix and couple of other things.  Again the dutch oven liners make it super easy to clean up. 

 

Go with a group of people you like, it's so much more fun.  People with really well behaved dogs are good to invite along too. Some kids will sit and pet and play with someone else's dog all afternoon. Work out a dinner assignment with your group to create less stress for you.  Have an accurate head count and each family can make a dinner for everyone a different night.  A lot of us find it easier to one very big meal for dinner one night than to come up with different meals for our own family every night.

 

We have something to do every day.  When the natives get restless we give each other (my brother and I) the signal and then everyone packs backpacks full of snacks and drinks and whatever else might be needed.  Then we go on a hike to a cool location, go to a creek to swim, go to pick berries, go collect snakes/bugs/flowers,go geocache, drive the dirt roads to a pond or lake, etc.  Usually an adult or two volunteers to stay at camp (so they can read in peace) and any kids who don't want to leave the campsite can stay.

[Baseball mom]

As little as possible. It is suppose to be a vacation. My lawn chair, a book and my camera and I am happy.

[Serenade]

Great thread!  I'm bookmarking it.

 

We do a lot of walking/hiking, but DH and I also just enjoy sitting around and reading.  The kids sometimes just read, too.

 

One time I did homeschool at the campground.  We did school in the morning and fun stuff in the afternoon.  It was after the school year started, so it was kind of  a bonus trip, so it's not like I was the mean mom making them do school during vacation.  LOL.