Camping out, roasting marshmallows over a campfire, and spending a night under the stars can make an unforgettable summer experience for kids of all ages.
You don’t have to have lots of complicated equipment or even reservations to have an old-fashioned fun-filled camp-out with your kids.
Just open your back door and enjoy the great outdoors right in your own yard. Pitch a tent, set up a real or pretend campfire, and bring back some of the traditional camping activities you remember as a kid.
If the kids enjoy the camping experience, make an overnight camp-out part of a week of camp activities that you have at your house this summer.
Before the sun sets:
Set Up Camp
Pitching your tent, setting up sleeping bags and building a camp fire are all part of the fun of camping. If you can’t build a real camp fire, set up a circle of rocks and set two or three flashlights in the center. After dark, turn on the flashlights. You’ll have to make your s’mores in the microwave, but the effect will be the same!
Bug Races
Carefully find potato bugs or other creepy crawlies and set them on a starting line on a driveway or other wide area. Whose bug can get to the finish line first?
Make S’mores
Toast marshmallows over a fire until brown outside and soft and warm inside. Lay a Hershey bar on top of one graham cracker. Top with a hot marshmallow and place another graham cracker on top. Squish down slightly. The chocolate will melt a little bit and the whole concoction is a dream.
Music in Nature
Give the kids 10 minutes to go on a hunt to find things in nature that can make music when banged on, blown on and hit together. Gather back at the campsite to “play” your instruments.
Make a Daisy Chain
. . . or a buttercup chain, a dandelion chain or use whatever wildflowers you have around you. To link the flowers, make a slit in the stem, about halfway up. Thread another flower stem through it and continue the chain. When you get to the last flower, thread the flower blossom head through the last stem, creating a circle.
Play Water Games
While it's still warm outside, get out the hose and play some water games in the yard.
After dark:
Play Flashlight Tag
This is a fun game to play if you live in an area with few streetlights or city lights. Every player gets a flashlight and everyone runs around the yard, hiding from the flashlight beams while trying to spot other players with flashlights.
Ghost in the Graveyard
Choose one person to be the ghost. He hides, while all the other players go to “base” and count, “One o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock . .” all the way to “11 o’clock, midnight!” At “midnight” players go searching for the ghost. When he’s found, the finder yells, “Ghost in the Graveyard” and all players try to make it safely back to base before the ghost tags them. Whoever is tagged is the ghost for the next round.
Flashlight Disco
Inside the tent, whip a flashlight back and forth as fast as you can, while another person dances and moves. It will have a strobe light effect.
Sparks Will Fly
Chew on a Wint-O-Green Lifesaver with your mouth open in the dark and you’ll see sparks. This is one time when it’s OK to chew with your mouth open.
Tell Not-so-Scary Stories
Kids want to love scary stories, but if you indulge them, you may end up spending the night consoling a tearful, frightened child – inside the house with the doors locked. For your night around the campfire, tell stories that start out scary but which have funny endings (you’ll need to prepare for this and rehearse it, so you don’t inadvertently scare the kids).
Around the Camp Fire
Kids will love simply sitting around the camp fire, watching the flames and talking. Teach them some of the old camp songs you remember from your own camp days.
