Here are must-have backyard camping essentials for kids.
When your kids want to go camping, you don’t want to because tent camping is not your thing. Let them explore and get used to camping under the stars in their own backyard! Here are 12 Backyard Campout Essentials for Kids that you’ll want to have on hand.
Summer and the heat are upon us, but that doesn’t stop the kids from wanting to have fun in their backyards. My 6 yr old son wants to have a backyard campout, but we think he’s too young, so I told him we could pretend. I prepared a list of backyard campout essentials so he could have a pretend backyard campout for us adults, who one day will go on a real tent campout!
I bought this new tent for my son because we will eventually use it for “real” camping one day. My husband put the tent up on the left side of the yard. I wanted to ensure I had all the essentials to make it fun for them, even though it was just pretending. I asked my son and his friend to help me develop a few things they would want at a campout. They both said popcorn, so that’s a must.
12 Backyard Camping Essentials for Kids
- A good, reliable tent, of course, but get one big enough for a family.
- Sleeping bag/pillow (they can always sleep under the stars, right?)
- Bug spray
- An excellent flashlight for each camper
- Extra聽batteries (just in case a camper comes with a nonworking flashlight)
- Kids’ Summer Camping Box
- Enough popcorn for each kid
- Water to drink
- Outdoor games
- Ask each camper to bring their favorite stuffed animal, blanket, or whatever they sleep with.
- A small brush & pail for clean up afterward, or just let the birds eat the crumbs!!
- Most importantly, get this kid’s parents’ phone numbers (if someone wants to go home); you never know!
I’m not sure what the right age is to let kids have a backyard campout, but if I knew my son, I would also prepare a space for indoor sleeping just in case he and his friend get scared. These backyard camping essentials for Kids are perfect for pretend camping, too.
Related: Camping Gear to Match Your Lifestyle
Batteries for Camping
I don’t ever want to run out of batteries or toilet paper, so I stock up on both. Energizer batteries are a great brand to have on hand.
Energizer庐 Vision HD+ Focus LED Headlight is the highest-performing of the Energizer vision headlights, with a 250-lumen output and beam distance of 80M. It can also be customized to the desired width. It’s water鈥攁nd impact-resistant, and that’s a good thing if your kid is wearing it!! We also found that it can be switched to a red light, which my son thought was cool.
My husband is all over the Energizer庐 Fusion LED Folding Lantern. I don’t always get products to review that he can use, but this time, I did. With its 330-lumen output, he’ll take this on hunting and fishing trips. He already told me after this “pretend” campout that he was hiding it from the little one! It’s a must-have backyard campout essential for anyone who wishes to set up a pretend backyard campout for their kiddos.
Happy backyard camping!
We would definitely use this prize pack for camping if I won! It would be super handy to have!
I will use the lights on a camping trip with the kids.
This would be great for night time walks on the beach at OBX.
I’d use this prize pack to have fun in the backyard at night with my nephew鈥e’re always trying to catch the deer out back.
I don’t think my kids have done a back yard campout before!! What a fun way for the kids to have fun at home, love these essentials.
If you ask my girls you’ll only get one answer. Their must-have is a reliable wi-fi connection!
That light is awesome! We camp out a few times a year and having something like this would be great. I love the ideas of taking along some games too.
This is indeed a great list of essentials for the backyard campout for kids. Some of my best memories in the summer as a kid was camping out in the backyard. Energizer Fusion LED Folding Lantern is something I am going to have to pick up for sure. Thanks for sharing the list.
I would use it for night time summer fun in the backyard and also to be prepared for the upcoming hurricane season.
We are going to enroll Connor in cub scouts so this will come in handy!
I would use this for camping.
I would use this battery prize pack around the house, we need batteries!
I would let my son use the headlight outside in the evenings in the yard.
I would us it for flashlights and little battery operated lanterns for backyard camping with the Grandkids.
If I were to win, we would have batteries and lights to light up our nighttime fun with bonfires, walks, playing cornhole, etc. Lots of fun memories it will create!
We would use it while camping. The kids like to chase fireflies, so We use a flashlight to walk toward The woods.
We would use this prize during camping trips at the river, if we win. Thanks for the chance!
This is a great giveaway! I love to go camping every so often, and this will make that much easier to do. Nice.
my daughters love to camp, however I do not so my husband takes them. those are good tips and def must needed items.
Love those high performance headlights! They are such a useful idea. You’ve provided a really comprehensive list here to help make backyard camping even more fun, and what a great giveaway too!
Having a first aid kit is really important. You never know what might happen!
My husband LOVES backyard camping with the kids. And the best thing about it is that there is a bathroom nearby at 3 AM when you have to pee 馃檪
Now that is so true….and I WAS going to say something about that…but decided not to. Glad you did!!!
We camp in our yard with the kids. Even the baby last summer. He made it through the night outside in the tent at only 3 months old. This would be awesome for our night time adventures out here!
That would be okay if we were out there, but I was thinking as I wrote this post that we would be inside. Not sure I’m even brave enough to camp outside in this heat of Texas. 100 degrees sound awful to me.
It would be great for camping and late night walks!
These would be wonderful to use to take the dog out for a night walk on these hot summer days.