Camping with Kids

As the summer holidays approach, it's time to plan for some much-needed outdoor adventures. What better way to bond with your little ones than by embracing the great outdoors through camping? Camping with children doesn’t have to be stressful! All it takes is some careful planning and a few handy tricks. At Duvalay, we’ve drawn from our experience and compiled this handy guide, sharing what we’ve learned from camping with our now grown-up children and grandchildren. Hopefully they will come in useful for you.

• This may seem like an obvious place to start but look for a campsite that is child friendly. We’ve been to ones where kids are the focus, from the most amazing playgrounds, to swimming pools and even farmyard animals. It means there are things to do on your doorstep without having to travel and can keep children occupied.
• Invest in clear boxes or clear plastic storage bags. It takes so much stress out of having to route around for things. Instead, you can instantly see whose clothes they are and what supplies you have without having to open everything up. Your tent will end up having to function like your own home. We pack our boxes in the following categories: kitchen supplies, food and snacks, bathroom and bathing, toys, tents items, clothes and entertainment.
• Safety and medical supplies. We learnt this one the hard way, and while every parent carries around plasters etc, many of us forget fire blankets and mini fire extinguishers. After watching a friend use a too powerful connector from their gas bottle to the stove (the stove was a ball of fire) a travel fire extinguisher is essential.
• Let’s be honest, the English weather isn’t famed for its constant sunshine and there is nothing worse than being stuck in a tent with children with not much entertainment. Make sure you have plenty of outdoor and indoor games. Here is a starter list to get you started.
  • Balls – football, bat and ball, rugby ball
  • Water pistols
  • Bubbles
  • Colouring books
  • Craft kits
  • Nature hunts/scavenger hunts
  • Camping bingo
  • Bug catcher case
  • Card games (Uno, Go Fish)
  • Board games
• Every family needs a couple of torches when it comes to camping, but there are a couple of nifty ideas that make it a little more interesting for kids. You can pick up glow sticks really cheaply on amazon and they are great for illuminating the tent in different colours. One of the best hacks we know of is to invest in glow in the dark rope and tent stakes so that no one trips over these parts of the tent when it gets dark. They are especially useful when it comes to middle of the night trips to the toilet.