How to survive a no-tech family camping trip

Given half a chance, my children like nothing more than vegging out in front of ABC Kids, watching their favourite movie or playing a computer game. So taking them ‘off-grid’ is a BIG deal!

We took our kids camping for five weeks over the summer without televisions, iPads, Wi-Fi or even phone reception in many instances. It was scary and it was awesome!

As a mum of two, family car journalist and founder of BabyDrive.com.au, I have been holidaying off-grid with my family a lot, so here are my Top 10 ways of enjoying a ‘no-tech’ trip with your kids…

Chat with your kids before you go about there being no technology, so it’s not a surprise to them when you get there. Explain that when you go camping, charging phones and devices is really difficult and there is often no mains power or phone reception, so they won’t be able to have tech on the trip.

Often, just setting the precedent that you don’t have tech when you go camping as a family means the children soon get used to it.

Explaining that the adults will have a break from technology too (and sticking to it!) also helps. If you need your phone with you for taking photos (and emergencies), put it on flight mode and turn off all notifications. It’s liberating and the battery lasts longer!

The drive to get to your holiday destination is a great opportunity to start as you mean to go on. Get a playlist together before you set off. Everyone adds their favourite songs and you all enjoy singing along as you drive.

Let the kids choose an audiobook or favourite podcast. A favourite in our car is ‘Silly Stories For Kids’. This gets the trip off to a good start and every time you drive anywhere on your holiday they have those things to dip into. Can’t stand their choices? A lot of cars allow you to turn off the front speakers and focus the sound on the back seats.

We find our kids get so into listening to music and audiobooks that when we get home, they’ll continue to listen to them while they do activities rather than their default of using screens. For a while, anyway!

The first few days of adjustment – or ‘the fallout’, as we’ve named it – can be challenging. But if you’re prepared, it’s not as bad!

These are the first few days of the trip. If it’s the end of the school term or year, the kids are tired, and the adults have worked hard to pack, get everyone there and get set up once you’ve arrived. Everyone’s excited but exhausted, so give each other a break and some space.

The usual go-to crutch (for parents and children alike) of watching a screen isn’t available, so a few art activities they can get lost in or a new activity like totem tennis, a ball or a frisbee will help the kids keep busy, active and distracted.

Accept that the first day or two might be a bit challenging as everyone gets used to the change in routine from school, work and daycare, to spending all day together as a family. Don’t stress too much about it if there are some yucky bits – it’s just an adjustment period.

Devices and technology at home are often ways of adults keeping the kids entertained and out of our hair while we get on with work, cooking, cleaning etc.

Camping is the opposite! With your work time released, you can spend more time with your family, and yes, it’s something we adults need to acknowledge and adapt to as well.

Get involved with your kids and fill their cups. Give them your attention and they’ll eventually amuse themselves naturally.

Everything is different when you are camping, so try to relax into it and go with the flow. New routines will emerge based on who you’re with and where you are, so let go of the usual at-home expectations around bedtime, etc. When camping, bedtime might revolve more around sun-up and sun-down or being woken by the birds’ dawn chorus!

If your kids are like mine, they’ll be so exhausted by the day’s activities and fresh air that they are asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow, giving the grown-ups a little quiet time to enjoy a glass of wine and to look at the stars!

Adjusting to a new routine that doesn’t involve the times when the kids would usually have technology helps them to forget about it and fill their time with other things. And, in my experience, falling back into things like bedtime routines comes fairly naturally once you return home.

Part of having more time to spend with the kids means getting them involved with things that you may not have time for at home. For example, my kids watch TV while the grown-ups make dinner on weeknights at home but when we’re camping, my kids help make it.

Everyone plays a part. It becomes part of the new routine and everyone looks forward to learning new skills and participating as a team.

Because camping involves so many extra tasks and everyone has more time compared to regular life, there are so many opportunities for children to help out.

A couple of new books, magazines and craft projects are a great swap for technology when you go camping.

My eldest daughter loves being read to but hates reading to herself at home. When we go away, though, she chews through the chapter books and even reads to her little sister! It’s amazing that, without access to technology, she loves to read!

Comics and magazines are great for kids who aren’t reading yet to just look through on their own and of course, reading to your kids is great family downtime, especially if you need a bit of time out of the sun.

A brilliant concept we discovered during the summer holidays was advent calendars filled with miniature books – truly the gift that keeps on giving and an idea you could recreate at any time of the year. You could do a similar thing with little craft projects to complete each day.

“I’m bored, I’m bored, I’m bored!” Is the default without technology. Know you are going to hear it, give yourself a dollar for every time you hear it, and it won’t stress you out anymore!

I love it when my kids tell me they’re bored. I tell them they are about to have the best part of their day. They are going to think up something to do and it’ll be so much fun.

Yes, it’s frustrating for them when I give that response but I’m rarely wrong and it’s often shortly followed by their rip-roaring laughter as they have come up with some crazy game of chasing each other or building something with items they harvested from their surroundings.

When you ask them at bedtime what their favourite thing that day was, it’s usually the game they created!

Depending on where you are camping, get as active as possible. If you are all busy moving and playing and having fun, then the kids won’t even remember their devices, let alone miss them.

If you’re near the beach, get straight out there in the morning for a swim. Play beach cricket, frisbee, running races, and collect shells and driftwood for craft creations later.

Don’t just sit and watch the kids, get involved too; if the kids have your attention, to them, that is way better than any video game or Disney movie!

If you’re in the bush, go bushwalking and make sure there are treats and rewards at the end of it. If you need to go to the local shop, walk and chat about what you see along the way instead of driving.

This is all part of changing things up compared to how you usually do it at home. A change is as good as a rest, but why not both?

Use the tech before you depart. Before you go camping, do some online research with the kids and list the places and things they are interested in visiting and doing each day.

When the children know there’s something they have chosen to look forward to each day, the anticipation can be its own reward (and an incentive to get through those inevitable trickier parts of your trip).

Get out and about and see what is in the local area because if you’re busy exploring, the children won’t have time to miss their tech time!

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