Family Camping

“I am taking six adults, myself included and for kids to Meeks Bay this weekend. My wife and I have no kids, but I have been elected de facto leader of said camp.
Now I have no clue what kids like to eat or even what they really enjoy doing. There is a beach very nearby that should provide at least some entertainment.
As for food, the adults all agree on pretty standard stuff like bacon, eggs, whatever. If anyone has a good idea about what to fix for the kids-let me know. They are 4,6,7,and 10.”

“All kids a different. You are safer asking the kids or their parents. This is always a problem when planning girl scout camping trips with kids 8 and younger. It's not just the food, but the details, like spagetti with red sauce for some, butter and salt for some and butter and grated cheese for others. Al dente or mushy. Same for macaroni and cheese, it means different things to different kids. Thank God they grow out of this nonsense. My youngest will actually go hungry rather than eat food that she thinks she doesn't like.”

“get one of those multi packs of mini cereal boxes. when i was a kid we all fought for the corn pops.

breakfst is covered...
just make sure you get sugar cereals.. all kids like that stuff.”

“Hotdogs, sloppy Joes, ham and cheese sandwhiches, chips, kudo bars,smores,bottled water, lemonaide, watermelon, oranges, etc.”

“Be sure to bring a Nintendo Gameboy and koolaid, but call the koolaid "bug juice".”

“Be afraid, be very afraid!!”

“hot dogs
hot dogs
hot dogs
hot dogs
hot dogs
hot dogs
hot dogs”

“I have yet to come across a kid of any age that didn't like to roast hot dogs or marshmellows over a fire for some reason they just taste better outdoors.
As for entertainment, a simple cane pole and a container of worms will occupy their time better than anything else just make sure you have a pole for everybody because after one of them catches a fish, they all want to do it. Have fun.”

“We have done lots of multiple-family car camping. These are some of the things we've tried that turned out well. It's good to keep them in your bag of tricks in the tent and pull one out as needed. While you're trying to cook is an especially good time to try one.

1. Take a deep breath. (Repeat as necessary).

2. LOTS of ziplock baggies for "collections".

3. Watercolors and/or sidewalk chalk. They can paint rocks. It washes off with the first rain and is non-toxic to plants animals, and children.

4. Cheap flashlights - one for each kid plus a couple of extras for the ones that get dropped. These are intended for play in the evening. Some MAY survive the first night.

5. Bubbles. Buy a six-pack and a larger re-fill because they will get spilled.

6. Water pistols. The little cheapie kind. Restrict their use to a time when you can take the kiddos on a nature walk to give their parents a rest.

7. Elmer's glue. Have them make a "centerpiece" for the dinner table using the stuff that they find in nature. School glue is non-toxic and water soluable.

8. Several small "vehicles". They can build a great City in the Wilderness. Help them draw out some streets in the dirt.

9. An alternate plan is little green army-men. Use the kind that come about 50 for $2. Dirt, pine needles, sticks and rocks make for great jungle action.

10. Take extra Band-aids and anticeptic. Take Tylenol. Take pictures. Take your sense of humor.

Make lots of happy memories for all of the campers. (You too!) Have fun!”

“LOL

Good job, Mather! I'm printing that.

Rabbitman, My 3 1/2 year old won't eat *dirty* hot dogs. She'll eat it cold before she'll it it roasted or grilled.

tahoe,

Full report with pictures, please!! :o)”

“My kids typically care less about food when camping. My youngest could live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when she is camping.

PB & J
Hot dogs
Cold cereal
Orange juice
Pudding cups
Chips
Sandwich stuff

What calntv said.”

“My sons (2 and 6) and I go camping quite often. I feed them stuff like hot dogs, mac and cheese (the kind that has the ready-made cheese), granola, gorp (they love it), Chef Boy R D stuff when we car camp (too heavy to pack the cans when backpacking), candy, candy, candy, fruit roll ups. I could go on forever with this list. Also, if you can get a old of them, kids really get a kick out of MREs. It makes them feel like they are on some kind of a military mission when they sit around eating those things. Feeds their imagination and their bellies.”

“Yikes! I forgot about our traditional scavenger hunt!

You can use it for breakfast or a snack. Take individually wrapped stuff and hang it from the trees just outside of camp. Take a hike and tell the kids that they will have to eat whatever nature provides. Pretend to be surprised at all the goodies you find. This might be a good activity to make the 10 year old feel special. Enlist his/her help and wink when the younger kids find their goodies. Confess when the pressure gets too great. You can use those small boxes of cereal, or lunch box sized cookies and Rice-Krispy treats, fruit, Fruitlings, juice boxes, whatever. Don't put the stuff out too far in advance. Critters and other campers like this stuff, too.

