By Renee Martinez
The thought of camping evokes memories from my childhood…getting marshmallows stuck in my hair from s’mores gone bad, leaving my sneakers to dry out by the fire only to find that they melted, picking flowers for mom and a nice rash from poison ivy too. Sounds like a fun time you’d like to share with your family, right?
Honestly, I did have wonderful memories of camping. Don’t be frightened by the stories above – the problems were usually because of my clumsiness, not really the camping.
Family camping outings are a great way to experience a new place, go on an adventure and not break the bank. Whether you choose to stay in a tent, camper, cabin, yurt, state park, or rough it with no plumbing, you’ll be sure to experience wild life, get dirty and enjoy a campfire (and maybe do a little fishing too).
Going on a family camping adventure can be a breeze if, like any other trip, you take some initial time to plan and organize. Try to get your children involved with making decisions as to where you’ll go or what accommodation you will stay in. Having each child choose an activity that they want to do while camping will get them excited about the trip, and perhaps even encourage them to help you prepare without too much whining.
If it’s your first time camping (and you know you want to camp more in the future), it’s extra important to pull it off without any major snafu’s or you will never go camping with your family again. You may want your first trip to be in a place with running water, bathrooms and showers.
Other suggestions:
- Plan which activities you want to do, and make sure to bring the proper equipment.
- Practice setting up your tent. You may even want to let the kiddos play in it for a bit. Or better yet, why not camp in your backyard for a night before your adventure. This way you can plan for sleeping details and the kids will get excited about the trip. Or if it goes badly… you can change your mind all together and plan a back-up vacation involving a hotel before the kids get too into the idea of camping.
- Make a checklist. Just to make sure you remember everything you need.
- Bring a flashlight for every family member and a battery operated (bring plenty of batteries) lantern for each tent, if possible. NO propane lanterns in the tents! Glow sticks are fun too.
- Plan a menu so you know what you’re eating. Make it easy.
Be sure to show the kids what poison ivy and poison oak looks like. Also, teach your children about safety and how to respect nature. Don’t forget to bring a first aid kit. You never know when you might need one.
Most importantly, have fun. Bring scissors and paper, as well as a camera and/or video camera. Have the kids make a scrapbook for the trip. It’ll be fun creative “downtime” and souvenirs from your adventure.
About the Author: Renee Martinez consults and speaks professionally on social media marketing, integrated marketing communications, public relations and branding. She is the president of Ruby Marketing Communications (www.rubymarcom.com), a boutique marketing communications company that specializes in providing branding, social media strategy and integration, and creative services. Her blog (www.lisac95.sg-host.com), provides resources on everything marketing and social media for her active audience.
Renee has contributed as a featured monthly columnist in the monthly jewelry industry publication, JCK, on matters related to internet marketing as well as in InStore Magazine as a featured blogger where she writes about developing effective marketing strategies for the jewelry industry using social media. She is the founder of: Social Media Biz Summit (www.socialmediabizsummit.com), the first large-scale SM conference to come to Buffalo, NY; #jewelrychat, a weekly twitter chat for the jewelry industry and www.RaisingBoysWorld.com. Renee teaches social marketing courses at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY for the business school as well as offers small group social media marketing training and educational seminars for businesses in Western New York and beyond.
Renee has dabbled in the internet marketing arena since the early 90′s and is not ashamed to call herself a “marketing geek”. From chatting in AOL, “sharing” music on Napster, and teaching HTML classes before it was considered “cool” to developing comprehensive social media strategies, effective public relations campaigns and managing online communities (most recently Chevy Girls Buffalo).
She enjoys being able to help people find their voice online and to create buzz about their product or service that will give them the results they desire.
Renee can be found on Twitter (@reneemmartinez) and Facebook (http:/www.facebook.com/RubyMarCom).
