I’ve been camping for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, our family would get a group of sites with our neighbors and friends and all their kids. There was lots of biking, hiking, climbing on rocks, swimming, and roasting s’mores. I have the best memories from these trips and hope to give the same wonderful experiences to my girls.
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After college, I started going camping with a big group of my friends. Those weekends mostly consisted of lots of drinking, lawn games, lounging on the beach, and eating absolute garbage for three days straight. It was a trip we looked forward to every year.
This past weekend, my husband and I took the girls for their first ever camping trip. My parents joined us, which was such a huge help. Many campgrounds were completely booked up, I think because people are more comfortable camping than staying at a hotel due to the pandemic. Luckily, I was able to get us a site at Twin Tamarack Campground in New Hampton, NH. It’s right in the New Hampshire Lakes Region, about ten minutes away from Meredith and Lake Winnipesaukee.
Camping with our kids was a totally different experience than my previous camping adventures. Below are a few tips I learned over the weekend to help future camping trips with toddlers.
1. CHOOSE A CAMPGROUND WITH THINGS TO DO
Location is obviously the biggest factor in choosing a campground, but things to do when you’re there should play a role in your decision too. Chances are you’ll be spending a lot of your time around your campground. We like Twin Tamarack because they have a club house with games, puzzles, a pool table, and activities for kids such as tie-dying (unfortunately these were cancelled for the 2020 season due to COVID restrictions). There’s a playground, swimming pool, horseshoes, volleyball and basketball courts, and shuffleboard on site, as well as a lake across the street for swimming and boating.
2. DISTRACTION IS KEY
If you need to get anything done while camping, you’re going to have to distract those kiddos. We brought tons for the girls to do – bikes, puzzles, coloring, snacks, blocks, and music for dancing. The girls and I arrived over an hour before anyone else and I was able to set the tent up by myself while they stayed preoccupied with fun activities. I also asked them to find sticks for firewood and they loved putting together a pile to burn later.
3. DON’T OVERPLAN
My parents are big fans of planning lots of activities on vacations. When we were organizing this trip, we were looking at state parks to visit, hikes to climb, motorboats to rent, spots to fish.
Turns out we didn’t need so much to occupy our time. Our first day, we just stayed around the campground; riding bikes, enjoying the playground and exploring. The second day, we rented canoes on a nearby lake and went out for lunch in town, but afterwards brought the girls back to the tent for a nap and ended up again staying at the campground for the rest of the day. Then, before we knew it, it was Sunday and we had to pack up all our supplies to check out. Be ready – packing up felt like it took significantly longer than setting up when we first arrived.
4. ASK FOR A SITE NEAR THE RESTROOMS
You don’t want to be right on top of the bathrooms, but neither do you want to be super far away. We all know that when toddlers are having fun, they don’t realize they need to go potty until they need to go right now. And when that’s at night and it’s dark out, it’s definitely better to be closer. The perfect spot is one close enough so you can see the bathhouse but far enough that you can’t hear anything happening inside.
5. FIRE SAFETY
Our kids know what a fire is and that it’s hot, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they understand that they can’t walk right into the burning firepit to get a closer peek at the flames. After I got the tent up, I drew a circle a foot or two out around the fire ring. I told the girls they aren’t allowed to go past that line, ever. We enforced this throughout the day, so when we lit up the fire at night, they already knew the rules and to keep their distance.
We had such a great weekend camping and now that I’ve seen that the girls can handle it (and really liked it!), I can’t wait to plan some camping trips in the fall! Do you go camping with your kids and have more tips? Leave them in the comments below – I’d love to hear them!
James and I are going camping for his first time next weekend in Acadia. He’s starting to get into art and I can see him spending a huge chunk of time occupied with that while we’re getting set up, cooking, or just need a stationary 18 month old for a moment. Great idea with the fireplace boundary. Thanks for the awesome tips!