Over the first weekend of October we were supposed to go camping with some friends. It was going to be our first camping trip as a family of four, and only our second time camping with Babycake, who is now 3. We tried once before to go camping with her when she was about Buddyboy's age and it didn't go well. However, this time our friends invited us and we felt more prepared to camp with kids after having failed so miserably before... plus there would be three times as many adults as kids so our odds of keeping everyone happy were in our favor.
Well it just so happened that the weekend we assumed would be beautifully warm weather for camping ended up being winter coat cold with wind and rain. Amazingly the two childless couples we planned to camp with canceled before us! Score one for the family of four! So instead we went to our friends' house (who lived out of town for us) and camped in their living room. Really, with the two little ones, especially one being 4 months old, it was my kind of camping! We all had a really good time and still got to carve pumpkins, eat good food, have a fire, and enjoy good company. I even had sleepless nights with multiple awakenings from the kids not being used to sleeping in a strange place.
The only disappointment I had was that Babycake wouldn't get to use the Activity book I had made her. Being the lover of learning that she is, I wanted to make sure she would have ample opportunities to learn about all the amazing things she'd be surrounded by and experiencing on our camping trip. I also acknowledge that being three, her attention span is quickly moving and easily distracted. So I created the Camping Activity Book to allow for some guided education that could keep her happy if she needed to stay in one spot while all the adults were busy.
The activity book was simple enough that the other adults with us could figure out what the purpose of a task was if she asked for assistance. I included her pencil bag filled with a pencil, crayons, and tape which would be all the supplies she would need. The book itself was just an old collage three-ring binder that I created a cover page to slip in the clear front pocket. Then I created activities, printed them out, and clasped them inside the rings. Easy-peasy.
The first activity I created was camping bingo. In this bingo Babycake was to observe the world around her, be it at the campsite, or on a hike. If she spotted something that was depicted on her bingo page, she got to color it in. I didn't expect, or want, her to bring the binder with her everywhere. Instead I wanted her to enjoy her surroundings, and remember what she saw. The goal was also to color every picture on the page, not to only get one row filled in. The more coloring meant more observation, curious conversation about her surroundings, and learning.
The second activity I created was another way for Babycake to be aware of what was around her as well as practice her tracing and letter skills. I titled it cleverly, by what it was... Find, Tape, and Trace. The directions were also easy enough that I (or another adult) could explain them once, and Babycake could do the rest. Each part of the activity had an instruction, for example, the picture given shows "Can you find grass?" There is a picture of grass at the end of the question so Babycake knows what she is looking for since she cannot read. Then she would go hunting for grass, pick some, tape a few blades (or a handful) to the space provided on the page, and finish the section by tracing the word Grass. Once those steps were completed she was welcome to move on the the next section and find whatever was depicted and proceed the same as before.
The last activity I had in the book was a few camping themed coloring pages. Super simple and no instruction needed. I would have liked it if Babycake had completed the activity book, but that wasn't my number one goal for our camping trip. If we HAD gone camping, I created this book to simply provide a distraction for a busy toddler if she ever got bored while the adults cooked or sat around chatting. I truly believe the number one place children learn best is outside experiencing nature. You can learn numbers and counting simply by counting how many trees you see. You can create letters out of pine needles as Babycake herself has taught me. You learn about life and death through the seasons and all other important aspects of life by simply being aware of the awesome, amazing Earth we call home.
