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Camping With Kids: Easier Than You Think!
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May 22, 2024
Camping with your kids can be a memory-packed adventure. Simon has 3 kids under 10, spends 25-30 days a year camping and traveling at least 5,000 miles on the road. They've all been camping their whole lives, it's pretty much their only form of vacation, and they love it. He has some advice to share, as well as some tips and tricks to keep the kids happy and your tent or camper clean. Bug Catching Kit - https://amzn.to/3sZnas0 In this video: 0:00 - Camping With Kids is Fun! 0:35 - Picking Your Camp Spot for Kids 2:13 - Find or Create Shade 3:08 - Fun Activities 4:40 - Teach Them How to Camp 5:11 - Camping Food for Kids 6:13 - Tents for Extra Storage 6:58 - Tip for Keeping Tents and Campers Clean
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0:00
What's up guys it's Simon from Lake Hub. We're out here camping. I'm talking about
0:04
camping with your kids. I've got three kids under the age of 10 and they've all
0:09
been camping their entire lives. They totally love it. It's the highlight of
0:13
their year and honestly it's really the only vacation we do. So I've got I've got
0:17
a little bit of experience tent camping and camper camping with kids. I want to
0:21
share with you some tips and tricks and things that you don't want to leave home without. I've got one cool trick to share to make sure that your tent and
0:29
your camper stays clean even if your kids are totally filthy. So stick around
0:34
for that too. Alright advice number one is is just to make sure that you pick a
0:39
good spot for kids. I've got another video called how to pick the perfect
0:44
campground spot and you're gonna want to watch that because there's a few key
0:48
things you're gonna want. Shade if you can if you if you're camping in a place
0:53
with natural shade then definitely pick a shady spot something close to
0:58
restroom. You know if you're doing a lot of water activity or you're camping out
1:01
of the lake like we are right now then you know waterfront is cool. If you've
1:06
got little little kids playground is cool. If there's a playground get get
1:10
close to the playground because then you could just chill out in your camp spot. They can go play in the playground and you don't have to you know you don't
1:17
have to hike them there or anything like that. You don't have to make a big deal out of it. They can just kind of help themselves and go play and that's
1:23
totally great too. If there's a camp spot a camp spot near a playground then take
1:27
advantage of that. The other thing is wheels. If your kids like riding bikes or
1:34
scooters or skateboards then get a spot that has a nice level you know concrete
1:39
or asphalt pad for a camper in parking spot or whatever. Make sure that there's
1:45
a place for them to ride. You know we we actually are camping in kind of like
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this what is offseason uses like a group camping spot. So there's a pavilion in
1:56
the middle concrete concrete with a you know covered thing so it's shade and it's
2:00
it's like the perfect little scooter track. So they're they've just been going nuts in there and we don't have to worry about it because they're right
2:06
there right behind our camp spot. They're in shade and they're just having a blast
2:11
So pack some wheels for sure. Speaking of shade if you don't have natural shade
2:17
then you need to create some shade. I mean that's gonna be really important for your kids to cool off you know most of the year even in the wintertime. I
2:24
mean you can get sunburned but especially when it's hot when it's sunny
2:28
you got to have a shady spot. So we'll pop up like an extra tent a little just
2:33
a little pup tent. Cool place in the breeze set it up so that it so that's
2:38
catching the breeze and it's flowing through. Nice little shady spot to chill out for a little bit. We have a 10 by 10 pop-up kind of just day tent. We'll
2:47
usually put that somewhere around the picnic table. Oftentimes there's gonna be
2:51
a picnic table at improved campgrounds. So there's a place to kind of go you
2:57
know play games or eat lunch in the shade. So you really you really want to
3:02
as much as you can create shade take advantage of natural shade. So if you're
3:10
coming out camping with kids obviously you're coming out to have fun right but you don't really need to overthink it. You can go you know kind of simple and
3:17
minimalist. If there's water swim trunks, swimsuits, go go swimming man have a good
3:24
time. Those kids will have a blast. You know if you're if you're into fishing
3:28
then bring your fishing poles. If you've got a boat then obviously that's gonna
3:32
be like the main reason that you're camping at the lake right is to have fun on the boat so you're gonna have all your boating gear. Other than that soccer
3:41
balls, footballs, you know a wiffle ball and a wiffle bat. Just really
3:46
simple just outside fun. Especially if you're camping near a field if there's
3:51
like kind of a mowed area where they can just go have a blast and and just play
3:56
ball all day if they're in especially if they're really into sports. And then if
4:01
you got little kids my kids love this little butterfly net. It's a it's a bug
4:06
catching kit. It's got six little containers and we keep this in the
4:11
camper. This is special to camping so they what happens is they forget they
4:17
totally forget that we even have it. We unpack the camper and they go the bug
