Although most of us are “stuck” at home, let’s make the best of it and GO CAMPING. From living room blanket forts to setting up your family’s outdoor tent inside, camping at home is a great way to spend time as a family. To make it a more authentic camping experience, we’ve asked friends and fellow outdoor enthusiasts to share ideas, activities, and camping inspired recipes you can make at home to help bring the outdoors home.
Today, March 27th happens to be National Camp at Home Day. Kammok, maker of popular outdoor hammocks, decided to make this a thing and we LOVED the idea. I know I needed a distraction from all the pandemic news, soaring infection rates, and my kids’ cry for something to do. We own several Kammok hammocks, but this isn’t sponsored by them in any way. But we wanted to join in on the fun and share some ideas for bringing our love of camping home in any way we could.
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I know these camping at home ideas will inspire you to make today or any day in the future a fun family adventure. I’d love to see how you and your family do camping at home. See tag me on Instagram or Twitter @lilfamadventure or on Facebook /ourlittlefamilyadventure and use the hashtag #nationalcampathomeday. Camping with friends is so much fun, but in this age of social distancing, a virtual community is the next best thing.
If you want more ideas on getting outside with the kids, take a look at our new article featuring outdoor activities for kids. It’s all things pollinators.
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Food & Fun Inspiration for Camping at Home
Take all the flavors you love about campfire s’mores, add popcorn and you get a delicious treat you can enjoy at home. This is really easy to create too!
Sit around the campfire or a flashlight and let everyone take turns telling ghost stories.
Perfect for backyard fire pits, barbecues, or even the oven. Create skewers and fire-roasted meals for your next backyard or at home campout.
Get ready for side-splitting laughter and fun with this camp-themed charades game and Pictionary. There are over 90 word prompts on these printables to get you started.
In honor of the last Toy Story movie, this Toy Story Lunch is perfect for over a campfire or in the oven. Kids will love Campfire Slinky Dogs!
Even if you can't be inside a national park, you can take a virtual tour and bring the park to you. Many of your favorite parks including Yosemite, Hawaii Volcanoes. and Carlsbad Caverns have virtual tours.
Here's a collection of simple and fun ways to enjoy some indoor camping fun like setting up a camp out in the living room, going on a virtual hiking trip, or watching a great family camping movie together.
Learn about favorite constellations indoors with this easy to set up an activity to bring the outside inside!
Here are some more fun indoor campout ideas so that you can still enjoy all of the great things about camping right from the comfort of your own home.
You can't possibly go camping without seeing some birds... and what a fun way to celebrate camping at home by taking some time to go bird watching... get tips on setting up an indoor bird watching spot to encourage some nature watching and learning.
No campfire, no problem with our edible smore's slime recipe! Easy kitchen ingredients make this a slime lover's dream activity with a fun indoor campout theme.
Create a camping themed playhouse for the kids using a tablecloth of sheet. Using a hot glue gun, you can have this up in no time.
Easy campfire foil packets dessert recipe lovers, this one is for you. We have Campfire Apple Crisp Foil Packs full of sweet juicy apples, cinnamon and granola. These grilled apple foil packets can be made on the campfire, grill or simply baked in the oven. Bonus is that they require minimal prep and no cleanup.
Find 15+ more foil pockets meals here. These are all easy meal ideas/recipes that you can get the kids involved in with. Let them have a hand in creating their own pockets. These can be made over the fire or at home in the oven.
Enjoy some cuddles and stories by reading camping, hiking, and adventure themed children's books. You can start with these kids camping books
Create a cozy kid’s indoor tent that they’ll be sure to love with this simple sewing tutorial.
Throw at camping themed party at home with these free camping party printables and food ideas. There is also a tutorial for a tabletop campfire.
Hunting when you go camping isn’t with just guns. Go on a family camping scavenger hunt with this free printable!
Create this bug barn/hotel to catch bugs! Kids who love insects and creepy crawlies will get excited to see what they catch.
This free printable camping bingo is fun for the whole family! Even young children can enjoy this picture bingo game because it doesn’t require reading or number knowledge.
Which would you rather - sleep in a blanket fort or this cardboard geo-dome?
Create a night sky art project with potato stamps.
Inspiration, activities, and ideas for stargazing where ever you may be.
Love S’mores? But ingredients like milk, gluten, and sugar aren’t in your nutrition protocol? These S’mores Muddy Buddies (or Puppy Chow) are gluten free, peanut free, low in sugar, and vegan-ish (depending on what kind of grahams you buy – with or without honey).
A hot banana cooked in it's skin to which chocolate and mini marshmallows are added to form a molten gooey and very tasty treat! Perfect outdoor cooking food.
These utterly delicious Nutella S'mores are a tasty twist on the classic campfire treat. This is an easy dessert you can make over the campfire or at home in your air fryer. Post includes Weight Watchers Points.
Need some more ideas of how to spend some time outside as a family while close to home? Check out our list of 100+ and download the free Sanity-Saving bucket list!
Bring this classic camping treat safely indoors with adorable and easy S’mores Bites. The only thing you'll miss is the campfire!
Using toilet paper or paper towel rolls and tissue paper, you can create a pretend campfire indoors.
This homemade trail mix will turn your home camping trip into something memorable. Crunchy and savory, you and your kids will be enjoying these by the handful!
One of our favorite activities when camping is doing scavenger hunts while hiking. Now you can bring the outdoors in with these printables.
If you can’t start a fire to roast s’mores, this is the next best thing. Perfect for patios and balconies.
Basically has everything you need to make camping at home fun including photo booth props. https://californiacamplife.com/camping-party-kit
This is like a encyclopedia of activities for having fun at home. I love it and almost wish I had children at home with me.
I love games. If earlier we used the game Scrabble for home, now we use Scrabble go online on the road, it is improved, and it is convenient to play it on the road. It relaxes me, and now there is a scrabble go help that helps you decipher words if there are difficulties. You don’t linger long on a single word and don’t quit the game because of it!
This article is a great idea! I love the concept of camping at home. Making s’mores popcorn sounds like a delicious twist on the classic treat. I remember telling ghost stories as a kid during family camping trips. It always added an extra spooky element. Have you tried any of these ideas? What other unique camping-inspired snacks could we come up with?