To get them ready for bed, we like to read Shel Silverstein poetry. "Where the Sidewalk Ends" is a good starting place if you are unfamiliar with his work. You can probably check it out at your local library. If you read it in a soft voice, they will have to sit still and quiet to hear you.

Have fun!”

“Does anyone else use the "camp cookers"? The ones that hold bread slices and you stick in the fire. We use them every time we car camp. You can pick them up at somewhere like Dick's Sporting Goods for $10-$15. We brown up some "taco meat", take taco fixins', and make taco "pies". Pizza sauce, cheese and whatever you like on your pizza for pizza "pies". Fruit pie filling for fruit "pies". Grilled cheese sandwiches, just about anything you can imagine between two slices of grilled bread with limited clean up. Yum, yum!”

“Having had it happen to us, make sure you check to see if any of the kids have decided to go vegetarian. It happens suddenly, and then the hotdogs are a big no go. Our daughter, who once scarfed steak like it was a sacrament, committed around age 10. If known in advance, a veggie friendly menu can be accomodated though.”

“Good info above, and good luck about what to take.

Stalker's trail food logistics:

I have four kids (9,11,12,13), for snacks and lunch on the trail, I pack each kids lunch/snacks in a zip lock bag with his/her name and day 1, day 2, ect. This way I can pack what each one likes (at home), and there is no fighting ?So and so got an extra whatever?. Each kid gets their bag for the day and when we set up camp for the night I collect the bags to be hung in the bear bag. They also learn if they eat all of their snacks at a morning rest stop then they are SOL until supper. Also, I don?t let?em trade stuff. They help in making up the snack packs and agree on what they get beforehand. More than one fight has started over trying to trade with each other so I put a stop to that. It sounds like I?m a hardas.s, but I hit the trails to relax and have a good time with the fam, so a few rules that helps keep the peace are worth it.”

“Baume66, we used those gadgets when I was a kid. We called them "hobo pies". Yummm. You could even use blueberries from the bushes near camp.”

“BUGS. Kids love bugs.


Thanks for the list Mather.”

“Tahoe, I just came back today from Meeks Bay w my family, we go there every year for a "family reunion" type of deal. I also have been stuck planning meals.

For the adults, plan on foil-wrap dinners. That way the prep is minimal for you, and if they screw up their own dinners it's their fault, not yours!

Can't believe no one ha mentioned SMORES! EVERY kid loves this choclaty-gooey mess of sugar / caffine. You will never go wrong w hot-dogs & hamburgers, if they don't eat those let 'em go hungry. Breakfast is cereal, quick, easy, no-cook & cheap. As others have said, buy the variety-packs.”

“Just read the part where you said you "don't know what kids like to do"...

Go over to the rocky outcropping at Meeks toward the mansion & have them fish for crawdads. (Piece of bacon on a string will do it, some of our kids caught 16 - 17 a day this past weekend!) Great fun. Take the older ones out on an inflatable raft, inner tube, etc. Meeks Bay is well protected, just stay inside the buoys.

The kids you're talking about are pretty young... most of the responsibilty falls to their parents...don't "assume" too much responsibility, give yourself a break.

Also...you should know that black bears were spotted dumpster-diving this past week at the Meeks Bay campground...”

“Well, I am back from the woods and survived my first camping trip with the whole family. This camping idea took off and I ended up with more than I had planned on but it was all good. As things turned out the kids were easy to feed and take care of, the adults- also known as in-laws were much harder to maintain. Things like, I don't want a hotdog, or when are you going to cook some real food kept coming up. I think next time I will take my nieces and nephews and thier friends and leave my "adult" family at home. Regardless, I had a great time hiking and swiming with the kids. We hiked about 7 miles of the Rubicon Trail near Emerald Bay. Beautiful. Gotta Go.”

“Yeah, just take the kids next time. If the parents tried it and didn't like it, forget em.”

“It's pretty bad when the adults are more whiny than the kids.”

“Also, thanks for all the great ideas. The crawdad one turned out to be a total bonus. Everyone loved it and we even ended up eating them, a complete riot of fun. We did not encounter any bears-maybe the kids being noisy kept them away. Just to let everyone know- the far north end of the the Rubicon in the D.L. Bliss park is closed for a while, the California Conseration Corps is doing improvements of some sort. The rest of the trail is fantastic with awesome views of Lake Tahoe, and finishing up at Vikingsholm was great, I have never hiked that before and it was amazing.”

“- GORP - Making the Outdoors Exciting for Children (2)

http://www.gorp.com/gorp/publishers/foghorn/camp_kid.htm#Top”