Family camping is not just about remembering how to tie a half hitch knot or light a campfire. It’s about remembering how to tell a ghost story, or teaching your kids the forgotten art of hand shadows.
It’s remembering how great it is just to hang out together and stare at the blinking stars. If you've not gone camping before, try backyard-camping. Every year, at the end of June, the National Wildlife Federation organizes a nation-wide Backyard Camping event. This year, it's on June 28th. You can learn more about it at the official Great American Backyard Campout site.
Get outside and experience the joy of being outdoors.
Afraid you'll be bored to death sitting in a dark tent? Check out these camping activities:
The holidays is the best time to buy gifts for campers. The colder the temperatures are out there, the steeper the discounts on camping items you've been wanting for yourself or for the campers you know.
The Coleman Kids Explorer Belt (play video below), for example, normally retails at $26 but can be had for $12 and change at christmas. Coleman at 50% off? Makes me want to turn the folks on my gift list to campers (even if they've never camped before). Camping tents, headlamp for kids, all those fun kids camping gear you usually won't splurge on can be had for less than list price when you shop when it is snowing outside.
Grown-up camping gear is on-sale too. Check out a few of these camping items on sale at Amazon.com. My husband likes to remind me, "When you choose gifts for other people, don't buy things you want for yourself, buy what the recipeient would want". Great advice, thanks. But surely, a cool head lamp to explore caves and pretend you are Indiana Jones is something everyone wants… he doesn't think so.
In his book, Joy Of Camping, Richard Langer wrote that 'Stowing away to nature, if sometimes only for a weekend, restores the spirit as little else can.'
As I write this from my vacation spot in Bali, Indonesia (which is why my blog postings have been sparse) I am struck that for some people living on this very same planet as mine, camping is a way of life. Camping is not 'for a weekend', camping is not for 'counting falling stars beyond the misty gauze of our netted tent entrance…', camping is not a 'retreat', camping is living.
Who are these life campers? I met them today as my family and I rafted down Continue reading…
When one of our favorite family campground started offering Yurts, I was very excited. Then I looked up the rates: $1,395 a week during peak summer season. I was shocked. That’s what I pay for a Cape Cod bungalow by the water. How could an outdoor camping tent cost as much to rent as a Cape Cod house?
If you’ve never heard of a Yurt, it’s the epitome of luxury camping. Yurt stands for: Year-round Universal Recreation Tent. Each yurt has a wooden circular platform, and a Continue reading…
Those ingredients are easy to store at camp (not prone to spilling, spoiling, space-hogging).
Camping Food Menu Plan
1st Night: Lloyds BBQ Ribs, corn, coleslaw and potato salad
Wrap ribs in heavy-duty foil, heat, open a can of corn and serve with ready-made coleslaw and potato salad. First night is celebration night. You've put up the tent, you've build a campfire, Continue reading…
There is a saying that if you want to teach a man to build a ship, don’t drum into them the mechanics of wood and nails, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea (Antoine de Saint-Exupery).
I worry sometimes how we are going to pass on the hard work of protecting, restoring and saving our green earth when today’s children are so disconnected with nature. “Instead of passing summer months hiking, swimming and telling stories around the campfire, children these days are more likely to attend computer camps or weight-loss camps.”, says Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder “As a result", he adds, "they've come to think of nature as more of an abstraction than a reality”
So, how do we get the kids out of the house?
Small Step: A green hour a day – For one hour a day, Continue reading…
That well-trained dog can definitely come camping with me, if nothing else, just so I can show him off.
Are you planning to take your dog on your next camping trip? I have a dog who mind-reads. She knows long before the camping bags come out. She paces and worries and gets all anxious about being left behind. And the guilt that stabs me as I push my dog’s struggling body back into the house before pulling the door shut can only be matched by Continue reading…
My 10-year old son wants to bring his Razor electric scooter to our next camping trip. Now before you picture a rumbling, roaring motorcycle, let me explain. The Razor E200S Scooter is - like it says - electric, so there’s no gas emissions to pollute the fresh campground air. It runs around 8-10 miles per hour and generates as much noise as a hair-dryer.
I consulted other camping families and opinion is mixed, as you would expect. One parent loves that her kid with electric wheels now happily offers to run errands to the camp mini-mart, asks to go on long nature trails, and actually starts noticing Continue reading…
Before you go camping, prepare a couple of ghost stories to tell by the campfire. Now, how you tell the story is as important as the story itself. Follow these story-telling tips for a memorable experience, especially for the kids.
While sunscreen may not be the most exciting of camping-related topics, it is among the most important! Here are 10 common misconceptions about sunscreen.
Misconception #10. SPF 60 has four times the sun protection of SPF 15.
Fact: SPF protection does not actually increase proportionately with a designated SPF number. Look at the Percentage of Protection from damaging UV rays:
SPF 15 = 92%
SPF 30 = 97%
SPF 40 = 97.5%
As you can see, the difference in UV ray protection in SPF numbers becomes minimal as the number increases past about 30 or 40.
Misconception #9. Many people think that SPF values can be added.
Fact: Actually, SPF values cannot be added – if you apply a sunscreen of 8 and then one of 12, you will not have the protection of an SPF 20. You will only be getting the protection of an SPF 12.
(play video below), for example, normally retails at $26 but can be had for $12 and change at christmas. Coleman at 50% off? Makes me want to turn the folks on my gift list to campers (even if they've never camped before).
. My husband likes to remind me, "When you choose gifts for other people, don't buy things you want for yourself, buy what the recipeient would want". Great advice, thanks. But surely, a 
A family camping menu should be: 
“As a result", he adds, "they've come to think of nature as more of an abstraction than a reality”
My 10-year old son wants to bring his Razor electric scooter to our next 
