An eco-friendly and all natural camping trip can be a great experience that your whole family can bond over and learn from. To make the most of your trip, consider following these tips for an exciting adventure filled with fun and learning without chemicals or toxins that could hurt the environment.
A Quick Note Before You Go:
With a few multi-functional items, you can stay comfortable without weighing yourself down. For example, biodegradable baby wipes can be used to clean your body, for makeup removal and for trips to the bathroom. Kids robes can replace pillows, towels, and keep your children covered when walking to the bathroom or shower areas. Remember, the lighter you pack, the more energy you may have to explore!
Indigenous Edibles
A lot of people get satisfaction from cooking their own food, but you may get even more by foraging in nature for dinner. To learn about the indigenous edible plants in your area, check out a field guide from your library that focuses on the region you will be camping in. Then, before your trip, you can review the edible plants you may come across and learn how to identify and prepare them, just make sure you pay attention to the season since some only grow at certain times of the year. For example, cat tails grow all over the Northeast and have a variety of edible parts, and can even be used for a flower substitute. If you come across a grassy area, young dandelions can make a tasty treat that resembles arugula. Even in harsher climates like South Eastern Arizona, you can find wild carrots, canyon grapes, and sunflowers. You can also find some plants with sweet juices that can replace sugar and make a great snack during a hike or other high energy activity. Just make sure that whatever you are going to eat matches its description from the guide book exactly. This way you can safely find your own salad, or just add some garnishes to the burger you cook over your campfire.
Organic Tie-Dye
While you’re hiking, look for juicy, non-toxic, colourful berries, fruits and flower that will stain clothing, such as raspberries, blue berries, cherries and dandelions. Your kids can collect these natural plants and put them in a container to bring home. Then, when you get back, you can make your own natural dye for clothes and hair. To turn the berries into a dye, cut them up, put them in a pot, and add two parts water for every one part berry. Then bring the pot to a boil and simmer for about an hour. At this point, you can strain your mixture and you will have a 100% natural dye. Because this dye will stain anything it touches, you may want to use an old pot and wear aprons and gloves. Once you are finished, you can use your dye to make tie-dye shirts for the whole family. This way you will have fun, fashionable, natural and practical souvenirs to remember your trip by.
Learning About the Night’s Sky
Camping can take you to areas where the stars truly shine. To make the most of this, give your kids a star chart to study on the way to the camp ground and ask each of them to remember a section from it. Over the course of the day, they can pick up colourful objects, such as shiny bits of quartz or mica, unique leaves, flower petals, or anything else that catches their eyes. Once you are back at your campsite, you can draw lines in the dirt showing the boundaries of each of their star chart sections. Then, let them recreate their part of the night sky. The brightest and largest objects they found can be the biggest stars or can be used to show where the planets will be during a certain time of the night. Then the smaller objects can be arranged around them to show the other stars within the constellations. Whoever fills in their area the most completely can win a treat, like an extra s’more after dinner. If everyone has a good memory, the different sections will combine to give an accurate representation of the night sky. Make sure to take a picture of their sky maps while it is still light. Then your children can change into their pajamas to keep warm while waiting for it to get dark so they can see how their maps match up to the star filled sky.
Camping is a great way to get active outdoors and stay in touch with nature. By following a few simple and fun steps, you can learn astronomy, find your own food, and collect materials to make your own all-natural fashion statement. After a day of these fun filled activities, your whole family should be ready to tuck down in their tent, or just sleep under the stars.
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