(Updated February 2021)
Start preparing for camping season to begin already now and use the time at home planning for your next camping trip. Now is a great time to practice camping in your backyard (unless it’s covered in snow of course) or testing your camping gear in the comfort of your own home to find out what works for you.
Testing your camping gear or your camping cooking at home takes the stress off your next trip and sets you up for a great family camping experience once you are able to go to the campground or public land.
Check out my list of activities you can do now to prepare your family for your next camping adventure.
Teach kids about safe and proper campfires, from building and starting it, to proper safe behavior around it, and putting it out. We find a spot in the forest to cook dinners over the fire when we need a change in scenery.
Weekend morning backyard cookouts has become a ritual in our house. Our camp stove has not been packed away for weeks.
Planning Your Camping Trip - Mindset and preparation
If you are planning a (dispersed) camping trip for the first time, or contemplating how on earth to camp with your new baby, now is a great time to come face to face with the reality of camping and prepare yourself for anything that can come your way.
Educate yourself on your camping area - the climate, the altitude, the critters, the temperatures, the road conditions, and what gear you will need for it.
If you are bringing baby or kids for the first time, read up on best practices and tried and tested mom advice on essential gear, food, sleep, and safety.
You will figure out what works for you very quickly once you are out there, but it’s always great to get inspired from home.
The more prepared you are for any potential stressful situation, the calmer and more confident you will be out there.
To help you plan and prepare, check out these extremely useful posts:
Camping with a baby for the first time? This post has you covered with what to pack for baby and mommy and best practices.
8 step quick-guide: How to be self-sufficient for dispersed camping
and
Test your preferred camping food for the family and practice cooking meals.
Find out how to tweak your favorite family recipes to make them camping friendly or look up new camping recipes to get inspired.
The best camping meals are the ones that are forgiving in terms of how they are cooked and what goes into them. I’m thinking quiches/omelets, burritos, tacos, pasta dishes, salads, skewers, and so on.
Prepping your camping food also involves pre-cooking and pre-freezing. This shortens cooking time at your camp site and pre-frozen foods double as freezer elements which saves you room in the cooler box.
Cook your weekend breakfast or dinner outside on your camping stove to make an adventure out of it for your kids too.
Research and splurge on (new or used) essential camping gear (and nice-to-have gadgets)
You may also want to treat yourself to a new camping cooking gadget to help prepare for your favorite family meal. We have a small 12v slow-cooker, a stove top oven for baking, a portable compact foldout grill, and a Jetboil for quick coffee and oatmeal on the go.
Test your coffee making setup and preference - there are so many ways out there to make great coffee, but not all options are great for everyone and every camping situation. If you will be staying in the same location, you have more time to make coffee. But if you have to pack up every morning, or will be out exploring a lot during the day, you may want to test some faster options (Jetboil, French Press, Nescafe).
Test your preferred method of cooking and find the gear for it. Do you prefer one-pot meals? Reheating pre-cooked meals? Grilling? Crockpot meals that cook themselves? And how much time do you have to cook?
Check out my post on family camping meal planning ideas for inspiration: Easy camping meals and snack for the family - Including meal sample planner
Sleep training and adjusting your kids to the tent
If you are bringing small children, you may want to spend this time at home preparing them for sleep in the tent and in new surroundings. Kids are usually very easy to excite, so setting up the tent in your backyard and getting their sleeping bags out is a good first step to familiarize them with the new surroundings and to make the tent a happy, comfortable place to be.
Routines are vital for good sleep in new surroundings. It can be a challenge to stick to the same bedtime when camping, and your little ones might be over-excited about their busy day. But bringing familiar books, PJs, loveys, and doing what you do at home, really helps.
Make sure to customize and download my sleep-training book to help you in this process. Reading a story to your child about the sleep process and where the sleep takes place, prepares your little one by visualizing the new location as well as your expectations to his or her sleep. It removes fear when they recognize themselves in the new situation you describe.
Take this time to figure out if your toddler needs a pack’n’play or a mat. It is usually best to stick to what resembles their own bed at home, but camping is also an opportune moment to change a few sleep setups. Think about what you have room to pack - a pack’n’play takes up a lot more room than a small self-inflatable mat.
How to build and start a camp fire
This is valuable for everyone to know, but especially good to teach your older kids so they know the safest and best ways to have a campfire by the time you reach the campground. Boys especially love chopping wood and starting a fire - by preparing them from home you can relax more out on your adventure.
Teach them about the Leave No Trace fire principles:
use already existing fire rings, bare ground (with no vegetation) or a raised portable fire pit to minimize scorching.
