Suggestions for family games while RVing/Camping

the bear II wrote:
I picked up a Boy Scout Handbook at a garage sale. It contains a lot of things to do and see when camping. It has pages showing how to identify plants & trees, insects, animal tracks and scat plus handy stuff like fire starting, knots, map reading, cooking, survival techniques...etc.

Agreed.
Plenty of nature incorporated crafts projects, too.

Nature has a lot to offer, especially the opportunity for children to imprint with nature. Makes very little sense to me when people try to replicate their city activities and avoid nature while surrounded by nature.

The 1 and 3 I don't know. But for 9 year old...we were at Fort Clapsop last week. Girl there was working on her 119th Junior Ranger badge. Our Family has a couple but nowhere near that number. Kids enjoy it and learn history, plant life or whatever. Most importantly they learn "how to study" great program IMO. check out here. http://www.nationalparks.org/connect/npf-kids/junior-rangers

Might be several places in your area. http://www.nps.gov/kids/

Here is an example: http://www.cr.nps.gov/archeology/public/kids/index.htm

(Not indorsing any gov' program, but this ones sense IMO.)

I picked up a Boy Scout Handbook at a garage sale. It contains a lot of things to do and see when camping. It has pages showing how to identify plants & trees, insects, animal tracks and scat plus handy stuff like fire starting, knots, map reading, cooking, survival techniques...etc.

We always have the kids research the areas we are going to to find places of interest and they list what they want to see and we go see as many as we can.

But please, please, please...none of that nasty sidewalk chalk unless you confine it to your own site and clean it up before you leave.

A lot of the parks have an open area where great games of baseball happen. Our two youngest learned to bat and catch while camping.. Even the youngest kids love to play ball with the older ones.

I camped often with 1 and 3 year olds. Get a bike trailer and you can go for family bike rides. Honestly, we do try to camp at kid friendly campgrounds. If it doesn't have a playground and either a pool or lake/pond/creek we would go someplace else. We all like to explore the new campgrounds together and the kids like to make new friends on the playground.

Game boy, Play Station ... and you'll have peace and quiet all the time! Enjoy the camping for yourself, and let the kids do what they enjoy the most. Don't impose your ideas on what you think camping should be. When the kids are older, they'll hate camping because they "never got to do what I wanted to do!" ... quote...quote...quote!

Agree that the 1 and 3 yr old may be a challenge...I'd focus on the same type of games they enjoy at home. We have a 7 and 9 yr old. Ladderball is always a hit as are bikes and scooters. Various travel-size games...Trouble, Sorry, any games you play at home. Both of our kids like uno and other card games as well as Farkle and a couple other dice games. We keep a couple of different size round balls and footballs too.

Nature scavenger hunts are always a hit with all ages too. Put the list on a paper bag (for carrying the treasures) and cater the difficulty to the age. Just make sure it's all simple stuff and be aware of applicable park rules about "collecting" stuff. :B

We'd focus on the new environment that we were camping in. We'd explore. We'd learn about the trees, animals. Both our kids learned to ride bikes while camping. We did most everything together with our kids - that we didn't have time for at home. Swimming, hiking, boating.

uno and the memory game. Checkers and chess. Trouble..candyland. ( After I taught my 6 yr old chess its hard to beat him. It kills time also. 2 hour games sometimes)

Take them all on nature hikes. The younger ones will be fascinated by butterflies while the older can spot larger game. Carrying the younger ones will be a great workout for you :)