Planning Your Backyard Camping Trip
Back-yard camping is not only a great getaway from everyday life, it’s also terrific practice for an away-from-home camping trip. Parents and children have the chance to spend quality time together and really enjoy their back yard.
Children love to camp because it is informal and they enjoy the freedom from their regular routine. Parents get to escape the telephone and daily schedules. Try a back-yard camping trip one night, and you’ll be hooked on outdoor living.
PLANNING THE TRIP:
To ensure your back-yard camping excursion is a relaxing one, take the time to plan ahead. The time spent planning will not only make your “trip” more fun, it will make it less stressful — isn’t that the point of camping anyway?
FAMILY PLANNING NIGHT:
Planning your back-yard camping trip can be just as much fun as the trip itself. Pick a night that the whole family can spend together to coordinate all of the details. Everyone should be involved, especially the children, so they feel like an important part of the trip.
Why not have a mock campout in your living room on family planning night? Not only will it be fun, but it will prepare younger children for sleeping away from their bed if they never have before.
Order a pizza or try a Dutch-oven recipe in your conventional oven. Make popcorn. Buy a bedtime story that focuses on the outdoors — this will get everyone excited for the big trip to the backyard. Whatever you do, the planning night should be fun.
Assign one family member as the secretary. That person will take notes and keep track of all the lists you will accumulate as the family brainstorms. Make sure there are plenty of pencils and paper because details are very important. Use the lists as guides to packing everything you need for the trip. Save all of your lists from one trip to the next and create a camping file of the master lists. Also, take a pencil and a small notepad with you on the trip so you can jot down any items that you forgot. This will help you remember these items when you are packing for the next trip.
To ensure that there will be no bickering among the troops, make a duty list before you head for the back yard. Evenly assign cooking, clean-up and set-up responsibilities to all participants. You’ll find that your children are much happier to wash the dishes when you’re in the backyard than when you’re in the house.