4:21
catching kit and everywhere we camp has totally different bugs. So that keeps
4:25
them just occupied for a long long time chasing spiders and stuff trying to trap
4:29
them and and then creating little habitats for them and trying to keep
4:32
them alive. They give them names and everything. So a little bug catching kit
4:36
like that is really fun for camping with little kids. Other camping related
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activities that are great for kids it's just helping around the campsite you
4:44
know. Helping with food prep, with fire prep, setting up and tearing down things
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that you know might even kind of slow down the process if they get involved
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But don't be shy. I mean the kids kids really want to learn this stuff. They
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really want to get into it and they really love it when they're included. So
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don't be afraid to include your kids in all those processes even if it takes a
5:09
little bit longer. It's worth it. Speaking of food prep you really really don't
5:14
need to overcomplicate it. Camping with kids keep it stupid simple. You know ham
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sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers, roast stuff over the fire, foil pack
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dinners. You know things where you could take like some pre-cooked you know smoked
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sausage and some veggies and stuff and pack it all into into you know little
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foil packs and set it in hot coals in the fire just to really just warm it up
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is what it amounts to. Things like that super easy. No condiments, no chopping. You
5:48
know you can do some food prep if it's a short little weekend trip. You can do all your food prep at home and bag it all so it's just ready to just go out and cook
5:56
So anything over the fire is simple. The fewer things that you have to like boil
6:02
and prepare that way the better. Just really just keep your food simple. The
6:09
kids will love it because it's different and you're just having fun outside. One
6:14
thing I like to do if you have the ability is some extra storage. So you
6:19
know we just from camping over the years you know we've got a big tent, we've got
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a little tent, we've got our camper and so we'll pop up you know one of the
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tents even if we're camper camping just for a little extra place for kids to go
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read or color. You know kind of hide out and maybe nap for a little bit or
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something like that. We usually set that one up so if there's a breeze that is
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blowing through the through the tent and then it's a great place to kind of stash
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everything too. So bike scooters and chairs and all that kind of stuff you
6:51
can keep them out of the dew, keep them out of the weather at night. So a little
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extra storage is kind of a handy tip too. Finally my secret tip. Now I was camping
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on the west coast in Southern California where we were beach camping and that's where I
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first saw this genius idea from one of my camping neighbors. They out there you
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know you get just sandy and salty and messy and all that kind of stuff and all the
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campsites are just dirt. It's just a lot of dirt and so you just it's just a mess
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So one of the things a lot of people will do is keep a bucket of water by the front of the tent or front of the camper. You dunk your feet and then
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there's an old towel you know right on the inside. Pat them off and then that's
7:41
one way to keep your tent clean. But there's you know kids just still have a
7:45
way of getting sand and dirt and stuff everywhere and so my neighbor was using
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one of these. It's a little weed sprayer right. It's just a hand-pump weed sprayer and he
7:57
kept it full and he actually had like the bigger you know I don't know what it's like three gallon or something like that one with the with the wand sprayer
8:04
and he's spraying his kids down top to bottom, stripping them down, spraying them
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down before they go inside and I thought that is genius and it totally is. So this
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is something that we now pack and keep handy when we're camping with our kids
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to clean them off. Even even just washing hands and stuff. That is super handy. I
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hope you found this helpful. Don't miss my how to pick the perfect campground
8:30
spot video. Talk to you soon
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