So tell me about camping.

[Voidka]

So many of you seem to love camping and I always thought it would be a nightmare but I am warming to the idea.

Do you have any hints and tips that you want to share? Nice places to go? Things I need to get?

Camp next to the playground. Take a tub of Lego and a mat to put outside your tent. Make your tent 'interesting' on the outside.

In short become a kiddie-catcher!

Camping is a great leveller for kids. Age and things and clothes don't get in the way of playing together and on some levels neither does disability. Children go back to being children.

Pick an enclosed field and train the children ASAP where their free reign boundaries are. Depending on your child and how far they can go you might want to peg out a ribbon they are not allowed to cross, particularly around hot cooking equiPment. ASAP do some 'training' in the rules.

Camping works because wherever you are you can lay out the inside of the tent the same way. Food can be tricky until you get used to it. The best thing to do is prepare an advance menu and eat one/two pot meals where you can like mild chilli etc. And make use of convenience foods. Boil in bag rice for example. You can do sandwiches for lunch.

And my fave top tip. Put the kids to bed in your bed so when you go to bed you can move their sleeping bodies and get into a warm bed yourselF

Ha!

My only issue with camping is that dd2 has no volume modulation and is quite monotone, and obviously wakes as soon as the sun comes up. So at 5.30 she is talking in a really loud monotone and there is no way on earth I can either shush her or get her to go back to sleep. So we have to up and away for a long walk away from other campers as I am über paranoid about waking up the entire campsite and being that family. I can cope with being that family during normal hours, but I would be mightily dischuffed if someone else's kid woke me at 5.30 every day of my holiday, so I have to take precautionary measures....

Love to camp though. And the good thing about loud odd children is you are unlikely to be eaten by a bear or cougar in this neck of the woods... They can hear you coming from a mile off.

That's why I camp on top of the playground. Most stay well away from the potential noisy bit if site.

If other people's kids are still being loud at 11pm I'm happy enough for mine to be at 6am.

We had one fabulous camp where we were miles from anyone else on the site, and I ended up sitting round a campfire having a surreal makaton convo with a woman who was a senco. Never met her before, but we regaled the onlookers with the full rap version of goldilocks, which seemed to go down quite well...

It amused us, anyway. Can't remember how to sign 'beer' now, though... Although I recall 'more' being quite popular. All we needed was mr tumble, really.

Our tent blew down the next day. We put it back up and went to the village for fish and chips.

I should add, - skinuk do an annual camping trip that used to be fabulous for families with disabilities, and a really 'safe' environment if you haven't tried it out solo.

Random tips

If you can get a radar key for the disability toilet/shower.
DS requests a playground with a trampoline now we've tried several sites
S. Wales is less crowded than Devon/Cornwall at peak times & has more locals and fewer London middle-class judgey pants types, (sad cos I'm Cornish!)
Take a familar blanket/sleeping bag from home.
The family dog calms 1st night nerves/makes a good hot water bottle for nervous kids at night.
Mulled red wine is wonderful with fish & chips (don't think you always have to cook!).
Sainsburys/tescos do deliver to campsites ; )
Solar fairy lights are better than camping lanterns as they are more adaptable.
Give each child their own cheap dynamo torch for reading under the blanket/trips to the loo etc.
Choose a site with an onsite laundrette if you can
Don't forget your crocs, (for beach, & trips to the loo in th middle of the night!)
A kelly kettle boils in under 5 mins and is pretty safe to use for cooking (fire enclosed).

We love camping and go as often as we can. The Dd's like to have an electric hook up so the can have some of their gadgets and i must admit it does give me and dp some down time.

Get everyone a set of decent waterproofs and then they can be outside as much as poss.

I agree about being near the playground, setting some boundaries and taking some toys.

Try to borrow some kit and give it a whirl.

Choose a tent that is easy to put up and take down.

We have a bell tent that I can put up on my own in 20mins although I do get a bit cross if the kids try to 'help'!

Well done for starting this thread Voidka - I hope you don't mind if I hijack.
I'm deffo up for camping this summer, but what do the happy campers think, uk or France?

Whatever you do, make sure you are warm otherwise you will be miserable.

Insulate under the bed as well as on top, hot water bottles are also a good idea.

www.ukcampsite.co.uk have a large population of well camped individuals. There's a wealth of knowledge on there and well worth a look at. Post your wish list on the campsite forum and someone will be along with a suggested site within minutes.

Campsites with entertainment, clubs etc are sometimes rowdy (not always, but beware).

Campsites that allow campfires are magical places. You stink of smoke most of the time, but when you're camping you don't give a monkeys!

The kids will be so tired by the end of the day, that you are unlikely to see them at 5.30am, but if you do see them that early don't worry. I don't mind being woken by children early in a morning, but I do object to rowdy drunks at midnight. I think the majority of the camping set are of a similar mind, so don't worry too much about early risers. You might find that's the best time to go and get a shower before the morning rush.

Don't think you have to do camping 'right' either. If you can afford it and it suits you can skip the tinned stuff and eat out for all meals. You can use duvets if you can fit them in your car. You can put pegs in with your feet. You don't have to know how to make a fire. You can take china plates and use bike lights for torches and pack suitcases.

we certainly don't do all that much cooking because all the meals that are easy to cook on a camp cooker (pasta, rice, chilli, baked beans etc), or even simple fare like cereals are just the sort of things that ds won't eat and he can't spend the whole holiday eating sausages! We tend to try and eat out somewhere during the day so that he gets a bit of variety and then when we get back to camp we can just have snacky stuff like toasted sandwiches and crisps and chocolate fruit.
My tip is if you have a likely escaper, make sure you have a sewn-in groundsheet. We had to replace our first tent because ds learnt to roll under the flysheet and we couldn't relax at all!

Pixel, our dogs do that... we have to shut them in the bedrooms with the kids.

We have a folding camper so everything is the same no matter where we are, I can lock the door at night and we are off the floor for sleeping.
DDs are normally up very early at home but by day 2-3 they are better at sleeping in as they are shattered and the fresh air helps.
We love sites with just a play park and not much else. There tends to be a different sort of people on those to the ones with big pools and club houses iyswim

We love fen farm on Mersey island and long thornes in Dorset.

As for quiet mornings we have a tv and DVD player which they can watch.

I pack all the clothes into non-matching hippy cushion covers. Then they can be scattered around the tent avoiding suitcases etc. they can also be easily stuffed into gaps when packing the car.

I have a 'comfort kit' for the middle of the night/early morning walks I have to take with ds - flask for coffee, chocolate/snack, radio, handwarmers.