Kids Camping Games

[Leviathan]

My daughter (7) enjoys helping with whatever we are doing. One morning she entertained herself for over an hour by trying to knock leaves off of a low-hanging branch with a stick. She generally finds something to do if I let her be creative. By the way "I'm bored" is considered profanity in my family. A bored child is given work to do; they learn quickly not to be bored.

My four-month-old on the other hand is completely lazy, he just lays there and eats.

 

[nwoods]

"I'm bored" is considered profanity in my family. A bored child is given work to do; they learn quickly not to be bored.

Lol, that's awesome.

 

[tmleadr03]

My daughter (7) enjoys helping with whatever we are doing. One morning she entertained herself for over an hour by trying to knock leaves off of a low-hanging branch with a stick. She generally finds something to do if I let her be creative. By the way "I'm bored" is considered profanity in my family. A bored child is given work to do; they learn quickly not to be bored.

My four-month-old on the other hand is completely lazy, he just lays there and eats.

I found either work or push ups seem to keep that word from showing up. Bored? Drop and give me 5.

 

[Drumber]

Pre-printed scavenger hunts are great. You can find them all over the web (Pinterest) and print them at home. The kids have to find all sorts of stuff; a leaf, a stick, bottle cap, flat rock, round rock, etc. You can even bring things to stash around camp. But nature has everything you need. Give them each a bag or basket of some sort and send em out looking.

 

[Jamie_Tiernan]

I have a whole list, accumulated over a long period of time! And most of the activities/games mentioned below are tried and tested (speaking from personal experience).
Here goes:
- Scavenger Hunt: This is one game which practically never fails. A few ideas to make the game more exciting - feathers, different colored leaves (such as red, green, yellow), a snail, different types of insects (flying/crawling etc), manure, mushroom.

- Campfire Story Contest: This one is all about being creative and making up tales. In case you feel you have run out of ideas, there will always be some family folklore or anecdotes about your kids which can act as excellent story openers. Let one person say a sentence and the next person continue it.

- Cloud Watching/Floating Clouds: Best time for this one - a relatively sunny midday. Spread out a blanket in a shady spot and stare up at the sky. Using the alphabet, try to find objects like an apple, bear, cat and so on. Here are some more such interesting activities for kids, which can be good ideas for camping games as well.

- Arrange impromptu competitions: Such as who can collect the most kindling for the fire, or who can drag in the longest/shortest stick. Or else, even something simple like which kid can get hold of the biggest rock can keep them occupied for hours at a time.

- Hide and Seek: Though this one needs no introduction, here is a gist of it. The person who is 'It' covers his/her eyes and counts to 10. After he is finished counting, he yells, "Ready or not, here I come!" and runs around and finds everybody in their hiding places. The last one to be found is 'It' the next time.

 

[offero]

The scavenger hunt was a huge hit once with my son and friends in camp. I printed several sheets out with pictures (my son was just four and couldn't read) and took some brown paper lunch bags for the finds. It kept them busy for quite a while and it was fun to see them share what they found.

Glow sticks, as someone else mentioned, are always fun for the kids after dark. My two year-old daughter wanted to camp with my son and me, so my wife agreed to go with us (not a camper) for one night. We realized at dusk that we forgot good night-time toys. Luckily I keep an assortment of glow sticks and headlamps in the camp bin. They had a blast playing toss with them, doing light shows, and poking them in the sand near guy lines and the entrance to the tent.

Just plain old exploring is good too and it's really fun to see what kind of stuff kids pick up to play with!

 

[Galvi5]

Another Night Game - Flashlight Tag! Might not be the best for a busy campground but if you are boon docking with a group it would work great.
The person who is it has the flashlight. The others run and hide. The "it" person can tag them if the beam of the flashlight shines on them. Obviously there is an honor code here to talk about with kiddos.

 

[tarditi]

We have a couple games we take traveling because of their small size and large fun factor:
Uno
Pass the pigs
Spot It
I also have a small ladderball set, frisbee, etc.

Frankly, the kids love to play with glo-sticks and catch fireflies at night the most. Once it's dark enough we stargaze.

For driving entertainment, we enjoy I Spy, "and then..." storytelling, and "I'm [going on a trip] and bringing... [A-Z]" memory game.

 

[climbamt]

Here is one I like, you can even play it in the car.....

Green Glass Door

So, some things that could go through the green glass doors:

grass, but not flowers
a happy person, but not a sad person
mushrooms, but not a fungus
feet, but not toes
overalls, but not blue jeans
apples, but not bananas
Get the idea? It often takes so long for people to figure out because they focus on the relationship of the things named in the sentence rather than the spelling, which is why it’s fun for the players who know the secret to say phrases like the ones below, with objects that are related to each other in different ways:

a rabbit, but not a hare (two similar objects)
the moon, but not the sun (two opposites)
glass, but not a window (something that’s part of something else)
a hammer, but not a nail (two related objects)
pepper, but not salt (two things that make a pair)
a pineapple, but not an orange (two things from the same category)
a poodle, but not a dog (but a poodle IS a dog!)
“Hints” like these are sure to confuse players even more and prolong the oh-so-entertaining game. So now that you know the secret, use it wisely and have fun!

 

[Anak]

Great thread.

The scavenger hunt is something to which I should set my Varmints.

This thread got me thinking up some ideas and then searching for more ideas. I came up with this general list for my own use:

Green leaf
Red leaf (not poison oak!)
Yellow leaf

Gray feather
Brown feather
Blue feather
Red feather
Yellow feather

Oak leaf
Sycamore leaf
Maple leaf
Walnut leaf
A leaf bigger than your hand
A leaf smaller than your thumbnail
A chewed leaf
A leaf with a wasp gall
A leaf with insect eggs on it
Pine needle

A yellow flower
A red flower
A blue flower

Acorn
Pine cone

A dandelion
A maple helicopter seed
A pine nut

A blade of grass
A clover leaf
A bit of moss
A fern

An empty nut shell
Seed container of some form

A Y shaped stick

A smooth rock
A rough rock
Piece of Quartz
Piece of flint

A flat rock
A round rock

A snail shell
Any gastropod shell
A snake skin (shed)
A lizard skin (shed)
An empty cocoon or crysalis
An empty bird nest (already abandoned--before YOU got there!)

A rusty round nail
A rusty square nail
A horseshoe
Something made of steel

Piece of glass
Piece of plastic

Plastic bag (or at least part of one)

Bottle cap
Aluminum can

Airsoft pellet

A lost piece of rope or string (not taken from someone's gear)

Bit of lost fishing tackle (line, bobber, weight, hook...)

Someone's lost shoe or sandal (not taken from someone's gear!!)

A lost coin (not taken from a pocket or vehicle)

An empty rimfire shell
An empty centerfire pistol shell
An empty centerfire rifle shell
An empty shotgun shell
A spent bullet (lead--look in hillside, but NOT DURING TARGET PRACTICE!!!)