Thank you so much for this! The basic ideas and perspective are very enlightening.
I am an outdoorsy person: love hiking, skiing, and camping. My wife an I had twins just over two years ago and I've been working in the back of my mind on how best to transition to family outings. We were pretty locked down their first year because, you know, twins, and then again their second year because of COVID but we would like to get out more as a family as COVID risks subside.
Regarding camping, we're initially planning on starting small - setting up in the back yard (we have close to two acres of open yard and about 3 acres of wooded land so we have quite a wild kingdom right at home. A lot of the ideas and suggestions laid out in this piece will be helpful even in that scenario.
This pretty much nailed it. I lead my son’s Cub Scout pack and one thing we always bring camping is a pack of glow sticks - the little ones love them. And snacks. Lots of snacks. A joke book. And cards when they get old enough.
All of this is great. I took my kids backpacking from the time they were 5 and 7 until my daughter became old enough to decline. My advice is make it about them. Two keys: water (a stream, a beach, anything like that), friends if you can manage it, and very limited goals. We walked less than a half-mile for our first hike to camp on a river (when they were 5 and 7), which worked great. We spent all the next day playing on the river. You want to make them want to do it, to be glad when you propose it. That worked for me for several years. Until it didn't. Have fun. That's the goal.
Very helpful read! My spouse and I are planning on taking the newborn out on a quick overnight this coming spring. It's been challenging finding specific places to go that are baby/kid friendly and I've shifted gears to more generalized advice so this article couldn't have come at a better time as I prep my gear, life, and mindset for getting out there with our kiddo.
All of this is amazing! Thanks for everyone’s tips and suggestions.
I plan on taking one kid at a time at first during the spring and work my way up to the whole family (including the wife who isn’t a big camper) during the fall when my experience and confidence grows.
Everyone’s comments and advice was incredibly helpful and I will be sure to share stories and pictures as the year progresses!
Wes, thank you so much for organizing these comments and feedback.
S'mores are fine,and can be improved by using the kids' favorite candy bars in place of plain chocolate. Reese's Cups are a good intro to this. But s'mores are not the only campfire dessert, and if you're out for multiple nights, you need multiple desserts.
My go-to with groups is a doughnut-ish thing covered in cinnamon-sugar (I've only ever known them as brown bears). Wrap foil around a ~1" diameter stick, then wrap cresent roll dough around that. Cook the dough over a fire, dip it in melted butter, and roll it in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Don't be cheap on the cresent roll dough; the name brands stick together better, so you lose fewer in the fire.
My top recommendation: Let each of your kids bring a friend. This offers two key benefits: 1) built-in entertainment and 2) having non-family members around tends to put everyone in your family on their best behavior.
We had a lot of sibling rivalry/tension in my household growing up. But family trips with friends in tow brought out the best in our family's own relationships. Some of my most fond childhood memories are from long weekend trips with my friend + my siblings + my siblings' friends all hanging out harmoniously together.
This may be a little late, but my advice is, be prepared to bail and try again. Especially when they are young, if the trip starts to go sideways with weather, pack up and go home. It’s so much better to have them have good experiences from the outset than have a shitty experience that turns them off. Yes you can suffer through a weekend long rainstorm, but you’ve done this before and you know that being uncomfortable is just temporary. For that 6 year old though, it’s going to be a miserable experience and turn them off future events. My 24yr old son still breaks my balls about a hike he took in a downpour when he was 10.
I live in DC and I’ve got the Appalachian Trail nearby. The various outdoor clubs that maintain all of the AT have cabins that you can hike/drive into and they make a GREAT weekend getaway. It’s camping but with cabins so it’s still really comfortable
Thanks for the great tips - all super helpful, coming in at the right time, as my wife and I are eager to introduce our 2 boys (2 and 3.5) to camping this coming spring/summer/fall.
Also, having grown up in northeast Ohio, I wanted to give a few recommendations to Randy: western PA has some amazing state parks (https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/Pages/default.aspx) which are great for camping/hiking, etc; one that immediately comes to mind is Cook Forest, where you can also rent some rustic cabins within the state park, if you prefer that over tent-camping.
Allegany State Park in Western NY is another great destination, with plenty of options to camp near water (Allegheny Reservoir - notice the different spelling - not sure why that is) :)
Finally, if you're up for a bit of a longer drive, I really recommend Hocking Hills State Park in southern Ohio - especially in the Fall when the leaves change colors.
Old Man’s Cave near Hocking Hills is great for kids.
