5 Tips For Camping With Tweens
We seem to have suddenly found ourselves smack dab in the middle of tween-ville with a 12 year old and now a 10 year old. Gone are the days where a bucket full of dolls and toys was enough to keep them busy indoors or out; we’re now challenged with letting our 2 older daughters stretch their legs and find their independence. Gulp.
I know what you’re thinking…there should be lots for tweens to do while camping. After all – why else do I pack up a 30 foot trailer with 4 kids, 2 cats, 4 bikes, 2 scooters, 1 bouncy water slide, 1 water trampoline and endless art supplies?
After our annual 2 week trip to Osoyoos, BC, I’ve come up with my 5 tips for camping with tweens.
- Deal them in – Remember when you could put the kids to bed at 8pm and stay up until midnight playing cards and laughing? Tweens are the perfect age to start learning the complex rules of all the classic camping cards games. Bridge, Crib, Gin and even poker (with play money or m&m’s). We were introduced to Dutch Blitz (thanks Shannon) on our last trip and not only did we (the grown ups) love the fast pace of this card game but the kids loved it too. But I think we’ll wait until they’re 18 to pull out the Cards Against Humanity card game. 😉
- Let them go – Gulp. I admit that this one makes me feel a little bit sick to my stomach but this year we let the big girls explore a lot more and a lot farther without a parent. Exploring on their bikes, meeting new friends and even going to the beach. Of course, we laid out some safety rules for biking, checking in and staying with a buddy at all times, especially at the beach. Success all around, especially for the local candy store owners…no wonder we had no change left for doing laundry.
- Book ’em – As soon as our girls entered their tweens it opened up a whole new category of movies that were once strictly off limits and of little interest to them anyway. Now their friends are watching movies like The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner and we’re faced with, “but Cindy’s mom let her watch it”. We’ve made a deal with the girls, if they read the book first, they can watch the movie. The win here is three fold. (1) They’re reading a book! YAY! (2) Any of the more adult situations are introduced as concepts in the book first allowing for discussion or questions ahead of watching the movie version. (3) Girls movie night out just got a whole lot more fun, no more Minions!
- Give them a job – Well not really a job but more like a project. Being surrounded by little kids including the two 7 year old sisters they have, I gave them a box of party supplies (courtesy of Netflix) and told them to plan a party for all the little kids around us. Ever After High has been a huge hit for my girls and with new episodes out on Netflix, so they weren’t short on inspiration for the party. They got to work and made invitations, put up decorations, planned games, set up a photo booth and even gave away prizes drawn from all the attendees. It went off without a hitch and the tweens ended up being praised by all the parents of the little kids for giving them an hour of peace.
- Go out – Built in babysitters! This is THE single best part of having tweens. They’re old enough to babysit and not old enough to drive (which means they’re around, all the time!). Our camper is our home away from home and so we decided that a night out for dinner with our friends who joined us camping, was a perfect night for everyone. We got out for a meal that didn’t involve crayons or kids menus and the tweens got to watch movies and eat popcorn in the trailer while also babysitting the younger kids. I can’t tell who benefits more when we go out for the night, them or us. Either way, everyone is happy.
So far having 50% of our kids in the tween stage has been a blast. Our camping trips have changed a lot in the 10 years that we’ve been pulling a trailer during the summer months. Only a couple more years and the twins will be tweens and then I’ll have tween AND teens AND ALL GIRLS!
It’ll be a blast!
I’m sure the heavy sighing and the eye rolling will be over any day now, right? RIGHT!?
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