First Camping Trip
My first trip with three kids had me hella nervous. It seems all my fears were unfounded. The kids just needed nature.
Obsidian Trail - Newberry Volcanic Monument
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t totally nervous when I took my kids on their first camping trip. We headed to Newberry Volcanic Monument. As someone who dreamed of backpacking remote places, it’s surprising I hadn’t been camping with my kids and my oldest was 8. I should note that I was also taking three kids by myself. No other adults to help out, or more importantly share the blame of whatever critical item I may have forgotten. Let’s be honest, when all the packing falls to you there is another level of stress.
Lava is something most kids get interested in. Lots of lava is just more impressive.
Amazingly, the trip went fantastic and I couldn’t have wished for a better camping trip. There are a couple of things that really made the difference between hearing things like “are we there yet?” or “I’m bored”. Let’s talk about car ride planning. As each of the kids loaded into the car I handed them a binder which included some of the following activities:
A map with the route highlighted - this worked out so well as they would occasionally orient themselves on the map to where we were, how far we had travelled and it started exposing them to some map reading.
Activities like Travel Bingo, license plate bingo, coloring pages of volcanoes since we were headed to camp at the base of a volcano and age appropriate crossword and sudoku puzzles. On our most recent trip to Ochono National Forest I designed a crossword puzzle with facts about the area. We learned as we played.
Podcasts - my kids love being read to and there are lot of Podcasts that really engage kids. Some of our favorites include Wow in the World, Circle Round, The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian.We save Podcasts just for roadtrips so there are always a few stacked up for hours of entertainment.
Road Scavenger hunts - this one is a little trickier to put together. I’ve noticed you need to keep them focused on certain areas because the kids will forget and then an item I put on there like “a giant ball of yarn” gets missed. If you’re familiar with a general stretch of the area, but certain items on there and play it together when you get there. You can also get nature scavenger hunts for rest areas.
Mad Libs are a blast for kids and depending on the age you can make them take the lead or you get the words and read the story.
Sticky notes to write on and a new pen - I didn’t expect this one to be as much fun as it was. The kids wrote all sorts of random things or drew pictures. They stuck them on the window and at one point my seven year old said “look! I’m posting to Facebook” as he put stickies on the window.
Snacks and drinks - it’s so easy to throw a lot of processed snacks into a bin and call it good but, especially with younger kids, the sugar spikes can cause for antsy kids who don’t want to sit much longer. I made a basket of snacks with items like apple slices, nuts, dried fruit, plain crackers, sandwich bites (why a small square of sandwich is so much more fun than a whole sandwich I don’t quite know but we’ll go with it!) and a big hit is always dehydrated bananas and strawberries. My kids really only get water, we shy away from any juices, so a refillable water bottle for each.
Their own camp survival kit - this included their own headlamp, a whistle, a mini first aid kit, and an energy bar. While I didn’t expect them to need it, they felt much more important because they had one.
