8 Backyard Camping Activities for Families
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Enjoy the Great Outdoors in Your Backyard!
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Camping out in your backyard can be a great way to spend time with your family, and coming up with fun activities can make the backyard camping night even more exciting. Here are some unique ideas you can add to your night to keep everyone entertained and smiling the whole night long.
S’mores with a Twist
Of course, camping and s’mores go hand-in-hand, but why not have even more fun with this idea by experimenting with different ingredients? Instead of just plain graham crackers, you can use chocolate-covered graham crackers instead. Replace chocolate bars with peanut butter cups (Reese’s thin peanut butter cups work great for this idea). Other s’mores ingredients to consider include:
Flavored marshmallows
Sliced Bananas
Peppermint patties
White chocolate bars
Nutella
Chocolate chip cookies
Encourage everyone to come up with their own flavor combinations! You can even have a contest to see who had the most creative or most delicious ideas!
Decorate the Tent
Making the tent as cozy and comfortable as possible is key to making your backyard camping adventure the best it can be. That also means doing a little bit of decorating! Fairy lights, plush pillows, and cuddly blankets are all perfect for making the tent comfortable, but your kids can also get creative with other decorations too. This might include adding some flowers from the garden, drawing pictures to place in the tent, or making paper chains to add fun color to the tent.
Tell Spooky Campfire Stories
Depending on how old your kids are, telling spooky campfire stories can be a great way to spend part of your evening. You can check out a book from a local library (think Goosebumps, The Monkey’s Paw, or even the Tell-Tale Heart). If your kids are too young, or if you want to make the scary stories silly, you can have fun with Ghost Story Mad Libs instead. You can also stock up on different types of Mad Libs to use throughout the night. Of course, if you have your own ghost stories to tell, that’s even better! Don’t forget to have a flashlight handy for whoever is telling the stories.
Go on a Backyard Scavenger Hunt
It’s easy to overlook the nature that’s around us, especially if you live in an urban or suburban area. Take this opportunity to show your kids all the fun things nature has to offer right in your own backyard with a scavenger hunt! Come up with a list of things they can expect to see in the yard, along with a few surprises. Dandelions, robins, spiders, fireflies, and squirrels are some options to add to the list, but what you choose to look for will depend on where you live in the country. If you don’t want to come up with a list on your own, you can buy a set of scavenger hunt cards instead.
Build an Arts and Crafts Campfire
If you don’t have a fire pit, or if you just want to add another fun activity to the evening, challenge your kids to “build” a campfire out of materials they can find around the house. Toilet paper and paper towel tubes are great for the foundation of the fire, and cardboard, construction paper, or cardstock can be used to create the flames. They can even use rocks from a rock bed in your yard to complete the design. Once complete, they can place the pretend campfire just outside of the tent to add a perfect finishing touch to your outdoor camping setup. For even more creativity, have them create their own “roasted marshmallows with cotton balls, twigs, and markers!
Create Nature-Inspired Crafts
Use the nature that surrounds you to create fun crafts! Collages on construction paper with leaves are easy for kids of all ages, while making crowns with flowers can be a fun challenge. Kids can find flowers they want to press and add to a family scrapbook, or they can trace leaves on paper and color them in for a simple craft. If you have a rock garden in the yard, consider providing paint and paintbrushes to create unique rock art. Acrylic paint pens are also great for this activity.
Play Glow-in-the-Dark Tag
Glow-in-the-dark tag is the perfect game to play once the sun goes down. For this activity, all you’ll need are some glow sticks and plenty of energy. Glow stick bracelets are the easiest to use for this game. Have everyone put at least one bracelet on each wrist before the game starts and then choose the first person to be “it.” You can play until everyone gets tired or until everyone has been tagged at least once. Add extra excitement by turning a simple game of tag into hide-and-seek tag. The glow sticks will make everyone easier to find, so you’ll have to get creative with your hiding spaces! As an added bonus, the glow sticks can also work as mini night lights to help with any fears of the dark.
Take a Neighborhood Nature Hike
Hiking is a big part of camping, and camping in your backyard is no different! Plan a nighttime nature walk through the neighborhood to see how many different sights and sounds your family can spot. Keep an eye out for skunks, possums, raccoons, and other nocturnal animals. Bonus points if you see bats in the sky! You can also challenge the kids to listen for a owl’s hoot or other noises you might not hear during the day. This activity does depend on where you live, as some areas might not be safe for nighttime walks (particularly if you live in an area that has dangerous animals that come out at night). Plan your walk ahead of time so you know the route and how long it will take. This can make it easier to let kids get out some extra energy right before bedtime.
Backyard Camping in the City
Even if you don’t have a yard, you can still have a fun overnight camping experience without leaving your home! Adapt these ideas for indoors and move the campsite to your living room. You can collect leaves and rocks on your neighborhood walk and bring them inside for arts and crafts, and don’t forget to make the scavenger hunt part of the walk! Pick out a camping-themed movie to watch before bed to bring a bit more of the outdoors inside.
A backyard camping night doesn’t take a lot of planning. All you need is a tent, some blankets and pillows, and these fun activities to make the night one your family will always remember and cherish.
If your family ends up loving backyard camping, you can easily turn it into a full weekend of low-stress fun. Pair your night under the stars with these easy backyard camping food ideas for kid-friendly meals and snacks, plan a cozy no-spend stargazing picnic, or explore even more no-spend family activities that keep kids entertained without extra cost. A little planning goes a long way in creating unforgettable memories at home.
