As a mom of four busy little boys, I’m always looking for fun, creative, and inexpensive ways to keep our little ones active. Whether you have boys or girls, this post is linked to TONS of great ideas to help Moms survive Summer because I’m part of the Summer Survival Series for Moms hosted by The Joys of Boys.
I’m excited to share with you 5 tips that help me survive camping with four boys, and guess what… not only do I survive it, I actually love it!
1) Plan, plan, plan ahead. I start prepping for an upcoming camping trip far in advance. I pick up items for camping as I see them and keep a little box going so that when it comes time to really get ready to go camping, I’m already ahead of the game with all of those fun little “extra” things. For example, I picked up a bunch of fun things for our 4th of July camping trip from the dollar section at Target way back in late April- red, white and blue glow sticks, paper gingham basket liners, galvanized tins for storing plasticware, etc.
2) Plan something fun to do while camping. This is kind of new to me because I always thought that camping was the fun thing we would be doing while we’re camping, you know? But on our most recent camping trip, I bought glow sticks, bubbles, and planned a cute little nature hunt for the kids. It was a hit! The glow sticks and bubbles were under $3 for enough for 7 kids (we went camping with friends), and the nature hunt was a free printable from The Creative Homemaker.
3) Cook your 1st meal at home & bring it with you. I used to think this was cheating, but then I did it once and it was amazing. It really helps cut down on the stress of that first night when you’re trying to set up your campsite to have dinner already taken care of. Here are a few of my favorite make-ahead dinners to bring camping.
Easy Un-Fried Chicken
BBQ Pork Sliders
Spicy Slow Cooked Root Beer Shredded Beef
4) S’mores! Seriously, they are sticky and messy but your kids will love them so it’s worth it for the memories. I love to mix it up and make mine like this…
Peanut Butter Cup Waffle Cookie S’mores
5) Baby Wipes and LOTS of them! We go through a lot of baby wipes while camping. I use them to clean everything- the vinyl tablecloth, the kids, and everything else within a 100 feet radius of our campsite.
So grab your tent and with some smart planning ahead, you can not only survive a camping trip with your little ones, but you can actually enjoy it!