Kids and Overlanding

[Mike W]

I love taking my girls (now 7 and 8.5) on trips. This year we did several, including an extended trip for the great eclipse. We found a spot in a state park down in Missouri. It was damn hot, so we took advantage of some power and used fans. My oldest didn't mind whacking tent stakes in that heat, so I let her.

Notice the extra fuel we took, because getting home was the most insane middle of nowhere traffic jams I had ever seen. Took a crazy long time to get home and we took the most crap little back roads possible to bypass traffic and still got stuck at every 4 way intersection. We used that fuel to stay away from the towns where it was just nuts.

 

[bowdy85]

Our son is 10 and is pretty good on longer road trips with his iPad, but we try to limit that as much as possible.

He has a blast with a trivia game that he found, where he basically tries to stump us on different categories...fun for the whole family!

He is also getting old enough that I will let him periodically drive the Jeep once we are on a dirt road with plenty of space, which gives him extra motivation to help out around camp.

 

[Trail_pilot]

I'm looking to get my son involved at a really early age. My wife and I will be taking him on his first camping trip in may and he will be about 6 months old by then. My wife isn't as much into the vehicle side of things as I am but I am hoping that in the next year or so I can get them both loaded up into the rock crawler and disappear into the woods for some weekend trips.

 

[Tango Tiger]

Our son is 10 and is pretty good on longer road trips with his iPad, but we try to limit that as much as possible.

He has a blast with a trivia game that he found, where he basically tries to stump us on different categories...fun for the whole family!

He is also getting old enough that I will let him periodically drive the Jeep once we are on a dirt road with plenty of space, which gives him extra motivation to help out around camp.

My kids are 6 and 9. I’m somewhat ashamed to
confess that iPads are pretty much a godsend for our sanity on long road trips. The kids get to watch their movie of choice, which cuts down on the bickering and complaining. At times my inner Clark Griswold kicks in and I force them to look out the window at various landmarks as I detail what they’re seeing. It’s really quite touching to look in the rear view when I’m done talking and see my 9 year old daughter is looking at the floor as she delivers a response of “cool” in the most unimpressed/insincere tone any living being has ever heard.

I’m certain letting your son drive your Jeep will be an awesome experience for him. I was about 8 or 9 the first time my father let me ride in his lap to steer his Suburban down the interstate. Of course that wouldn’t go very well on public roads today, but it’s a fond childhood memory.

 

[Specter]

This is a great thread! I’ve got two boys, my oldest is almost four and my youngest is almost 2. Part of the reason for my build was because overlanding can be done as a family, and my wife and I believe that getting our boys into the wilderness early will keep them going back to it the rest of their lives. There are life skills and lessons to be learned on every trip, and we want them craving travel and adventure every moment of every day.

 

[diabetiktaco]

Get them out every chance I get. I'm going to do some solo trips this year but I always have fun showing them how to air down, fishing, etc.

 

[kdm42089]

Following. I have 4 kids. Looking forward to more ideas

 

[Sparksalot]

Many years ago I built a teardrop with my kids. My daughter really took an interest in it. Then we to our creation and went camping. Lots of adventures during the building. Daughter did alot of stuff to help including spar varnish. She even started decorating the cabin before the roof was on!

Measuring the microwave we added for those shore power trips.


They'll never find me here. This is the current pantry and stove cubby.


I hear there's wire to cut!

Please, no autographs.


A few years later, and we had a downpour during an attempted fishing afternoon. Improvise, adapt, overcome.


As several have mentioned above, new friends are made.


A science experiment gone fun. I had a large magnifying glass. So she started a fire in the ring with it, then cooked hot dogs for lunch. Yum! Later somebody had an old pumpkin, so we "roasted" it.

 

[Sparksalot]

Fast forward 10 years. Same daughter, same teardrop, newly built kayak. We took all of us to Wyoming. She was 14, and this was the last time I coaxed her out. Now it’s uncool. Teens...

 

[Rctonnie]

I've spent a good part of the day getting caught up on all the toddler/kiddo idea threads.

Wanted to make a summary of everything I've jotted down for ideas:

• Binoculars
• Bird I.D. book and rock I.D. book
• Magnifying glass and/or pocket microscope
• Building colored lanterns (cyalume sticks --> need to do some research here)
• Glowsticks in general
• Letting my son build a rock collection box to bring on the trip
• Burying treasure around our campsite and drawing my son a map and giving him a shovel to find it (LOVE this idea -- quite a commitment) :)
• Books on tape (going to check out Neil Gaiman, never heard of it)
• Cookie sheet table for the car (have kiddo draw what he is hearing in the audiobook)
• Scavenger hunt with photos (I'm thinking of making a squared sheet of paper with images -- squirrel, types of leaves, etc.) We have a polaroid camera so my son could find these things, photo them, and tape it to the sheet.
• Geocaching (I've never done this and don't really understand it, but going to read more about it)
• Compass and a map for the toddler -- this is such a no-brainer that I never would've thought of
• Stargazing and a constellations map

So far my 4-year old has been plenty happy with just a bucket and some good boots/pants so he can go anywhere. We are doing 19 days this summer, so I'm excited to have all these in the back pocket.

Any other ideas, please send them this way.

 

[Anak]

"Are we there yet??"

I solved that problem.

"Here's a map Varmint. Find where we are. Then find where we are going. Figure it out. And no, there is no opting out of this. It is an order. You will find the answers. It is the most important thing you have to do at this time."

Obviously they need to be able to read in order to do this, and you need to have some form of map to hand them (we generally have paper maps of at least the highways and interstates we travel). And a bit of help from the compassionate parent the first couple of times is probably good too. But it didn't take The Varmints long to get the idea. Far better to either keep your mouth shut or just ask for the map.

 

[RoarinRow]

I have 3 under the age of 11. They keep themselves entertained and luckily they all get a long, sorta. They've learned from an early age that vacation equals family time, so no phones or tablets, etc. When they go out everything is basically new to them so finding stuff to do keeps them busy. Plus having a nice Gazelle tent keeps them occupied, kinda like a bungy house for them with the air mattresses.

 

[Rctonnie]

"Are we there yet??"

I solved that problem.

"Here's a map Varmint. Find where we are. Then find where we are going. Figure it out. And no, there is no opting out of this. It is an order. You will find the answers. It is the most important thing you have to do at this time."

Obviously they need to be able to read in order to do this, and you need to have some form of map to hand them (we generally have paper maps of at least the highways and interstates we travel). And a bit of help from the compassionate parent the first couple of times is probably good too. But it didn't take The Varmints long to get the idea. Far better to either keep your mouth shut or just ask for the map.

I like this idea. My son likes to look at maps but so far is too young to really capture what they represent and iterate on that to understand where we are and how far we move along. Maybe I can do some practice with him around town to get him used to the concepts. (I laughed at compassionate parent haha!)