Camping toys

[WelshMoth]

DC are 7 and 4 (both girls). We have a plactic box of pens and crayons, lots of paper and a couple of jigsaws. Plan on ball, and plastic bat and ball (from pound shop), portable DVD player.

Anything else I could take that they would love and won't take up much room?

Dominoes, pack of cards, top trumps.

And maybe a games compendium set- snakes ladders, draughts?

UNO
Things to make shadow puppets
Pocket kite
Boules
Scatch

Beware paper! Having chased a dozen sheets of A4 around a field I would heartily recommend a colouring book or notebook. Where are you going to do a jigsaw? The ground is not going to be table-flat.

It's worth taking less and then getting a book from a pound shop if you're really stuck, rather than dragging a load of stuff with you and finding that all they do all day is run about making things out of squashed leaves

My dc always take a few small toys like cars, action figures and then we take some board games and books for me to read to them. Also a couple of the usbourne activity books which are great for a rainy evening stuck in the tent.

Sylvanian families
There is even a camping set
You know you want to

Cappster, good point re jigsaw. I'll scrap that!
trout I DD's always court the Sylvanian families whenever we're in Tesco. Think I'm going to have to invest....

OK we have boys that age and normally take things like:

cars and road-mat (but maybe you would go with your sylvanian families here)
comics or puzzle book
lightweight frisbee or foam rocket shooter (have sympathy for neighbours)
football or cricket set
small kite
chess set - then you can play too
few books

You do need to cover both indoors and outdoors, except with this weather maybe the DVD player is the best option!

We have something like this role play set which always comes with us.

Also check out charity shops, I found a new mini etch a sketch for £1 and get children's books for 50p each. I make up a bag of toys/books (I use a supermarket reusuable bag) which I try and keep just for camping, that way it seems more exciting. I am also trying to sollect nature books like the 'I spy' to keep just for camping- that's the Girl Guider in me.

Depending on how much mess you want.... We always take mini - well tiny - paint pots and decorate pebbles (which have to be found first - usually involving a walk down a river!) can easily pass half a day!!

Treasure hunts around camp site good time passer too.

Glow sticks or some light up tat, if going to be up after dark, especially for festivals.

Balloons are good for inside the tent and don't take much space packing, likewise a beach ball.

A frisbee is good if there's a space they can play away from other tents.

Swap the DVD player for loads of smaller toys.

Pens (in a tub), drawing pad each, some books, favourite cuddly, ball and...strangely enough...one of those velcro catch games (ours is a frog and lily pads- they can play it in the tent). We haven't gone down DVD route as I know that if we do that they'll request it all the time....whereas we've been camping in awful weather (last half term for example) and I never heard a complaint about boredom, and they wanted to stay despite the rain! That said it could be beneficial for YOUR sanity :o

Dd3 always takes a few playmobil folk with her and sometimes the car and tent if we have room.

I take yahtezee[sp], a pack of cards, dominoes and a fab game I used to play as a kid called Continuo. They are all kept in a largeish sandwhich box so the bits dont get lost or damp.

We also take paper but cut A4 sheets in half to save on waste and pens and pencils.

For outdoors we have bouls, a frisby, aball and cricket set.Inflatable kayak and 2 bikes.

FGS, no wonder my poor car is packed to the roof!! I think I need to slim down my stuff abit

Fantastic ideas from you all. Thank you!

This thread has reminded me of a game we had called pass the pigs It was really simple and kept us entertained. It's just gone in my amazon shopping basket.