With three young children I can tell you with complete honesty that entertaining young children while camping can sometimes be a challenge.
I can also share with you our personal experience for what works for us based on real camping with real children! Listed below are an abundance of activities and ideas to keep your little ones busy from morning until that last smore is licked from their sticky fingers! Nature Programs When we are going car camping at a designated camping site we try our best to book a campsite that has a children's nature program.
The kids love it, even the older ones.
They usually attend a different nature activity each morning for an hour and follow up with an interesting lecture/talk/play or some other form of nature entertainment in the evening after dinner.
The kids get to collect junior ranger badges for their participation and they love sharing what they've learned with us each day.
Water and Beach I think it's important to know ahead of time what types of activities your kids will be able to participate in when you're at your camping site.
Swimming, fishing, boating are all great things to do at the beach or at the lake but younger kids also might like to use sand toys to play with or floating toys in the water.
Campsite activities We bring along their bikes so they can ride around the campsite safely and some campsites offer bike trails around your camping area.
This is a great way for them to burn off some energy and also get in some great exercise.
Some campsites offer horse shoe games but you may need to provide your own horse shoes.
We always bring along daytime Frisbees and a glow in the dark Frisbees for nighttime.
Hiking and nature walks as a family are daily activities for us as well.
We bring along bug and bird books for the kids to help identify the neat creatures they find.
The scarier looking the better to them! Picnic Table Activities We keep a stash of portable board games and cards that we bring out on every camping trip.
We usually find time in the evenings to play a family game of scrabble or connect four or go fish with the younger ones.
Paint, paper and crafts We always bring along some non-toxic paint, paper, crayons, scissors and easy to use crafty items that the kids can use.
They will search for a very long time for the perfect rock to paint and really take their time to create a rock masterpiece to use as a centerpiece on our table.
They also love to draw and colour and being outside seems to inspire them to paint what they see around them.
With some string and clips it's fun and easy to set up an outdoor art exhibit! Outdoor Toys We keep a small bucket of outdoor toys that we only bring out when we're camping so they never get bored of them.
This can include small plastic figurines and any durable water resistant toys that you don't mind getting dirty.
All of these activities and games keep our kids busy each day whether they want to play together or alone or with their new found camping friends.
We usually find that some of the toys we've brought never get used as they are so busy and entertained with the nature around them and the encouragement we give them to explore.
Kids and dirt seem to go hand in hand and camping is the perfect place to let that relationship flourish! Let them get dirty and happy camping!