Thank you so much for this! The basic ideas and perspective are very enlightening.
I am an outdoorsy person: love hiking, skiing, and camping. My wife an I had twins just over two years ago and I've been working in the back of my mind on how best to transition to family outings. We were pretty locked down their first year because, you know, twins, and then again their second year because of COVID but we would like to get out more as a family as COVID risks subside.
Regarding camping, we're initially planning on starting small - setting up in the back yard (we have close to two acres of open yard and about 3 acres of wooded land so we have quite a wild kingdom right at home. A lot of the ideas and suggestions laid out in this piece will be helpful even in that scenario.
This pretty much nailed it. I lead my son’s Cub Scout pack and one thing we always bring camping is a pack of glow sticks - the little ones love them. And snacks. Lots of snacks. A joke book. And cards when they get old enough.
All of this is great. I took my kids backpacking from the time they were 5 and 7 until my daughter became old enough to decline. My advice is make it about them. Two keys: water (a stream, a beach, anything like that), friends if you can manage it, and very limited goals. We walked less than a half-mile for our first hike to camp on a river (when they were 5 and 7), which worked great. We spent all the next day playing on the river. You want to make them want to do it, to be glad when you propose it. That worked for me for several years. Until it didn't. Have fun. That's the goal.
Very helpful read! My spouse and I are planning on taking the newborn out on a quick overnight this coming spring. It's been challenging finding specific places to go that are baby/kid friendly and I've shifted gears to more generalized advice so this article couldn't have come at a better time as I prep my gear, life, and mindset for getting out there with our kiddo.
All of this is amazing! Thanks for everyone’s tips and suggestions.
I plan on taking one kid at a time at first during the spring and work my way up to the whole family (including the wife who isn’t a big camper) during the fall when my experience and confidence grows.
Everyone’s comments and advice was incredibly helpful and I will be sure to share stories and pictures as the year progresses!
Wes, thank you so much for organizing these comments and feedback.
S'mores are fine,and can be improved by using the kids' favorite candy bars in place of plain chocolate. Reese's Cups are a good intro to this. But s'mores are not the only campfire dessert, and if you're out for multiple nights, you need multiple desserts.
My go-to with groups is a doughnut-ish thing covered in cinnamon-sugar (I've only ever known them as brown bears). Wrap foil around a ~1" diameter stick, then wrap cresent roll dough around that. Cook the dough over a fire, dip it in melted butter, and roll it in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Don't be cheap on the cresent roll dough; the name brands stick together better, so you lose fewer in the fire.
My top recommendation: Let each of your kids bring a friend. This offers two key benefits: 1) built-in entertainment and 2) having non-family members around tends to put everyone in your family on their best behavior.
We had a lot of sibling rivalry/tension in my household growing up. But family trips with friends in tow brought out the best in our family's own relationships. Some of my most fond childhood memories are from long weekend trips with my friend + my siblings + my siblings' friends all hanging out harmoniously together.
This may be a little late, but my advice is, be prepared to bail and try again. Especially when they are young, if the trip starts to go sideways with weather, pack up and go home. It’s so much better to have them have good experiences from the outset than have a shitty experience that turns them off. Yes you can suffer through a weekend long rainstorm, but you’ve done this before and you know that being uncomfortable is just temporary. For that 6 year old though, it’s going to be a miserable experience and turn them off future events. My 24yr old son still breaks my balls about a hike he took in a downpour when he was 10.
I live in DC and I’ve got the Appalachian Trail nearby. The various outdoor clubs that maintain all of the AT have cabins that you can hike/drive into and they make a GREAT weekend getaway. It’s camping but with cabins so it’s still really comfortable
Thanks for the great tips - all super helpful, coming in at the right time, as my wife and I are eager to introduce our 2 boys (2 and 3.5) to camping this coming spring/summer/fall.
Also, having grown up in northeast Ohio, I wanted to give a few recommendations to Randy: western PA has some amazing state parks (https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/Pages/default.aspx) which are great for camping/hiking, etc; one that immediately comes to mind is Cook Forest, where you can also rent some rustic cabins within the state park, if you prefer that over tent-camping.
Allegany State Park in Western NY is another great destination, with plenty of options to camp near water (Allegheny Reservoir - notice the different spelling - not sure why that is) :)
Finally, if you're up for a bit of a longer drive, I really recommend Hocking Hills State Park in southern Ohio - especially in the Fall when the leaves change colors.
Thanks again & happy camping!