Whether your campsite is in the backyard, at a park, or even in your living room, these printable camping-themed games and activities are a lot of fun for kids and just might teach them something about the great outdoors.
Growing Play: Printable S’more maze | Camping trivia word search
Artsy Fartsy Mama: Camping Tic Tac Toe (post also features a roundup of other printable camping and road trip games)
Organized 31: Camping scavenger hunt
Crafts on Sea: Camping activity sheets (includes games, drawing sheets, a memory page and more)
Picklebums: Outdoor adventure I Spy coloring sheet
The Crazy Outdoor Mama: Camping bingo cards | Outdoor scavenger hunts | Roll a S’more camping game
The Soccer Mom Blog: Insect scavenger hunt
Looking for more Camping ideas check out these Camping cookbooks
and Camping Activity ideas
.
In campgrounds where campsites are very close together, a privacy screen can give you some much-needed separation from your fellow campers. You can buy many kinds of privacy screens for this purpose or make one yourself before you go camping, but this just adds one more thing to pack in and pack out. It is much easier to make a simple privacy guard from a spare tarp while you are camping.
Building a privacy screen from a tarp
Start by deciding where you want the tarp to be. This works best if you have a pair of trees to anchor your privacy screen, but you can also use a pair of spare tent poles to anchor each end of the tarp. If you are using a line between trees, you can do this yourself, but you will find it easier to do with a couple of helpers.
If you have found a couple of convenient trees, you can fasten the ends of a rope directly to them, high enough that the bottom of the tarp is clear of the ground by a foot or so. Use a bowline knot or other knot that will not slip. If your tarp does not have grommets, you can sling it directly over this line, so that half hangs down on one side and half on the other. Anchor the loose ends of the tarp to the ground with guy lines and tent spikes to keep it in place. Your privacy screen is now complete.
Without trees for support, your privacy screen will have to be freestanding. Weave a rope or clothesline through the grommets along the wide side of the tarp. You will need at least 6 or so extra feet of rope on either side of the tarp.
Run your tent poles through the grommets along each narrow side of the tarp. The poles will need to be long enough so that the bottom of the tarp will be about a foot off the ground when the supports are placed upright.
You can also use other sources of support for this, such as a wooden dowel or even a tree branch of the right size. However, if you use a stiffer support, you should only run your support through the top, center, and bottom grommets of the tarp.
Get your helpers to hold each end of the tarp so that the supports are upright, the rope runs along the top, and the tarp is taut. It is your job to anchor it in place with guy wires and tent spikes.
The first guy wire will be the loose ends of your rope, which you should stake outwards from the tarp at a 45 degree angle. Then add a second and third guy wire at each end of the tarp. Attach them to the same top end grommet as the first rope at either end of the tarp, and stake them at a 45 degree angle opposite the first rope.
When you finish, you should have 2 angled and staked ropes holding each support pole upright. If your helpers kept the tarp taut throughout and you put enough tension on the rope, this should be enough to keep your new privacy screen stable.
Building a privacy screen from greenery
You can easily use interwoven boughs to make your own temporary privacy screen. The techniques are similar to those you would use for building a brush shelter, except that you don’t have to make it as tight as you would for a shelter.
Use a tree-to-tree rope and a few large busy branches to create the framework of your privacy screen. Willow branches work very well for this because they are bushy, flexible, plentiful, and they also grow back quickly.
Lean them at an angle against that rope on the windward side, so that the rope is about a quarter of the way down the branch. If it is very windy, you can tie a couple of branches in place, but otherwise gravity should hold them on.
Weave smaller branches into your framework horizontally or at an angle, working from the bottom to the top until you have closed off your intended privacy screen. The leafier the branches, the better they will interlock with each other, and the better your privacy screen will be.
You can stop at any point when you think you have enough privacy. The interlocked branches won’t support anyone’s weight, but they should be stable under most conditions without needing any extra ties.
Leave a Reply