| CAMPING WITH GRANDCHILDREN Thomas J. Hillegass 8/28/01 When visiting the kids and grandkids at their home or yours, spending some time with alone with your grandchildren is most rewarding. It gives you the opportunity to know each other much more personally and to forge a relationship that will last for life. And the parents will definitely appreciate some time off ! An short overnight trip to a nearby location would be ideal, but staying in a motel with mainly a television for entertainment is an awful lot like being at home. From about age 3, kids are ready for a little safe adventure, and “camping-out” in a tent still holds for them the promise of adventure that you may recall from your own impressionable years. TIPS: Tips that will be incorporated into this article will include: · Preparation, and not just “gear”, is most important to a successful trip. With young children, you must put up the tent in the backyard and sleep one night out there with them before venturing into the wilds. · If you haven’t tented in years, the equipment is so vastly improved, and campgrounds have so many amenities, that you will be most pleasantly surprised. Lightweight tents, self-inflating pads and propane stoves make it all safe and comfortable. Most campgrounds now have flush toilets and showers and locked gates at night (but you will know the combination in case of emergency). · Pick a State Park or National Forest nearby that has some kid-magnet attractions like a creek or lake, preferably with swimming or wading (pools are too much like home). Call first and ask about features and make a reservation if possible. · Camping can mean good, fun, together time for the modern, pulled-in-all-directions, family. Away from the distractions of home, only tasks that are immediate to "survival", like putting up tents and cooking meals, will demand your attention. When you're camping, basic chores require everyone to work together in a way that doesn't often happen in today's hectic home and, amazingly, it turns out to be fun. There is plenty of time for conversations that just do not spontaneously occur in the fast paced daily life at home. · Younger children get to explore nature and to test their independence in an open and safe environment. There are creeks and critters to examine and natural places to swim, accompanied by real fish and the occasional salamander. At night, there are campfires and marshmallows, plenty of darkness to pierce with the flashlight and a billion stars that don't come out in city skies. Even teens, if they grew up with fun and exciting camping experiences, will not want to miss out, especially if they are allowed to take a friend along. QUESTIONS: Ask yourself these questions before you try camping with grandkids: · Do you have the patience? You (and your spouse) must be able to adopt a "laid back in the outback" attitude to have a rewarding camping experience with children (or with anyone, for that matter.) Be patient. Let the grandchildren help with EVERYTHING. Don't rush them-let them make mistakes. This is not a military exercise, just fun in the woods. If you cannot keep cool, family camping is NOT for you. · Do you have a sense of adventure? One of the main attractions of camping is setting out on your own for a (very safe) adventure. By camping, you can explore places where motels and restaurants are not nearby. Another dimension to this adventure is that you are experiencing nature in the night and morning, times when most everyone else has retreated to their motel and is watching TV or floating in chlorine for lack of anything else to do. Camping will mean the occasional nuisance and some discomfort and this is part of the adventure. · Do you enjoy planning and preparing? A lot of any hobby or sport has to do with the joy of anticipation, planning, procuring and tinkering with the "gear" involved. If you get to be a regular camping family, you will spend a lot of time on preparations and gear and at least one parent should enjoy each of these aspects. EQUIPMENT: You don't need to go overboard on equipment to have a great camping trip, but some basics are essential. It is assumed that if you are a beginning camper you will start with a tent, not a $50,000 motor home. Some good places to get camping equipment are: · Borrow from camping friends. They will be glad to help you with gear and advice and maybe go with you to get you acclimated. · Yard sales are a good place to get beginning camping gear being unloaded by all those families who discovered by trial that their answer to some of the questions posed above was "no", or at least "no longer". · For low priced quality gear try Target’s Eddie Bauer line of camping equipment. · For high quality, more pricey gear, try REI Cooperative or Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS). Equipment you need to start will include: TENT: Dome tents are good, spacious, easy to set up, all around family tents. If the grandkids are old enough not to be frightened, get them a separate one. Note that a "3 person" tent actually sleeps 2 people, a "5 person tent" sleeps 3. If the tent has sleeves that you push the poles through, avoid poles that have raised joints because they bind frustratingly in the sleeve. Make sure the tent has plenty of netted ventilation under a large rain fly. Get a spray can of waterproofing ("Camp Dry" is one brand) and a tube of seam sealer and use both on the top of the rain fly and underside of the tent floor the first time you set it up and every