Camping is one of our family's favorite ways to bond. But puke, poop, pee, sick babies, sand, smoke, mud, cold weather, and bug bites mean bonding isn’t always bliss.

Camping with young children is not easy but it is worth it!

As grubby fingers reach out to you at the campfire, as eyes widen with the discovery of a new creature, as your once babies cheer for you at the bottom of a steep bike trail and as children of every age cuddle up for another chapter, you are assured these messy adventures are the magic they need—we need!

In our first year of marriage, my husband Benj and I started with a three-man tent.

We bought a larger tent to accommodate a playpen in our second year with a baby.

We upgraded to a much bigger tent, Big Agnes, and added a rooftop carrier to our van a couple of years later.

Nursing my newborn while one-year-old Ethan and three-year-old Annelise eat an easy breakfast of cereal.

We ended our decade of tenting with kids by pulling an open work trailer to tote bikes and other gear for the seven of us!

When we had five kids six years of age and under we made the giant leap to a wonderful 32-foot long travel trailer, complete with quad bunks in the back, a master bedroom in the front, and more than the basic amenities. See you later little vestibule potty!

The truck carries the bikes and trailer and the van carries the kids! We are looking for an eight seater that can haul this beast!

Benj sleeps in tents on backcountry trips each summer but we both agree the trailer has increased the ease and enjoyment of family camping in this season!

First trip with the trailer, September 2017

This post includes tips for those tenting or using an RV. I hope they support young parents and also encourage us seasoned (a.k.a. older) parents as we head out on our next adventure!

Make sure you grab my free camping download which includes: to-do’s, meal ideas, packing lists, and more!

Thank you to those of you in our Traveling Life Together group who contributed some ideas found in this blog post and others who have asked me questions to motivate this post!

5 Tips for Camping with Kids:

1) Food prep

Camping isn't an all-inclusive vacation. Planning, preparing, and freezing food ahead will make a huge difference!

Benj is the breakfast king and has trained his sidekick well!

First, make a meal plan and then prepare a second portion of a number of meals to freeze in Ziplocs in the weeks prior to your trip.

Along with the freezer meals, I shop our pantry first and then create our camping food grocery order from there.

I share how to always have an answer to “what’s for dinner?” and my love for grocery pick up here.

Faith’s 8th birthday breakfast: eggs, bacon and cinnamon buns!

Pick up your camping groceries a day or two before you leave so you can chop and divide any food items ahead. Now that we have a trailer I place new grocery items directly into our garage fridge or trailer fridge so I don’t have to gather them again.

When we were tenting I’d organize the pantry items in a large laundry basket and gather the cooler items in bags in our spare fridge and freezer until we were ready to pack the cooler and hit the road.

Back when we had to fit it all in the van!

My meal list, food packing list and so much more is available to download, edit and print:

Camping Checklist Guide!

Extra tips:

Frozen meals can be used as ice packs in a cooler.
If you have access to power, a crockpot is a great way to heat the freezer meals on a busy day away.
If you need extra cooler space, shift your condiments into smaller containers.
When we used a cooler we froze a large ice block using a plastic container. These lasted longer than ice packs. For long trips, we would find a freezer at a campsite store and buy a bag of ice. Then we would ask if we could leave our plastic bin in their freezer overnight, so we had a solid ice block for the next leg of our journey.
I used to stress about having enough food for our entire trip. Now I only pack for a week of food and plan on shopping part-way through longer camping trips. Unless you are doing a remote trip (which is a completely different kind of meal planning) there is usually access to a grocery store within an hour of most campgrounds!
Pro-tip: plan an easy dinner for when you return home—like a frozen lasagna or pizza you can heat while you start the laundry.

2. Organization

Another sheet in my Camping Checklist Guide is a one-page chart that will help streamline packing items for each of your family members with a simple checkmark (edit it to suit your needs).

Pack items of one kind at a time!

For example, does everyone have three shirts? Then check that off on the checklist.

Children can assist in gathering many of the items as you read them out! As I do laundry before the trip I set aside any clothes I know we will want to pack.

Bin packing:

I put our rubber boots and mud pants in one bin under our bed in the trailer. There is a good chance we won't need them but it is reassuring to have them along.
Sunhats and sunglasses are all kept together for quick locating.
All of our swim gear is together with towels in another bin (grocery tote) in the back of our van—so we can make a quick dash to the beach without going through each child’s clothing!
These bins continue for life jackets, blow-up toys, outdoor games, shoes, etc. You can not have too many bins in my opinion!
I save grocery bags throughout the year and use them as small garbage bags that can be brought to the campground garbage daily—very handy if you are changing a lot of diapers—and for any soiled or sandy laundry.
When we were tenting I would use suitcases or duffle bags for our clothing and now I carry laundry baskets to the trailer to place clothing in the cupboards and leave some clothes on hangers to hang in the closets.

