Beat The Isolation: Get Your Family Camping Ready

Build Skills and Confidence

Spring is here, which means summer is around the corner.  Unfortunately instead of planning summer trips, we are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.  During this time we are participating in our civic duty of social distancing, but that is going to be hard.  With school out and most of us hunkered down in our houses it is easy to get bored, anxious or find yourself in front of a screen.

 Here are ways  to stay entertained and engage with the outdoors. We created a trail map of activities for your family to prepare for when it’s time to go camping.  It is a way for your kid to understand the responsibilities they will have on your family camping trips. Think of it like the responsibility test parents give kids before adopting a dog. This checklist will keep your kids engaged and show that they are ready to join the family on camping trips.  We know camping can feel like a lot of work but it can be easier if the family can chip in to lessen the load on the parents.

Have Fun!

OK, enough talk, time to start doing!  Below is the list of tasks to complete and you can download the map (which is 4 pieces of paper to tape together).  By the end you will be officially ready for a camping trip AND, if you send us a photo of your family’s completed map, your kids will get an official Titus Adventure Company Certificate of Readiness! Have fun, happy camping and stay healthy.

Download printable map (4 pages).

Your Challenges:

• Read a nature book

• Build a fort (and then clean it up)

• Practice setting the tent up and taking it down.  How fast can you do it?

• Camp in backyard or basement

• Stuff your own sleeping bag

• See what is under a big rock

• Dig up worms (handy for going fishing)

• Dance in the rain/snow (it can be wet when you camp, don’t let it get you down!)

• Stomp in puddles

• Look at a map and find a trail

• Find a walking stick

• Finish a 2-mile Hike

  • Extra credit: carry backpack with water, snack, and packed lunch. Extra extra credit: you make a sandwich

• Scavenger Hunt (here are the ones we have created)

• Find 5 new birds

  • Merlin Bird ID App is a great free app that helps identify birds

• Cook a meal and eat it outside (extra credit, eat sit on the ground)

  • Try our Camp Chef Pantry Challenge

• Help with the doing the dishes without using a dishwasher

• Practice washing your hands without a sink

• Read a book with a flashlight

• Brush your teeth outside using a water bottle

• Spot a shooting star

• Find the Big Dipper and the North Star

• Learn the phase of the moon

• Dig a cat hole, should be 6” deep (don’t need to actually use it yet…)

• Play a game of go-fish (good practice for rainy days)

• Create a self portrait out of leaves, sticks, and other foraged materials

• Make walkie talkies

• Make a musical instrument from things in nature

• Learn some handy knots

• Practice building a campfire

• Learn to make a S’mores stick

• Roast S’mores (make one for your parents first!)

• Learn a campfire ghost story

• Race leaf rafts down a stream

• Make a bow and arrow with a branch and string

• Identify 3 animal tracks

• Build a bike jump

• Press flowers in a book

• Read about mountain and off-road driving

• BONUS: Study 4WD vehicles and mechanisms inside the transfer case