Spring thereafter. Cut a piece of plastic tarp and put it under the floor, making sure that it DOES NOT extend beyond the floor or it will channel the rain right under your tent. Put the tent up in your yard before you go camping with young kids. It is a good environment to learn AND if you let the kids sleep in it in the yard first they will sleep better when you are camping later. STOVE: Don't figure on cooking meals over an open fire, romantic as this may seem. Get a two burner stove. The propane kind are easiest for a beginner to use, the "white gas" kind (some use regular unleaded gas) make the most heat but can be temperamental. LANTERN: Not necessary. Take 2 good flashlights and a candle in a jar (like the citronella kind sold at drug stores) for on your table. COOLER: Get a good one if you don't have one. You'll need it for picnics/beach/etc. anyway. The new soft sided cooler bags take up less room but don't have the capacity and insulation of the solid ones. SLEEPING BAGS: If you camp only in mild weather you can get by with very inexpensive sleeping bags. The grandparents may want a matching pair that can be zipped together. Any two matching bags that can be unzipped and laid out flat can also be re-zipped together one on top of the other. Take pillows for the grandchildren and you; you'd be surprised how hard it is to part with your pillow. MATTRESSES: An air mattress or sleeping pad is a "must" for the folks and a good idea for the kids as well. Sleeping on the ground is a bummer. By far the best option is the self-inflating sleeping pad. Firmly comfortable and very insulating, they don't need to be pumped up, but they tend to be expensive. For the older folks, look for ones that are about 2" thick, you can get one least expensively at discount stores. KITCHEN GEAR: Get one of those all-in-one camping pot sets (includes pots, dishes and cups) at the yard sale. Most are aluminum but if you can get stainless steel it will keep you from exceeding your daily requirement of aluminum, which incidentally is zero. Supplement it with items in your list (see below) and any food items you need for your menu. DINING FLY: You can buy a reinforced polyethylene tarp to cover your table, complete with poles, cords and stakes, for $20 on sale. Do it! Rain, especially at mealtime, can be a real nuisance without one. PS: Practice putting up the fly. The first time you put up your dining fly be patient as you'll feel like Lilliputians trying to stake down a squirming Gulliver. LAWN CHAIRS: Do take folding lawn or beach chairs with you, one for each person. Sitting on picnic table benches or upended logs (especially after a rain) is not conducive to relaxing times and near a fire a stable seat is essential for all. LIST: Keeping a list of stuff to take is an important part of happy family camping. Make yourself an initial list (on your word processor so you can update it), print it out AND TAKE IT WITH YOU CAMPING. As you find items you need but don't have, add them to the list right then and update your list when you get home. If in doubt, add it anyway, you can always cross it off if you are not going to need it for a particular trip. Here is a "starter" list for you; you will want to delete some and add others right from the start: KITCHEN: Kitchen pot kit (see above) Frying pan (the one in the kit is minimal) Flat ware Large, sharp knife Large spoon Spatula Can opener Pot holder Ziploc bags Trash bags Paper cups and dishes Table cloth (plastic) Dish cloth (wash dishes in the big pot) Dish towels Dish soap Scour pad Salt and pepper Sugar Tea/coffee Matches Condiments (as your menu requires) Marshmallows GEAR: Tents (inc`l poles, stakes, ground tarp) Spray can of waterproofing & tube of seam sealer Sleeping bags Pillows Self-inflating air pad Dining tarp (inc`l poles, stakes, ropes) Plastic drop cloth (cheap, light, emergency rain protection) Hammer or hatchet (for stakes) Work gloves (to protect hands while staking, fire tending, etc) Candle in a jar (like citronella) Propane stove Propane tanks for stove (one will last about 5 days) Cooler Water jug (2 gal or more) Charcoal and starter (if you will grill) Saw (an inexpensive bow saw beats a hatchet every time, and is much safer) Folding chairs (one for each person, don't skimp on chairs) Flashlights (and extra batteries) Newspaper (to start fire) PERSONAL: Basically, what you would normally have in your shaving kit or cosmetic bag for any trip but for camping be sure to add: Soap (in holder) Face cloth, face towel, bath towel Tissues or toilet paper (emergency) Any emergency medications you or grandkids members might need (consider bee stings, allergies, car sickness) First aid kit Insect repellent Sun screen Calamine (Calohist) lotion Rain gear (ponchos are good) FUN STUFF: Hats Sunglasses Bathing suits River shoes (old sneakers or "reef runners", double as shower togs) Beach umbrella Books Fishing gear Life jackets Inner tubes Bird/flower ID books Roadside geology books (available for several states) Cameras Games Binoculars Family trip record (write down a record of your trip each day, you'll be glad you did years later, if not sooner) PICKING A CAMPGROUND: For an exhaustive list of private and public campgrounds and their features, be sure to a camping guide at a bookstore or a State Parks camping booklet for your state. Find campgrounds that have the following "basic" amenities: · Wooded sites · Flush toilets (no pits) · Showers · Sinks · Picnic tables · Fire places · Towns nearby |