Three Tips For Cabin-Style Camping With Kids

Renting a cabin in a state park or campground is a great way to enjoy an affordable vacation with your family. There are often a lot of outdoorsy activities to enjoy nearby, from hiking to cycling to fishing. This should keep everyone busy and ensure you make some memories during your time together. However, staying in a single-room cabin with a few children can present some challenges from time to time. These tips will help you survive without too much frustration:

Bring games to keep them busy.

When the weather is nice and everyone is able to play outside, you'll feel like you have plenty of space. But the second a storm rolls in and you all have to hunker down in the cabin, the space will start to feel quite small. If you have some games on hand to keep the kids busy when they're indoors, you won't have to worry about as many arguments and complaints of "I'm bored." Bring along some of your kids' favorite board games, or take this opportunity to buy a new one for them to try out.

Bring foods that are easy to cook.

When you're chasing after kids at a campground all day, you may not have a lot of energy left to cook all night. So while those gourmet campfire-cooked meals you see in Pinterest may look amazing, it's often best to stick with simple foods like hot dogs, burgers, and tacos. Make sure you have a good stash of prepared snacks, like crackers and granola bars, so you do not have to cook every time a child wants a snack.

Talk about rules before you leave.

In such close quarters, the whole family can quickly become miserable if one person stops following the rules. So, before you leave for your cabin vacation, be sure to talk through the rules with kids and explain to them how important it is that they follow those rules. Some rules you may want to pass and enforce include:

• Nobody talks at night after the lights are turned out. (This ensures everyone gets good sleep.)
• Kids are not allowed to play in the campfire unless parents are around.
• Kids are only allowed to travel a certain distance from the cabin without parents. (Set a specific boundary based on your kids' ages and level of responsibility.)

Contact a company like THE VILLAS AT COOSAWATTEE for more information and assistance.