Camping as a family is my favorite family activity. It really encourages us to have time focused on each other, by removing other distractions we may have at home.
Table of Contents
Nature Bracelet
Take masking tape and attach it to a child’s wrist inside out (so sticky side out).
Explore the trail together and pick leaves, berries or flowers to stick on the tape. My kids love creating patterns on their bracelets or try to create a bracelet all green or all red, depending on the season we are in.
Have fun creating a nature bracelet! You can even put another piece of tape on the bracelet to “laminate” it.
Paint Sample Scavenger Hunt
We went to Home Depot and picked out paint samples that are in the color of nature. I like to choose greens, browns, tans (or reds and oranges in fall).
Next, I took a hole puncher and punched holes in the paint sample sheets.
My kids enjoy looking through the holes in the samples to match different shades of color in nature. They also like to place the paint samples on the ground and find leaves or items in nature and lay them on the paint colors.
This is such a fun activity, especially with the changing colors of the seasons!
Leaf Animals
With it now being fall, there are plenty of leaves around to make art! We love looking for all different shapes and colors. We love searching the trails or campground collecting leaves and then come back to our tarp and try to make animals, like elephants, bears, lions or turtles.
I did a Google search for “leaf animals” and then printed out some ideas for inspiration for my kids. I think it helped them to visualize some animals before creating their own.
Leaf Bookmarks
My husband gave me a laminator one year for Christmas and it has been the best gift over the years with the amount of time we have spent using it! My laminator is lightweight and easy to bring on camping trips. On our most recent camping trip, we made leaf bookmarks! My kids picked leaves and flowers that stood out to them, then rearranged them on the laminating sheet. We have also laminated leaves, cut them off and created a leaf garland!
Campfire Orange Cinnamon Roll Recipe
This was a big hit on our most recent camping trip! We hollowed out oranges and filled them with cinnamon roll dough. Then, we wrapped the orange in tin foil and placed it next to the campfire. We kept it there for 5 minutes and rotated the orange for another 5 minutes until the cinnamon roll was fully cooked. The cinnamon roll has some flavor of orange and is so tasty!
A little more about our new tent: We have the 16.5′ Avalon Bell Tent through White Duck Outdoors. The first time we saw this tent was in 2022 at a local state park. It was November and we were staying in a cabin. But, we watched in awe as a family set up their White Duck Outdoors tent and even put up a woodburning stove in there! We asked for a peek inside and were completely enamored with these tents. We are over the moon to have one of own now. We camped with it for the first time this past weekend and just LOVE it. It is durable, spacious and has great height to easily stand up and walk around. We are excited to do winter camping next with the woodburning stove!
