Winter Camping with Kids

[markandanne]

We just returned from a week long trip with the kids, and one thing that I noticed that I hadn't thought of prior to this trip is that you need to think about how you are going to amuse the kids after it gets dark. It's not the weather that's a problem - we can bundle them up and they will play out in the woods for hours. But now that the time has changed, by 5 o'clock it's getting dark.

I keep forgetting my star charts, which would be a good thing to have in the evening. My charcoal grill lets me get around most fire bans so toasting marshmallows is always a popular thing to do in the dark. They're learning to play Scrabble on our travel set. And then there's always the TV/DVD player, although it's volume has to compete with the noise of the HVAC.

But I'd like to come up with more ideas if anyone has any...

[B_and_D]

We have many travel-sized games in the TM.

Card games are great: the kids love to play rummy, blackjack, poker, hearts, Egyptian War (that gets a bit loud sometimes). We can play cards for hours.

Sorry, backgammon, cribbage, checkers, chinese checkers, and then there's always Pictionary (all you really need is the word cards and some scratch paper). I've found a lot of travel-sized games at the local dollar store. We always bring books for everyone and our led headlights for reading.

We usually save the DVD's until we're just about ready to go to sleep.

I should also bring along copies of our star chart, I haven't thought about that for a long time.

[arniland]

Mark & Anne,

I would like to suggest getting a copy of H. A. Rey's book, The Stars. He also wrote the Curious George books. We got our copy nearly three decades ago on the recommendation of a USPS Ranger out west. It is written with younger folks in mind. Get a paperback copy and leave it in the TM. It's a great introduction to astronomy for kids.

Arn

[B_and_D]

Mark & Anne,

I would like to suggest getting a copy of H. A. Rey's book, The Stars. He also wrote the Curious George books. We got our copy nearly three decades ago on the recommendation of a USPS Ranger out west. It is written with younger folks in mind. Get a paperback copy and leave it in the TM. It's a great introduction to astronomy for kids.

Arn

My mom bought one for us a long time ago, along with our star chart. It is a good book for kids (and me too!). I still use it when there is something special to look for in the night sky. It's one of those books that you hang onto forever.

[markandanne]

Thanks for the recommendation. Anne just put the book on her shopping list.

My next goal is to get a good bird book; I have trouble identifying all of the birds here in CO since they are often different than the ones I grew up with back in NC, and I would like to have identified the many hawks that we saw on the fence posts in OK and TX. If anyone has suggestions (that would be accessible for the kids too), I'm open for ideas...

[Leslie & Nick]

My next goal is to get a good bird book; I have trouble identifying all of the birds here in CO since they are often different than the ones I grew up with back in NC, and I would like to have identified the many hawks that we saw on the fence posts in OK and TX. If anyone has suggestions (that would be accessible for the kids too), I'm open for ideas...

We picked up a somewhat different kind of bird identification book at Costco last year. It's titled 'The Backyard Birdsong Guide'. What's clever about this guide is not only are there the usual illustrations, habitat maps, and descriptions of the birds (about 130) etc, but the bird's songs are contained in an audio player that's part of the hardcover book. So you can hear what each of the birds sounds like. The publisher apparently provides guides for different parts of the country, as the one we have is 'Eastern and Central North America'. At first I thought the idea of an audio guide was a bit of a gimmick, but the book/audio is nicely done.

Nick

[PopBeavers]

Depending on the age of the kids, the chemical glow lights are fun for at least one evening of playing catch in the dark.

Baking chocolate chip cookies after dinner will keep them occupied with anticipation for a least a little while.

[ShrimpBurrito]

How about going to bed early? On our recent 12-day trip to AZ, UT, and NV, we were in bed by 8:30 every night and up by 6am. I hadn't been to bed that early in a long time, but it makes for a solid night sleep, no alarm clock, a full day of daylight, and an evening long enough for a drink but not too long where you're basically watching the clock waiting till 10-11pm so you can go to bed.

Dave

[Bill]

I hate to admit it, but baking chocolate chip cookies keeps ME in anticipation! A fistful of warm cookies, and a drink before an early bedtime - who could ask for more?

Bill

[B_and_D]

Plus, using the oven to cook the cookies keeps the TM warm and toasty!

On our last trip we baked a frozen dutch apple pie. We didn't have room for it in the refrigerator, so we left it in the oven. I forgot all about it and found the last slice of it in the oven when we'd been home for about a week :p.

[markandanne]

ShrimpBurrito - we've gone to bed early plenty of evenings, and you are right that it's pretty cool to get up to see the outdoors bright and early while deer are still out. At the end of a day's drive the kids are pretty wound up though...

And the baking idea is another one we occasionally do, although cookies aren't something we've tried yet. That's not a bad idea - the kids would certainly vote for it! I really am glad we have the oven option over the microwave. We try to do as much cooking indoors as possible during the winter (whereas I use the grill outdoors a lot during the summer to keep the heat out of the TM).

[PopBeavers]

I was one of the posters that suggested baking cookies. Though our kids are now 25 and 28, we bake cookies nearlye very trip and they all disappear. We use the ready mix package cookies for convienience.

One of my fondest childhood memories was when I would spend a week with may aunt I would "help" her bake stuff. She was an excellent baker. I was younger than 10, that is all I can recall about my age.

For those of you in the Russian River area of California, if you ever had mud pie at the restaurant half way between Rio Nido and Gurneville, then you likey ate a pie made by Regina Andler, Auntie Gee to me.

She always baked from scratch.