Night Games

It’s time to stay up late and enjoy the warm nights that summer provides. Take advantage of a pleasant evening by playing night games with your kids!

Glow In The Dark Baseball: Buy a bundle of glow in the dark necklaces and have each player put one on. Get a wuffle ball and put glow in the dark bracelets inside it or get a ball like this. Tape about 5 bracelets lengthwise on the end of the bat or a stick.

Star gazing: That’s an easy one. Print off a sky map here.

Sardenes: Like hide and seek but only one person hides. Everyone else tries to find them. When they do find them they hide with the person. The last person to find the hiding spot loses. 

Kick The Can: This is kind of like hide and seek mixed with tag. One person is It and counts to 20 while everyone else hides. The person that is It has to find the people hiding but guard a can on the ground as well. When a person hiding is found they have to try to run and kick the can over before the person who is It tags them.

Flashlight Tag: Plain old tag but using flashlights or glowsticks.

Steal The Flag: Split everyone into two teams. Have a flag on opposing ends of the playing site. Each team tries to steal the other teams flag without being tagged. You could use glowsticks instead of flags.

What are some of your favorite night games?

Top Tens

Today I thought I’d share some “Top Tens” with you that correlate with the purpose of Nature For Kids.
Drum roll please….

Gorp presents ten camping commandments to build excitement about the outdoors in kids. 

Dog Behavior Online  provides 10 ways to exercise a dog

And last but not least…

turnoffyourtv.com gives the top 10 frequently asked questions  concerning why you should turn off your TV.

Let Nature For Kids  know if you learned anything that will stick with you!

Kelty Duo Bin

Yesterday we went up our nearest canyon and had some rock-climbing and campfire fun with some friends. We each brought our own food to prepare over the cook stove and fire. As I grabbed my two limp grocery sacks filled with a conglomerate of food items I remembered why I wanted to purchase the Kelty Duo Bin. Later as I was cooking our dinner and the contents of the bags were spilling out onto the dirt, my previous thought sank in a little deeper…”we really need to get that Ketly Duo Bin”.
What is the Kelty Duo Bin? And “why” you may ask, do I want one so badly? Well I’ll tell you.

The Kelty Duo Bin was created to help keep camp food organized and make preparing food in the outdoors easier. It allows you to store dry and cold food items in the same unit. It also has an expandable wind resistant workspace you can use when you pull the two compartments apart. Which is always nice when your only other option is …well dirt! It’s freestanding and stackable so throwing it in the back of the car isn’t a problem. Here’s a recent review  I found that’s entitled “a must have for every family”. Be sure to scroll down and click on customer reviews. 

I have the Kelty Duo Bin available at the Nature For Kids Outdoor Store but I have to tell you, I found the best price at Kittery Trading Post. It’s nearly $20 cheaper and free shipping.

In my opinion it’s a must have when trying to feed a hungry family that’s been playing outside all day together. And it’s a unique gift idea for those who appreciate a yummy meal prepared outdoors. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge…My birthdays coming up Honey

Tell Nature For Kids what piece of outdoor equipment you can’t live without.

Forum

Watch Out! The Nature For Kids  outdoor Forum is now fully operational. It’s a great place to share and recieve information. Login to share directions to a specific place you’ve explored, discuss gear you like or dislike, find out more about a specific outdoor activity or just to converse with people like you…people who make nature a priority for kids and themselves! We’re hoping that over the next few months we can have a good crowd gathered, so spread the word!

Family Camping

Nature For Kids presents ….Family Camping

Tent - $150, sleeping bag - $90, Mallows - $1.78

Silence on the drive home….priceless!

No Weekend Posts

If I’ve accomplished what I set out to do here at Nature For Kids, you probably won’t be disappointed that I’m not posting on the weekend. You won’t be disappointed because you won’t be indoors near your computer, you’ll be out camping, hiking, fishing or whatever it is your family likes to do. Have a great weekend everyone! Maybe we’ll bump into each other on the trail!

Zip-Line

A zip-line can add a fun element to a campsite. During a family campfire dinner party in the woods we set up a makeshift zip-line for the kids. It was fun for all the adults to watch and for the kids to try out.

There are two main types of ropes used in rock-climbing and rappelling, static and dynamic. Dynamic ropes are designed to stretch. These are mostly used for climbing, so if you take a fall it will absorb a lot of the force. A static rope has minimal stretch and is used mostly for rappelling. For the zip line here we had a dynamic rope. It was difficult to get the rope taut enough to allow a smooth ride. I would recommend using a static rope. But all in all it was a fun activity, especially for the kids.

For more in-depth information on static and dynamic ropes and their purposes I’ll point you to this link.

What type of activities do you do around the campsite to keep things interesting? Let Nature For Kids know by leaving a comment!

Camping Simplified - Continued

Yesterday in my post, Camping Simplified, I gave a couple ideas on how to take the ‘difficult’ out of camping with your kids. Here are a couple more to rummage around in.

