We love camping but this year it’s unlikely to happen for us and we’ve had to cancel a few trips. While we can’t go away I want to try and ensure that our kids still have as much fun as possible so we’ve come up with some easy camping at home ideas that we can do this this summer. No matter what the weather is we can camp indoors or outdoors and with some easy camping crafts and activities for kids I’m hoping that we’ll have just as much fun as we would if we went away, maybe even more!
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What You'll Find on This Page
How Can I Do Camping At Home?
Camping at home is really easy, all you need is to put your tent* up in your backyard or garden and get ready to camp out! Weather not all that? Not a problem, if your kids want to camp but the weather isn’t on your side you can always try indoor camping.
What Do You Need To Camp In Your Backyard?
Most important is obviously your tent, we have a Berhaus Air tent which I love. You will also need sleeping bags* and I’d really recommend something to put under your bag too. My kids often end up sleeping on the floor but if I have anything less than a airbed* my back is going to be busted by the next day. If you’re sleeping somewhere that isn’t too hot (and we live in the UK so that’s often for us) then our set up is a picnic blanket, then a foil sheet, then an airbed, topped by a fleece blanket* and then our sleeping bag. Yes it’s a lot but I hate waking up cold! You’ll also need your pillows and any cuddly toys the kids need to sleep. A bonus of camping at home is you don’t need to worry too much about how you will transport and look after all your food as you can use your fridge for that.
Indoor Camping
Of course if you’re camping at home with kids you don’t need to even venture outside, you can do indoor camping if you don’t have any suitable outdoor space or if the weather isn’t great. Just grab your sleeping bags and all sleepover in your front room. You can still have camping food – make some popcorn on your stove and eat hot dogs and you could read camping stories. Why not try a campfire craft and put the finished art up in your room too!
Camping Crafts
Get creative with these camping story stones to make your own camping story. If you like painting and hiding rocks you could use these designs for that too.
This Gone Camping craft from Simply Learning Kids has been on our To Do list for ages so I’m looking forward to having a great excuse to give it a try!
Make a teepee for some toys
We’ve got a few simple crafts ideas for making campfires, try this sponge printed version, this one with foil or this paint splat campfire.
Non Toy Gifts have a really good camping paper plate craft where you change your campsite from day to night.
Explore your garden and look for leaves or flowers you can use to make this nature tree craft.
Make some birdfeeders together to encourage wildlife to visit your ‘campsite’.
Camping Activities
Print our I-Spy Camping Game and see how many you have at home, you can always get the paddling pool out and pretend its a lake!
Plan a meal to cook outside together, having a barbecue is a real treat for my kids especially if we can find some marshmallows to cook as well.
Make your own ‘clubhouse’ if you’ve got an outside room you can use then perfect but if not a ‘bar’ made from a cardboard box would work. Make sure its stocked with your campsite favourites like lollies and drinks. We’ve bought a cheap table football game for ours too.
Grab our printable backyard scavenger hunt and a pair of binoculars (or DIY with a couple of toilet rolls stuck together) and go exploring around your ‘campsite’
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