If you are staying at a campground, and I recommend this if you are traveling with littler kids, there are normally lots of different things to do. Whether it is hiking, exploring the wilderness, playing in the pool, on the playground or playing ground games like bean-bag toss or lawn darts, their day can be filled with things to do without them getting bored.
However, after the sun goes down, it becomes more difficult to keep them entertained. This article offers suggestions to cover that part of the day.
1. Start a Classic Campfire
A campfire can be the perfect start to an enjoyable evening. There is nothing more fun than sitting around a campfire with family and friends at night under the bright shining stars and toasting marshmallows or making smores.
Building a campfire is easy, but you have to do it responsibly, so as to not bother (or endanger) other fellow campers or damage the natural environment.
Campfire Location
It is important to find an area suitable for building a campfire. If you are camping in a campground, most sites have a fire ring that you can use to build and contain your campfire.
However, if you are camping in the great outdoors, then you will have to clear an area down to the bare ground and build a fire ring out of rocks. In either case, it is imperative to follow all the current rules in effect by either the park rangers or campground staff.
Firewood
When you have your campfire spot selected, next comes the gathering of firewood. If you are at a campground, you can usually buy bundles of firewood. If out in the wilderness, then you will have to gather your own twigs and branches from downed dry wood.
Due to the advent of some tree-killing insects, it is not legal in many areas any more to bring your own firewood with you for fear of importing an insect not native to that area that can damage and kill trees in that area.
Lighting the campfire
All you need for a campfire is wood, air and a source of fire. Start by gathering some tinder, which can be twigs, leaves, paper, wood shavings or pine needles. That will be followed with kindling – small sticks or branches. Once you have a good small fire going, add pieces of larger wood to help create and maintain the campfire.
To begin, lay kindling over the tinder in a criss-cross fashion while ensuring the fire will have the proper ventilation to burn. There should be a small opening at the base of the tinder to light the fire. Once you have a fire going, simply keep adding firewood occasionally to keep it burning.
A campfire is intriguing and inviting to adults as well as children, but you have to be careful if little children are around. Do not let them add wood to the fire and supervise them at all times. Because safety is so important, never leave a fire unattended. If you are going to leave the area or go to bed, be sure it is out by following the information in the next section.
Putting Your Fire Out
Making sure a fire is properly extinguished is extremely important. First, let the fire die down by not adding any more wood to it. Next, use water to smother out the hot embers. It is also a good idea to cover the embers with a layer of dirt.
Once you are sure your fire is out, you can leave or go to bed. Carelessness has led to many spreading wildfires that cost lives and destruction of property; make sure your fire is completely extinguished!
2. Story-telling
One of the great camping activities is telling stories around the campfire. They can be stories of past camping experiences, stories from when you went camping as a kid, your thoughts or advice on something or whatever you want to talk about.
Or maybe you want to throw out a topic to get started and let everyone around the campfire chime in on the topic; avoid religion or politics!
Telling stories around the campfire is a great way to get a family back together without all the distractions of video games, social media, email, etc. If you want to enjoy your family camping experiences more, leave all portable individual electronics home (except one cell phone for emergencies and a GPS for navigation).
3. Telling Scary Tales
One of the great campfire pastimes is telling scary stories! Many of the stories have been handed down through generations, but they can still fixate a kid today as well as they did when you were a kid. If you can’t recall any stories, use your imagination and make some up. Or use the Internet and download some ideas before you go camping.
Even though most will not admit it, adults enjoy a good scary story too, especially one that starts out “While camping in woods similar to these…” You are only limited by your personality, creativity and imagination.
4. Star-Watching
If you are from the city, you’ll be amazed at how bright the stars are when away from the city lights (provided it is a clear night with no clouds).
Another great activity is just laying back and identifying the different constellations, like the Big and Little Dipper and so on. Of course to identify one, you have to know what you are looking for, so unless you know this topic well, do some research before you leave.
This is also another good way to start stories – myth and folklore about the different constellations, Greek mythology, etc. If you know a lot about astronomy, you can even use it as a teaching tool for your kids – a lesson in astronomy while camping.
5. Board Games
Without electronic video games, many families like to play board games at night around the campfire. There are a myriad of ones to choose from for all age groups. It is another way to make quality time with your spouse and kids as most board games will accommodate quite a few players. Card games are another popular way to pass time around the campfire.
6. Journal Writing
A pastime many campers enjoy, a hand-written record is a way to document their thoughts, fears desires and expectations. You can even use it to make future camping experiences better. If you forgot something, or something went wrong that could have been prevented, record it in the journal and then refer back to it for the next camping trip.
The point is there are many different activities you can do around the campfire that will keep kids (and adults alike) entertaining. Plan to do a variety of things while there to keep the interest and participation level high.
7. Camp Cooking
Camp cooking can vary from a prepackaged freeze-dried meal to a meal you prepare from scratch. If you are packing in, then of course your options are more limited as you have to take everything in on your back.
If you can drive up to your campsite, then you have more options, like being able to carry fresh and frozen food in coolers.
A cooking source can vary from using a campfire for everything, to using a propane or liquid-fueled multi-burner camp stove. Unless you are in a very remote place, most campsites have a grill (you have to bring the charcoal or wood) and a picnic table, both helpful for meal preparation.
Be sure to check with a ranger before heading out to make sure they allow a campfire in the area where you are going. If the fire danger is too high, they sometimes restrict open fires. If restricted, then your only other option is a camp stove.
8. Road Trip
Camping is a lot of fun once you get there. You don’t have to go far from home to get a great camping experience, but sometimes you want to go on a lengthy road-trip to camp at a special location, such as one of our national parks.
Children can get restless when on long drives, so be sure to have lots of things for them to do or you’ll hear “Are we there yet?” more times than you care to.
Make Several Stops
Part of keeping kids from getting board in the car when on a trip is to make frequent stops where they can get out and burn off some energy.
Not only do they most likely have to go to the bathroom, the break from driving does you good too. Get out, stretch, clear your mind and you’ll be much more ready to get back in and drive some more. To maximize driving time, try to time your meals with fuel stops.
Even if you are using a state-of-the-art GPS, always track your progress with a map or atlas. GPSs are not perfect and sometimes that want to take you down a road that doesn’t exist.
While you have the map out (and assuming you are not the one driving), now is a good time to teach your children how to use a map and track their progress on the journey. They will learn something they can use later in life and it will keep them occupied for a long time.
Another game for kids that is fun while traveling is to see how many different states they can get gather from license plates of cars passing you, parked or just ahead of you.