Camping is a fun and relaxing activity that allows us to connect with our loved ones and with nature. Camping with family is an amazing way to bond, spend some quality time together, release stress, and escape the tedious daily routine. Camping is also very affordable, yet it can be extremely beneficial for your family. The idea of spending the night under the stars with your children may be terrifying at first, but even though it takes a lot of planning and preparation, taking your family on an enjoyable camping trip is definitely doable. There are a lot of different camping types to choose from, so whether your style is in a cabin, tarp, RV/Van, or bell tents, you can find a camping style that suits your family needs and reap all the benefits of spending time in nature. Read on to find out the amazing benefits of camping with family.
1. Bonding
Family camping brings the whole family together and really allows you to bond with your children. Due to school, work, or other activities, family members may not have a lot of time to spend together, so setting aside a couple of days or a weekend to camp together in the great outdoors offers a unique bonding experience for the entire family. Certain shared activities like pitching a tent, preparing meals, playing games, or making s’mores around the campfire can make your camping trip more memorable.
2. Learning New Things and Exploring Together
Camping is also a great way to learn more about the environment, and all the plants, birds, and animals. You can help your children learn some practical life skills and lessons through camping in the woods. It also gives you a chance to explore the outdoors and depending upon the location you’ve chosen, you can go swimming, fishing, hiking, or water rafting with your family and create happy memories that will last a lifetime.
3. Connecting with Nature
Camping as a family helps the children to better understand nature and teaches them respect. Children today may have all the knowledge to operate the latest phones, tablets, and computers, but they definitely don’t know about the beauties and dangers of nature. Therefore, family camping can help you to connect with nature and your children will get an amazing chance to learn how to identify the animals and plants that surround you and to enjoy exploring new places.
4. Building Resilience
Camping is fun, but not every part of camping is enjoyable because you simply don’t have all the comforts of home. Picking up wood for the fire or pitching up the tent can be boring especially for children, but let them get bored. Then try to find creative ways to solve the problem and get through these feelings. Sticking out when things get frustrating, teaches children resilience which is extremely important because it will give them the strength to process and overcome hardships in life.
5. Enhancing Creativity
Camping is not only about fun and relaxation, it can also enhance your creativity. This activity allows you to get the much needed break from your daily routine, puts you in a challenging environment, and boosts your creativity and imagination. Spending a few days in the nature, while being completely disconnected from technology, will increase your creative problem-solving abilities. Just being in nature, away from all the hustle and bustle of the city, allows you to focus on the present and in turn makes you more creative and productive.
6. Physical Fitness
Another reason why family camping is great is because it can help you get in shape. There’s no better way to have children blow off some steam and burn out energy than simply being outside. Almost every activity, while you’re camping, involves some kind of exercise. You and your children can walk, hike, run, swim in the lake, climb trees, or even bike. Camping is an amazing way to get outside, enjoy nature, and improve both your mental and physical health.
7. Teaching Basic Survival Skills
Life is unpredictable and you never know when survival skills may be needed. Family camping presents the ideal opportunity to unplug from technology and teach your children some basic survival skills such as simple first aid, navigation, campsite cooking, how to spot undrinkable water, how to identify edible plants, and how to gather wood, build a fire and extinguish it safely. Maybe even you don’t have much knowledge on survival skills. But, that’s ok, because you and your children can learn together while camping.