Keep fires small and never under low-hanging branches.
Only use deadwood on the ground for firewood or buy firewood locally near your campsite to avoid the risk of spreading damaging beetles.
Fires are put out with A LOT of water until its cold to the touch. Covering it with sand is not always enough since it continues to smolder underneath.
Bring a small fold-saw or axe and teach your kids about safe and proper use of these tools
Practice starting a fire; how to build it (log cabin, tepee, cross fire for example), what to use to start it (tinder, kindling, firewood), what fire starters work for you (you can make your own out of toilet paper rolls and dryer lint. or simply use toilet/tissue paper with a splash of cooking oil on it).
General safety around a fire: not too close, no running, no poking.
If you are unable to have a fire in your own backyard, have a day picnic to a dispersed spot in a nearby national forest/public land. You can even bring part of your gear there to test it for the day.
Bring lots of marshmallows
Testing your camping gear - backyard camping
Camping at home is such a gift in terms of testing all your gear from clothing at night to the tent.
Eat your breakfast or dinner outside to make sure you have the right chairs for the kids. If you are new to camping or just bought a stove top / burner, play around with the time it takes to cook breakfast or dinner on it.
Do you think you need a high chair/ travel chair for your youngest?
And test the sleeping bags and PJs. I know your location is possibly warmer than the mountain you plan to visit. But you can get a feel for how easily your kids stay warm at night and how good the sleeping bag or sleep suit is.
And of course, the tent. Make sure all the poles and pegs are there. Have your kids help you erect the tent. Do you have the right tent for your family? Is there room for the beds you are bringing? Does it go up quickly enough for one night trips?
So many have taken up backyard camping as a stay-home-activity, Even if you know your gear, it’s an adventure for the entire family - and we’re all a little rusty at the beginning of a new camping season, so reacquainting yourself with your primitive life might make you super fast at setup for your next trip.
If you don’t have the space in your backyard to setup your tent or to have a fire or cook, find a spot on public land where you can have a day picnic. State Parks are open again, but nothing beats your own secluded spot in a forest somewhere where the kids and roam while you play around with setting up your tent or cooking. Bring hammocks too!
Educate yourself and the family on First Aid and Leave no Trace
There are 7 principles the entire family should know. Reading about them and practicing them are two very different things, and it takes time to consistently incorporate them into practice. For more on how to actually incorporate the principles into camping activities, check out this post which goes into detail with the main activities to help carry out these principles.
Here is a brief summary of the 7 principles. Make sure to print out the Leave No Trace Bingo to help teach your kids.
Plan ahead and prepare - this helps carry out all the principles better and plan for the unexpected. Also, make sure you have a well stocked first aid kit - and that you know how to use it. There are lots of free tutorials online.
Travel and camp on durable surfaces - minimize damage to vegetation
Dispose of waste properly - Pack in and out, minimize the waste you bring and leave absolutely nothing behind, not even fruit peels. And make sure to bury your human waste at least 6” deep, 150 ft away from any water source. Never bury toilet paper.
Leave what you find - keep nature as untouched as possible to avoid stripping it of what belongs there. Bones and plants may also spread diseases to humans and other plants elsewhere.
Minimize campfire impacts - use established fire rings, bare ground or raised fire pits/grills to minimize scorching
Respect wildlife - observe from a distance, no feeding (intentional and unintentional) or approaching them. Also avoid contaminating their water sources by keeping washing and disposal of dishwater/wash water at least 150 ft from any water source.
Be considerate of other visitors - let yourself and fellow visitors enjoy the silence, so keep music and voices low. And set up camp which allows neighbors to have an undisturbed and unspoiled view to the extend possible.
Another principle worth considering is considerate social media tagging of the places you visit. We all love to learn about a beautiful spot , but if your shared coordinates increase the number of visitors to the spot, the increased traffic may have negative impact.
Click to download! Leave No Trace Bingo Free Download.
Dispersed camping is open in most states
If backyard camping just isn’t your thing - or not enough to scratch the itch - dispersed, or primitive, camping is still an option on most public land, mainly National Forest and BLM Land. Most National forests even have designated marked sites that are open, so you don’t even have to scout for your camping spot. You will find these sites off most main forest roads in large National Forests.
If you want to know how to best prepare for dispersed camping; what you need to be self-sufficient, what to pack and how to find your own dispersed spot and much more, check out my posts in “Dispersed Camping” .
How else are you preparing for camping while staying home? Please share below. I would love to hear from you.
Happy Camping Planning!