What Are the Benefits of Camping With Kids?
Camping with kids has numerous advantages as it provides an opportunity for families to foster stronger connections and engage in quality time together. Given the busy routines of work, school, and extracurricular activities, camping can serve as a means of slowing down and experiencing each other’s company.
Camping has countless lessons to offer kids such as growing to value and preserve nature, acquiring self-sufficiency skills, and recognizing the insignificance of material possessions.
Teaching survival skills to children can be done through camping, which offers a wide range of options in terms of cost and gear. Camping can become increasingly comfortable and enjoyable as you gradually acquire appropriate gear. Additionally, those survival skills can come in handy in the event of an emergency.
Camping Is the Perfect Way to Teach Survival Skills for Kids
Camping provides an opportunity for you to expose children to nature and impart practical survival abilities firsthand. As electronic devices and games won’t be readily available while camping, it makes for an ideal setting to pique their interest.
Here are a few survival skills for kids you can teach while out in the wilderness:
Navigation
Although GPS apps have their advantages, there is an unparalleled sense of satisfaction in acquiring traditional navigation skills.
The most dependable navigation equipment in existence is a compass, and it is a vital survival ability for children to grasp. By studying how to operate a compass, children learn fundamental directions and acquire the knowledge to navigate themselves. Combining this skill with fundamental astronavigation can enhance their abilities even further, and kids are fascinated by stars and the universe.
Basic concepts, such as the direction where the sun rises and sets, can be taught to younger children, while older children can delve into more complex topics like Polaris, the North Star, and constellations, such as the Big Dipper and Orion. It’s important to demonstrate how these celestial patterns can aid in navigation if they become lost. Additionally, teach them ways to recognize or leave markers along a hiking trail to prevent getting lost.
On the way home from camp, you can increase your kids’ awareness of their surroundings by letting them give you directions on how to reach your house. A simple game of “I Spy” is also a fun way of making them aware of their environment.
Teaching your children the survival skill of putting up a tent is essential for any camping trip to be considered complete. It’s important to instill in them the rule of threes, which emphasizes that a person can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without proper shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. By understanding the importance of finding or setting up proper shelter, your children will be better equipped to handle the challenges of the great outdoors.
While hiking, it is helpful to highlight natural shelters such as caves, fallen trees, or overhangs. Teaching your children how to set up a tent is also useful. To enhance the experience, task them with building survival shelters using only natural elements. In a survival circumstance, a lean-to is uncomplicated to construct and dependable.
Spark their enthusiasm by announcing your plan to build a fort. This will encourage them to learn about choosing appropriate wood for their shelter and creating cordage from plant fibers. Moreover, it presents a perfect chance for them to hone their knot-tying skills, an essential survival skill that every child should acquire.
Starting and Maintaining a Campfire
The ability to start a good fire is a crucial survival skill for children as it provides both warmth and light, which are essential elements for staying alive in challenging circumstances.
Prior to camping, you have the option to create homemade firestarters using materials commonly found in the household such as dryer lint, candle wax, and egg cartons. They are uncomplicated to assemble.
Teach children about the combustion triangle consisting of oxygen, fuel, and heat using this activity. Without any one of them, it is impossible to start a good fire.
Once you have arrived at camp, you may exhibit the process of building a real fire. In case your children are not capable of constructing it, encourage them to collect resources for igniting a fire instead.
Identify the qualities of quality tinder and kindling, and instruct on the process of choosing the optimal materials for igniting a fire. Ensure they retrieve dry twigs and sticks and educate them on creating a solid firelay by beginning with tinder and small kindling, gradually progressing to larger fuel wood.
It is possible to teach older children how to use a lighter or firesteel, but it is important to exercise caution and educate them on the necessary safety measures for this survival skill.
Water Purification
Children tend to have a habit of placing almost anything in their mouths. It is an innate behavior. It is crucial to instruct them at a very young age that not all liquids are suitable for consumption. Even if the liquid appears transparent, any water that comes from an untrustworthy source should be considered hazardous unless it has been treated and cleansed.
Teach children how to choose the best water source, preferably running water instead of stagnant water. Illustrate various ways of purifying water, such as using water treatment tablets, portable filters or filtering it through a scarf, as well as boiling it.
Finding and Gathering Food
Learning how to locate and collect food can be an enjoyable survival skill for children acquiring knowledge at camp. They can relish the landscape while becoming acquainted with the indigenous food sources of the region.
You can even turn it into a scavenger hunt of sorts. Prep ahead. Bring a picture book or print images and descriptions of wild edibles and have your mini-mes find as much as they can. Just instruct them not to eat anything unless you’re 100% sure they’re edible. While there are a lot of wild edibles, many plants can be harmful as well, so supervise the kiddos during their excursion.
It would also be beneficial to educate them on basic cooking abilities. Commencing with teaching them how to sanitize and arrange food is a good idea. Furthermore, boiling is a simple and efficient method that children can easily pick up.
Safety and Basic First Aid
Children are likely to experience bumps and scratches. In the event of a medical emergency, it would be beneficial to instruct them on preventive measures and basic first aid. These skills need not be complex, as even something as simple as teaching them how to fall safely could prove beneficial.
Teach your children how to safeguard their head, neck, and back if they lose their footing or trip. You may also demonstrate how to disinfect and dress minor wounds. Above all, educate them on how to call 911 or indicate that they require assistance when a crisis arises. Teach them what details to convey to the individual on the receiving end.
Even kindergarteners can learn these essential survival skills for children, which could potentially be life-saving, particularly in situations where adults require medical assistance.
How to Build a Fire
Knowing how to build a fire is crucial for survival and a skill that should be acquired by all. A fire is capable of generating heat, light, and cooking facilities. Grown-ups can educate youngsters on the fundamentals of fire building, such as gathering dry twigs, selecting suitable wood, and utilizing different techniques to ignite the fire.
It is crucial to learn not only how to make a fire but also to do it responsibly. To train your children to be responsible campers and fire starters, you should teach them how to construct a firepit to contain the fire, never leave a fire unsupervised, and extinguish it before leaving the camping spot.
How to Cook Outdoors
Building a fire can make you hungry, and it’s crucial for children to acquire cooking skills over an open flame for survival. Though it’s unnecessary to teach kids to prepare a full-blown Thanksgiving dinner outside, teaching them some fundamental outdoor cooking skills is critical. It’s essential to stress the significance of cooking meat thoroughly and avoiding cross-contamination.
Commencing with uncomplicated dishes such as grilling sausages and marshmallows, and then progressing to intricate meals like foil packed ones is feasible. Youngsters may promptly understand that being on a camping trip doesn’t imply substandard nutrition.
