Leave it to a two year old to puke his guts up right at bedtime the night before we leave on our first camping trip. These things tend to be short lived and given that he’s been sleeping peacefully, puke free and without a fever for the past four hours, I’m operating under the assumption that we’re still leaving in the morning.
The destination for our very first camping trip is Presqu’ile Provincial Park in Brighton, ON. We’re very excited because this is a park we’ve wanted to visit for some time.
This afternoon I was out buying supplies for the trip and as I placed a package of Lazy Maple bacon in my cart, it occurred to me that there are certain foods and items that become must-haves on a camping trip. In our family, a camping trip must involve Lazy Maple bacon and pistachios. A camping trip without these items is like a Christmas without presents. It just doesn’t happen.
This is the first time we’ve packed for a camping trip with our son. It’s been interesting trying to figure out what items to bring for him, especially for his entertainment. Bubbles are always a favourite, as are cars and we’re bringing a bunch of sand toys on this trip because Presqu’ile has a nice beach.
So my question for you is, what are your camping / cottaging must-haves, and to those of you who are experienced at traveling with kids, what are the must-haves for your children? I’m interested to know, and may steal some ideas.
I’ll be sure to let you know how we make out this weekend. I’ll include pictures of the fun and let you know what we learned about camping in a tent trailer and about camping with a young child. It should be a fun adventure.
Tags: Camping, camping with kids, Cottage On Wheels, family, Presqu'ile Provincial Park, RV, trailer, travel
June 13, 2009 at 07:07 |
I find toddlers/preschoolers fickle and finicky on a good day, I couldn’t imagine dealing with them in a semi-wilderness setting. You may find yourself content to stick close to the camper rather than dragging him to all corners of the park for the sake of novelty. Letting him do his own thing (supervised of course) is probably the best thing. He’ll be so fascinated with everything around him that the toys will most likely go unnoticed. Our son needed us to stick to a routine that resembled his at home routine. Not doing so yielded a horror show of uncooperative behaviours that no amount of novelty or bribes would fix. But that was our experience. These days he’s pretty chilled out.
Our son was happy to poke logs with a stick or collect twigs and pine cones. Bubbles were ignored as were the majority of toys. He also enjoyed engaging the nearby campers or passersby with nosy questions. That’s always good for a laugh. And he ate: constantly.
Kids always get ill the day of, or preceding an anticipated long planned event. It’s an inevitability when dealing with those younger than 7 yrs. At least he’s slightly ill before, not en route or smack in the middle of your trip.
On Monday we’re taking our 9 yr old on his first hardcore camping trip. I wonder how he’ll deal with the lack of outhouses and running water? My prediction is he’ll be fine.
Hope you all enjoy your trip and I can’t wait to see the pics!
June 15, 2009 at 10:26 |
Never underestimate the power of crayons and colouring book. Lilly will quietly colour for upto an hour while we are at the trailor. We also have taken to walking her around the park until she is exhausted and then she will nap for like 2 hrs sometimes. Be aware though, that Neil and I took her on a 2 km walk (in her stroller ofcourse) and about halfway through she was screaming and crying because she had enough, but we where in the woods with nothing else to do but keep going. Hope you had fun. Looks like you may have a nervous traveler on your hands LOL, you remember how to deal with that right? I believe the fraze is “you better not!”