How To Color A Campfire
Want to put a spin on your campfire traditions? Nature For Kids has an idea…try adding some color! Your kids will love it!
You can buy packets of a variety of chemicals called Mystical Fire. You simply sprinkle it over the campfire. Go here to buy Mystical Fire. It’s about $57 for 50 packets.
If you’re not thrilled about spending that much, head over to About.com . There are specific instructions there on how to color a campfire by using pinecones and simple store-bought supplies. They tell you how to get colors anywhere from green to violet!
Here’s a short video that’s a great example of how different elements can change the color of fire.
This is a great activity for kids. Have a great time! Oh and I would recommend not cooking any food over the campfire when doing this…you never know what could be going in there!
campfire, campfire, kids, activities for kids, kids activity
Plan A Camping Trip
One of the main things that hold people back from camping is simply figuring out a place to go and guaranteeing you’ll have a nice campsite when you get there.
My friend mentioned a website to me that they used to plan a camping trip they went on in Nevada. It’s called recreation.gov. It’s a super informative website that can help you:
- Find a campsite anywhere in the U.S.
- Reserve a spot for specific dates
- Look at pictures of the site itself
- See if you can bring your dog along
- Find out what type of outdoor recreation is near by (boating, biking etc.)
- Specify if your site has RV hookups
It also has a search engine that allows you to search by activity. So say if you wanted to go wakeboarding near Salt Lake City and didn’t know where to go you could search for it. It doesn’t have every single campsite and area listed but it is pretty comprehensive.
I hope you find it helpful and plan a camping trip soon. Before we know it school will be starting and summer fun will be ending. So get out there and have some fun with your kids!
Don’t forget, Nature For Kids is giving away free logo stickers. Take a look at the Flower Child post for more information. Give away ends July 31st.
camping, campsite, outdoor recreation, RV, summer fun
Fire Starter
No I’m sorry, despite what the title says, this is not a post about rekindling your relationship with your significant other. This post is about how to make fire starters for a campfire.
One of my pet peeves is having my kids standing around the fire pit monitoring my fire starting abilities. After about five minutes of me scrounging, layering and situating I hear the little voices saying, “how come it’s not starting”, “Dad’s always starts the first time”, “You’re not very good at this huh Mom”. Then their dad comes in chuckling, moves a couple sticks around, blows a little at the bottom of the sticks and viola’ we have a heater of a fire! It’s so infuriating!
So I thought it would be good for me to share my new found secret here at Nature For Kids, which I got from my mom-in-law, Linda. A fire starter is something you simply put at the base of your fire and light. It stays lit longer allowing the wood and kindling to catch fire completely.
Here’s how you make them…
You Will Need: Egg carton, utility scissors, birthday candles or wicks, large soup can, *paraffin wax, newspaper, large pot of water
*don’t be intimidated. You usually can get paraffin wax from your local Wal-mart. Any craft store should have it too. It’s useful in making inexpensive emergency candles also.
Begin heating pot of water on the stove on high heat. Take the egg carton and cut into individual pods, as seen in the picture. Set the pods out on newspaper. Have birthday candles or precut 2.5-inch wicks nearby. Place a brick of the wax inside a large soup can. Put the can inside the pot of hot water. (it will work like a double boiler system) Be sure it’s not too hot. You want to melt the wax slowly. Once the wax is melted pour into egg pods, careful not to overflow. Place a birthday candle or wick in center of wax. Let cool.
And there you have it. Just put your newly made fire starter at the base of your fire pit and watch that baby burn. This is a foolproof way to never be the brunt end of your children’s fire jokes!
Here are some other great fire starter options.
Don’t forget about the Nature For Kids logo sticker give away that’s going on. Just send in a picture of your flower child and be entered in the drawing!
outdoors, campfire, camping
Filed under Crafts For Kids, camping, education | Comments (3)
