Login

Fun Family Camping

POSTED ON MAY 31, 2016 BY TRACEYHAYLES@OPTUSNET.COM.AU

We had a long weekend and left our every day behind to go camping.  We love camping, being out of the house where you can’t see all the things you could be doing and just get to be together.  Some people I talk to think we are nuts camping with three kids but it is a cheap, easy way to escape with the kids.  We have had our fair share of great trips plus the more interesting trips that you always look back and laugh at like taking the 7 year old to hospital for seven stitches.  Camping was one of those things that my hubby and I did with our families as kids but when you’re an adult you don’t seem to realize or remember what behind the scenes organization your parents put into that camping trip until you actually take your kids camping! So trip by trip we have gradually developed a little list of camping tips that makes camping easy for us.  They are our golden rules of family camping.

Our 6 Golden Rules of Family Camping

  1. Choose a tent that is easy to set up and take down with kids.  We have a Colemen Instant Up Tent and it goes up and down in 5 minutes.  It is awesome.  I can even set it up on my own with three kids!  Yep I take the three kids camping every January why my hubby works.  We have tried a few different tents.  The first was one where you thread the poles through.  It took for ever to set up especially when it was just one person doing it while the other looked after young kids.
  2. Choose a camp ground based on what your family needs for a fun weekend.  Our kids are 8, 6 and 3 so we like to have access to toilets and showers, a camp kitchen and stuff for the kids to do as our weekend away is meant to be a holiday for Mum and Dad too.  So we are Big 4 members and we love them.  We have just returned from the Big 4 at Tweed Heads and we had a blast.  We have been there before so we knew how good the facilities were, therefore we took less gear no hot plates etc.  Tweed Big 4 has an amazing camp kitchen over the lagoon and heaps for the kids to do inside the camp ground, pools, water park, lagoon with floating trampolines………..easy family fun.  The surrounding area is gorgeous too, we had a great morning at Fingal Head.  Perfect small waves for the kids.
  3. Camping boxes.  Oh how I used to hate getting packed and unpacked from a camping trip.  We now have a couple of camping boxes, one for bedding and one for kitchen.  I have just kept old pots, pans and sheets etc as we got new stuff and they are now our camping gear.  The boxes come down I add food to the kitchen box and packing is much easier.
  4. Food.  Camping is a holiday for me to so as far as food goes when we are camping it has to be easy, everyone has to eat it and to be frank I don’t care about the nutritional value (I hope the nutrition police are not reading this).  We have things like hot dogs, sausages and packet pasta, at Tweed I took down frozen pizza for the first night as their camp kitchen is so well set up I could just shove it in the oven.
  5. Kids Pack Their Own Bags.  I used to pack my kids bags but seriously the more kids you have the more time that takes, so now my kids are given their bag and a list of what they need.  I write down what they need, how many of each item and draw a picture of it.  They pack a clothes bag, I try and make time to check it, and then they have another calico bag which they can take with toys.  And yes sometimes it means we have turned up somewhere with no undies but hey the places we camp you can always go and buy what you need.
  6. Have fun.  Once there and set up we just have fun, swimming, water sliding, playing games, movies by the pool and even a treat or two.  We have been known to have an ice cream a day!
Happy Camping!

PS.  Sometimes we even read a book or two when camping!

Disclaimer: This  post is my personal opinion. I have no affiliation with any camping grounds mentioned.

Hi, I'm Tracey!

My mission is simple : to make the science of reading easy. Can you imagine what it felt like as a qualified experienced teacher when I realized my child wasn’t learning to read like other kids. He loved books, we read books together everyday. Seriously, somedays it felt like we read dozens of books, but he just wasn’t learning to read like other kids. Rather than waiting and seeing like the education system wanted me to, I decided to take it into my own hands. I learnt, researched and trained in the science of reading.
Now, I make the science of reading easy 
for every parent who want’s to support their child.
FacebookWebsite