Camping is always a great thrilling and fun experience in the woods. But taking your kids camping, especially at night, is a big challenge and is a completely different experience.
Spending some quality time with your family members and kids, after a long tiring work, will give great relaxation and incredible joy, especially when you’re in connection with nature. However, there are some helpful hacks that can make camping much easier with your kids.
Also, it helps them to learn a lot in the woods like the goodness of nature, outdoor safety, and survival, etc. Teaching at an early age can set a child up with more discoveries and a lot of success. So they can develop challenging skills.
If you’re a parent and love camping outdoors with your little ones, then here are a few hacks for you to camp with success. Just go through it, before you go for the next adventure.
8 Hacks to Night Camp with your Kid.
Are you camping with your kids or the whole family for the first time? Then follow these camping hacks to make the rough path into an easier one with kids, especially at night. 0aall
The first step for your family vacation trip is picking a kid-friendly campsite. So that your kids can enjoy as much as they wish. The next important thing is packing the right supplies needed for camping or hiking. Let’s get into it one by one.
1. Packing clearly for an easy organization at the campsite
When you arrive at the campground, the first step you have to do is organize all your camping supplies. To make that work easier, pack all the things with labels so that it will be easy for you to find at the camping spot. Just like your home, the campsite will also need everything, as you’re camping with kids. So, organize them in large bins with labels of the following categories:
- Food & Snacks
- Kitchen Supplies
- Toys
- Clothes & Laundry
- Tents & Sleeping Bags
- Bathroom & Bathing
- Music & Entertainment
Having labeled bins is a tremendous time-saver when you’re getting ready for the trip. You can easily take them out for use at the campsite and put them again when you get back home.
You can also easily identify the dirty laundry and kitchen supplies that have to be cleaned when you get back home.
2. Bring Plenty of entertainment for your kids
When camping with kids you have to give enough freedom for your child to enjoy nature. Keep them happy and entertained with a lot of things so that you can stay relaxed out in the woods. Pack a tub full of toys that are electronic-free and are suitable for camping.
Camping Entertainment Toy Ideas:
- Squirt Guns
- Thermal Binoculars – to see everything at night
- Telescopes – for night sky watching
- Balls – Soccer, Football
- Bubbles
- Magnifying Glasses
- Craft items
- Card Games
- Water Pen Coloring Books
- Bug Catcher Case
If needed you can bring an additional tent to use as a play area for your kids. It would be nice if you give a separate space for them to play. Also, it would be a shaded area for your kids to protect them from the hot sun.
3. Night-time Safety
Safety is very important, especially when you’re camping with kids at night. Headlamps or lanterns, glow sticks, hanging camp lights help you light up your tent.
Headlamps: These are inexpensive and so everyone can own them separately. A little trick for more light is, put a headlamp around a jug full of water and place it inside your tent.
Hanging camp lights: Rechargeable hanging camp lights can also be used to light up the tent. Put them inside the tent to keep things illuminated for your kids. They work pretty well.
Glow sticks: Wear the glow sticks as a necklace, bracelet, or anklet, to keep track of your kids in the dark. Throw these sticks in water bottles for more illumination.
These are a few must-have lighting accessories for night camp in the woods.
4. Food Camping Hacks
It is very hard to cook at the campsite while your kids are running around a hot fire. Instead, do it a lot in advance, that is, precook the food before you go camping. So that you can get everything you need at camp!
If you’re going to stay for more than a day, then you have to set up a mini camp kitchen at the campsite. So use multi-purpose equipment instead of using a separate one for each. For instance, pack a multi-purpose cooking stove which makes cooking easier and faster in the woods.
Along with it, also include pots, pans, plates, kettles, spoons, forks, matchboxes, and other utensils needed for storage.
5. Laundry trick
Pack all the clothes in a bin. At the campsite, use a hanging clothes organizer that lets you grab fresh outfits when you want to change the dirty ones.
Once your camp is set up, unpack all the clothes into the hanging clothes organizer and throw the dirty clothes into the bin. The clothing bin will turn into a laundry hamper at the campsite.
Once you get home, it will be easy for you to throw everything into the washing machine from the laundry bin.
6. Set up a bath station or wash station
A hand and foot washing station or bath station is very essential to every campsite, especially when you go camping with kids. Because children always like to play in the mud and they make themselves dirty. So you might have to clean their hands and feet often. It will be easy if you set a wash station at the campsite.
To set up a hand & foot-washing station, you need a washbasin and water jug. Bring a water jug that has an open or close nozzle to control the water flow. For the washbasin, bring a plastic bin or a flat baby bath. This will help you and your kids to step into and wash off the dirty feet. Place a towel or blanket near it, so that you can dry off your feet immediately.
Use the same bathtub to bathe your baby. If the baby needs a warm bath, pour water into the tub and place it in the sun to get warm. If your campground does not contain water, then you have to bring enough water for drinking, cooking, washing, and bathing.
For adults, you can carry a shower bag. Also, pack soaps, handwashes or sanitizers, shampoos, etc to scrub off the dirt.
7. Load up Baby wipes or Antibacterial wipes
When camping with babies you have to bring several packs of non-toxic antibacterial wipes. Because you can’t give them a full bath all the time, baby wipes will help you during that situation. Clean their hands and feet with these baby wipes before they get into the sleeping bags. Also, keep bug spray or bug wipes to prevent bug bites.
Set a blanket or towel in front of your camping tent doors so that you can sit down and wipe your face, hands, feet, arms, and legs without bringing dirt into the tent.
8. Sleeping Arrangements
A fully washed baby often gets sleep easily, so provide them a good night’s sleep. Sleeping bags are very important to keep kids warm, so don’t forget to pack them. A jacket-like sleeping bag will prevent kids from crawling out.
If your baby uses a crib for sleeping, then bring a portable pack and play. Also, take with you an extra sheet to cover the top. This will keep bugs away from them.
Pack and plays will be very helpful, especially when preparing camp meals. You can put the baby on it and keep an eye on them always.
If your kids sleep on the floor, then use camping blankets or a floor mat to give an additional layer of cushion. So that your child can sleep peacefully.
If needed you can also pack pillows along with them. If you need to save a lot of space, then stuff all your jackets into the pillow case and use it as a pillow while sleeping.
Closing Thoughts
When everything is packed perfectly then there is nothing to stop your enjoyment. Follow these hacks and make your trip easier and with full excitement.
Stay safe and enjoy a stress-free adventure with your kids!!
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