Kiddie Camp! { Outdoor Ideas }

Whether you pitch a tent by the lake, on the mountain or out in the backyard, camping is always oodles of fun. These days however it takes a lot of effort to keep the young ones from strapping on their headphones or heading back inside to watch TV, so here are a couple of activities to get them excited about the outdoors again:

• Have a treasure hunt or work out a series of clues and send them off on an Amazing Race style adventure. This can even last overnight, with a new winner everyday!
• Do outdoor arts and crafts with the kids, using natural elements to make their own toys, such as dolls, animal figurines, cars and whatever else they can imagine.
• Surprise each child with a bug box, magnifying glass and note pad and set a number of goals for them to accomplish – i.e. bugs they need to capture.
• Indulge in some old fashioned barnyard sports like egg-and-spoon races, three-legged sprints or sack races.
• Get all the goodies together for the kids to make their own mini veggie-, herb- or flower gardens.
• Turn old cool drink bottles into pins for outdoor bowling, plant sticks in the ground for a ring-toss or plant tin cans in the grass to create a mini golf course.
• Get the kids involved with the camping food by either assigning each one a mealtime where they can do their own thing or by making mealtimes more DIY-friendly – e.g. stuffed potatoes on the fire, stick-bread, corn on the cob, grilled bananas or funny smore faces.
• Indulge in a bit of bird watching or cloud gazing, or give each child a list of things to find in and around the campsite during your stay.
• If you run out of ideas, simply give each group or child a number of rocks, twigs and so forth and challenge them to come up with a new game to teach the others!

Original images and their credits available on Pinterest