Starting from scratch, advice please for camping with 3 and 4 yr olds.

[ImFree2doasiwant]

Hello,

I really love camping, did a lot in my youth, but am early 40s, single, with 2 small children. I'd love to start getting a decent camping kit together, but need to start pretty much from scratch. I have a small tent which would do for a start, but am kern to get something bigger and more suitable. I have NOTHING else.

I'd be grateful for advice on
Bed/bedding for the kids
Food storage
Cooking gear
Wet weather!

What is the bare minimum? I don't have a huge budget. I think we could have some great times camping but don't want to miss anything. Being 40 something and having small children us altogether different to my past camping experiences

I’m single and have just taken my 2 young kids camping for the first time. I’d def recommend a practice session in the garden first with your new tent, we did a couple of attempts first which the kids loved but meant I was quick at putting up the tent when we arrived in the rain!

I took self inflating mattresses for us all, they are around a tenner in aldi at the moment, and foam yoga mats underneath those for a bit of extra padding and insulation. The kids both took their own duvets and just used them the other way round so they lay in half and had half over the top of them. I’ve bought myself a new 10.5 tog synthetic double duvet which I can fit in the washer at home to use next time; because we had a campfire the duvets came back smelling of smoke, so needed washing which was fine for singles but would have been less good if I’d have taken my king size feather duvet! Tesco’s have them cheaply at the moment-I paid around a tenner.

Aldi also have a gazebo in for £40, I’ve bought it for our next trip as got bit wet cooking on the gas stove, I saw another family with it on our trip just gone and it looked good.

Porridge pots where you just add water are useful as you don’t need to keep milk cool, likewise pre-wrapped choc croissants also a winner. I did bacon one morning bur the campsite had a communal fridge to use which was handy.

We loved it and have def got the bug!

Paper plates.