10 Ways To Keep Children Busy When Camping In The Rain

With the Memorial Day weekend comes the official start to the camping season, at least here in Indiana.

Of course, summer does not guarantee you a rain-free camping experience and so you need a few ideas on how to keep the children busy should it rain while camping.

10 Ways To Keep Children Busy When Camping In The Rain

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1. Let Them Get Wet

The other nine ideas on my list are indoor activities that can easily be done in a tent or camping trailer while you wait for the rain to stop. However, getting wet in the rain isn’t hazardous to healthy children and adults–especially if they come prepared for rain. Pack a few umbrellas (0ur family finds this style to be longer-lasting) raincoats or rain ponchos (we find this style packs up small, making it easy to stuff several into your camping gear storage) and rain boots (0r extra shoes).

After they are all suited up for the rain the kids can go puddle jumping, look for earthworms that often come out in rainstorms, play with water toys in the puddles, catch raindrops on their tongues and much more.

2. Coloring Books and Crayons or Markers

Coloring books are not just for little children to enjoy with their crayons, you can get some very detailed ones for older children to enjoy with fine-tipped felts as well.

• Melissa & Doug jumbo coloring pad–great for smaller children. Comes in various styles.
• Large jumbo-sized crayons break less easily–perfect for young children.
• Spiral-bound and perforated coloring book–perfect for older children, teenagers, and adults. The spiral binding allows it to sit flat on your lap and the perforated pages let you rip out the pages and frame them.
• Fine tip felts for coloring more detailed coloring books–pencil crayons work well too, but then you have to make sure to pack a pencil sharpener and put up with pencil shavings that might not make it to the garbage.

Make it a family experience by holding a coloring contest.

3. Card Games

Board games are hard to bring camping as they require a lot of space and often contain a lot of little pieces to keep track of. Card games, however, can be easily stored in a ziplock bag and played just about anywhere. Here are a few family favorites:

• Uno–this set comes in a handy travel tin.
• Scrabble Slam—sneaky way to fit in a bit of spelling practice.
• Spot It–comes in a travel tin, fast-paced, and can be played in multiple ways–plus it is fun.

Some of these games can be played with a plain deck of cards that can also be used for several more games. You might want to invest in a book on family card games and just bring it and a deck of cards.

4. Word Search & Other Word Game Books

If your child can read, they are ready for word find books or crossword puzzle books. These can be played alone or together.

• The Everything Kids Word Search Book
• The Everything Kids Puzzle Book: Mazes, Word Games, Puzzles and More
• 101 Fun Crossword Puzzles For Kids

One of our campsites turned into a lake during our 5 1/2 month RV trip

5. Connect the Dots, Hidden Pictures and Maze Books

If your child isn’t recognizing words yet or doesn’t enjoy word games, then connect the dots, hidden pictures and maze books are always fun.

• The Everything Kids Connect The Dot Book
• The Everything Kids Hidden Pictures Book
• The Everything Kids Maze Book

6. Books to Read

Either read-aloud books that the whole family will love to listen to as they are waiting for the rain to end or books read individually.

You might want to check out my Building A Home Library Inexpensively series for ideas of where to find quality low price and free books to bring on your camping trip.

Here is a list of my children’s favorite read-aloud books when they were little.

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7. Tell Stories Of Your Lives

Pass the time away by going back in time. “I remember the day you were born…” “I remember when I was your age…” Stories like these make children feel special and more connected with their parents.

8. I Spy

The classic “I spy with my little eye something that is…” does not require you to pack anything extra and is great for passing the time.

9. Paper Dolls or Origami

A new paper doll book is a great activity that will get your children’s imagination going. They come as flat books so they are easy to pack in with your camping gear. Another idea is to purchase an origami how-to book and some origami paper.

10. A Blank Pad of Paper and a Few Pens or Pencils

A blank pad of paper can be used for endless rounds of tick tack toe, hangman, and much more. If you have older children, you could try doing a round-robin story where each person adds one sentence to the story before passing the pad of paper on to the next person who then reads the story from beginning to end out loud before adding their own sentence.

These ten ideas I am sure only scratch the surface of what can be done when camping in the rain, please leave additional ideas you might have in the comment section below. 

More articles I have written about camping:

• 10 Ways Thrifty People Save Money On Camping
• Camping With Children & Sanity
• What To Bring When Camping With Children

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