Other organizing-ish tips:

Keep a large laundry bag/bin (or two) handy to put soiled clothes in throughout your trip.
Baby wipes! There will be many uses for baby wipes, no matter the age of your kids.
If you have a child who may still wet their bed, don't risk it camping—use a diaper to prevent the stress and mess.
Don't forget swim diapers for the baby!
Baby carriers, strollers, bike chariots, and bike seats all take up precious space but are worth taking if you have the room and they fit your child’s season.
Some years I even brought our baby swing or exersaucer (replaced by a folding Go-Pod).

My friend Sarah, from Organized with Kids, shares 10 simple packing tips for vacationing with kids!

3) Sleep!!!

Five kids in a tent: Sylvan Lake trip 2017

Sleep is paramount to enjoying your holidays.

If you have a little one, try using the portable sleep space the week before leaving. I would even put our pod right in our baby’s crib but leave it open for a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. I have heard of others putting their playpen all over the house so the baby gets used to the change of scenery.

Pods take up a little less floor space than playpens and are super light and compact to pack; however, you may need to look for the latest version of this concept as the ones we use have been taken off the market for safety reasons!

We were so excited when we learned of the pod invention. We would even take them to the beach for nap times. If you are in a tent or at the beach, put a light covering over the sleeping space to create a darker area.

One baby sleeping in the stroller, and two toddlers settling for their naps in the pods. Note the sound machine in the middle! 2013

Sound machines for white noise are especially helpful when camping in a tent with a baby. While we didn't leave one on all night, it was helpful for naps and early bedtime transitions. If you have a unit that can access power it is a great way to have a baby or toddler napping in one area while others are also hanging out in another area!

Lastly, when it comes to camping and sleeping, I suggest camping for a minimum of three nights as it takes at least the first night or two to settle in. You will reap the rewards of all the effort packing and finding your family’s groove if you stick it out a little longer.

4. Routine & Flexibility

The fun of holidays is breaking away from your normal routine and scenery—but with young children, it is still helpful to follow your family’s basic rhythm when possible!

I value my early morning quiet time. This soul-care time with the Lord is a must to refresh and focus my heart. I only wish I would have prioritized it in those earlier years. I share 4 questions to ask if you want to read your Bible more in Starved Souls.

The sleep conversation continues in this routine tip too! Some of our babies did better going with the flow and others would melt down if sleep-deprived (including the mama), so we usually prioritized the afternoon nap and hoped they'd catch a morning nap in a backpack, stroller, or car seat so we could still enjoy activities away from the campsite.

The odd time we'd just party the whole day and hope naps happened on the go but for many years we had three nappers, so it was also the adult's holiday time to get everyone in their quiet time spaces and have some space to chat, read, play a game or nap!

Reasonable bedtimes are also helpful to maintain but harder to enforce in a tent when the sun hasn’t set and everyone is giddy with excitement. If that’s the case, cook smores (of course more sugar will help those excited kids sleep…) or have a glow stick dance party as the sunsets (to really bring peace and calm…).

Hey, it really is true that you only live once!

5. Simple Activities

Simple activities like bike rides or hikes around the campground and playing at playgrounds or beaches can be great outlets if you don’t want to pack up for a lot of day trips.

You might enjoy reserving a site near a playground so you can easily observe your children playing.
Pack rainy day activities like coloring books, crafts, playdough, board games, read-aloud chapter books, and storybooks.
We didn’t bring along technology in our tenting years but now the kids enjoy audio stories and we may watch a family movie in the trailer with some popcorn on a rainy night!
Rock painting, scavenger hunts, bubbles, board or lawn games, and glow light dance parties are some other fun activities!

Miquelon 2018, this is our favorite fall spot as it backs onto a field with a big playground!

Other activity tips:

A few years ago I realized I prefer staying off social media on holidays. If I share a few windows into our fun it is usually after we return home.
Camping with family and friends can be a great way to really connect and make memories.
We plan our spring and fall trip around some of our children's birthdays.
Don't forget to take pictures and videos or journal about this season of life.

Camping with kids, especially babies, presents challenges but the need for teamwork, humor, and creativity will knit you together for years to come!

In the blur of pregnancies and newborns I thought some seasons would last forever but just the other day the six kids we carried in hiking backpacks and strollers over the years raced ahead in wild excitement and I knew we’ve been on the right trail all along!