* When you do your regular grocery shopping pick up the things you’ll need for the camping trip and set them aside when you get home. I’m still working on this one. We usually find ourselves hitting the store on the way out of town. It’s frustrating for the kids because they just want to go Go GO!

*Look for something that will store food in an easy organized way. Fussing with dinner when everything is scattered around camp takes away from the whole experience. Here’s an example of smart storage…The Duo Bin by Kelty. It holds dry food on one side and cold food on the other. When you take the two apart there is a nice workspace in the middle. I haven’t personally used this. If you have let me know. I’d like it to be our next gear purchase. The Binto Bar by Kelty is also a good option for keeping all things ‘kitchen’ in order. 

*Don’t overload on the clothes and shoes when packing. Kids and their clothes will get dirty…it’s okay. If you pack light you wash light when you get home.

*It’s okay to forget something. Sometimes it makes for a more memorable trip. Just don’t forget diapers and wipes!!!

If you have other ideas this is the place to share it. Leave a comment!

Camping Simplified

Today I had a friend post this comment on my personal blog… “you guys look like you are always having so much fun. we really need to get out and camp more but it takes sooo much work to plan and get ready.”

Well, I have a sign hanging in my house that says, “Live Simply”. It’s constantly reminding me to do just that in all aspects of my life, including camping with my kids. Here’s how we minimize the work involved with preparing a family camping trip.

• Have one or two large totes dedicated to your camping equipment.  Simply pull them out and load them into your vehicle when it’s time to go. When you get home put them back on the shelf.
  Tote #1 holds - sleeping bags, sleeping pads Tote #2 holds - tent, cook stove, pots, utensils and odds and ends. Buy totes that close tightly and don’t try to overload them. The lid is imperitive in keeping any additional dirt out.

 Here’s a picture of our equipment shelf. I won’t show you the rest of our garage. YIKES!

•  Put your camping trip date on your calendar and tell your kids about it. Giving yourself a visual notice of when it’s going to happen usually helps in gradually becoming prepared. Plus, if you tell your kids, they won’t let you back out of it!  

Check in tomorrow for more ways to ‘Camp Simply’. Or if you already have some ideas to share, leave a comment.

*These ideas are for car camping. Backpacking is a whole different story. But rest assured there will be future backpacking posts on Nature For Kids!

Tent Camping: Part II

Sleeping Pads - Children can pretty much sleep anywhere because of their rubber bones but it’s still important to make their outdoor sleeping arrangements as comfortable as possible. I had a sleeping mat I bought in college called a Therma-Rest Z-Lite. It’s a foam material that folds up accordion style. For my 3 year old we fold it in half and let him sleep on that. It’s fairly inexpensive, compared to an inflatable Therma-Rest, and doesn’t take up a lot of room like those huge inflatable mattresses or the fat foam mats you have to roll up. Putting a sleeping pad under your child’s sleeping bag not only makes them more comfortable but it gives them an extra insulation level. It can get cold sleeping directly on the ground.

Sleeping Bags - When we first started camping with our kids we came to find out that there weren’t many options, as far as sleeping bags went, for them. We started off with bags we found at Walmart, consisting mostly of nylon material and a thin layer of batting. Not ideal, but they worked with some help from layered blankets.

Just in the past 5 years manufacturers have made more of an effort to accommodate outdoor kids. We recently purchased sleeping bags specifically made for children that are higher quality. You can spend anywhere from $30 to 100. We went mid ground and bought the Columbia Trekster Junior Mummy Sleeping Bag for $45. It had all the features I was looking for but was still at a good price. There is a wide variety available to purchase at the Nature For Kids’ Store.

When you’re buying a sleeping bag keep in mind what kind of weather you’ll be in. If you don’t plan on camping in cold weather you probably have no need for a bag that is less than 30 degrees. Otherwise I would go for a 0 degree bag. They tend to cost more but can be used through all seasons (Three cheers for snow caves!) Also, if your kids are like ours they wiggle from one side of their bed to the other at night. Purchase a bag that will keep them in one spot and covered throughout the night. Bags that help with that are contoured to the body and have a hood and drawstring that goes over their shoulders, otherwise known as mummy style.

Sleeping Arrangement - When you lay out your sleeping bags in the tent try to keep the kids away from the outer edges. Lay the bags towards the middle. Otherwise they may get a little damp if it rains. Even the morning dew and precipitation can make the walls of the tent damp.

Odds and Ends - If you’re in an area that is known to have more wildlife roaming around, be sure to take dirty diapers out of the tent and away from camp. It’s disgusting, but something like that will tempt bears just as much as a steak dinner.
The only other word of advice I have is…WIPES! Baby wipes are the miracle camping tool! Little rug rats can play in the outdoors all day and you don’t have to worry about them getting all dirty. Just wipe them down and put them in clean clothes and they’re ready for a good night’s rest and another fun filled day.

Leave a comment about any tips you’ve learned while camping with your family!