camping

When we camp we bring along the wiffle ball (or nerf ball) and plastic bat, frisbees, football, soccer (or kick ball). This will be good for your 3-6 year olds and even if they aren't "good" with these things, it gives them a chance to just play and have fun. As for the younger ones, I would suggest stroller and taking them for short walks. 1 1/2 -a young 3 is a tough age for camping unless you bring along toys and activites (but you can always get the balls and have them roll back and forth to each other). If you want to get creative (and know the area well) you can plan a small scavenger hunt with the kids pairing up with an adult. I would also suggest lots of books.

"It's not to late to become who you've always wanted to be..."

We play wiffle ball and frisbee. We also bring along our sand pails and shovels. Our youngest son loves to "dig'' for treasures and collect pine cones, rocks, etc.
You could also do an easy scavenget hunt for the older ones.

Susie is a discussion leader in the east valley for arizonamoms.com. She has two sons, ages 7 and 3.

My daughter has gone camping with us since she was about 8 months old. I use a screen room to put toys in for her so she can play in the shade and it also keeps the bugs out. I bring some of her favorite toys from home (dolls, doll stroller, etc.) to put in there. I also set up a small table and chairs and let her play with playdough and finger paints. When you are camping you don't have to worry about getting those messy things on the carpet :)

Scavenger hunts are fun. We have created our own camping Olympics including pine cone throwing, batting a pinecone, spinning around 5 times then placing a rock into a bucket and any crazy activiy you can come up with. A deck of cards can entertain the older kids for a while.

soccermom of a 12 yr old boy and 15 yr old young lady

We bring a variety of balls. We also bring their bikes. We have a 3 and 4 year old... I also bring several of my son's little hot rod car toys. He loves driving them through the dirt.