Camp at Home

If you’re spending more time at home this season and are looking for indoor play ideas, then why not turn your living room into a campground! As your little ones reap the benefits of pretend play, they will also get to experience a creative take on a classic summer activity.

What you’ll need:

• A tent or a few chairs and a couple of big blankets.
• Comfy quilts and pillows.
• Red, yellow, and orange tissue paper.
• Cardboard tubes or brown pool noodles.
• Black and brown crayons or paint.
• Chunky rocks or a few small (yet heavy) items wrapped in brown or gray paper.

Additional materials:

• A string of fairy lights.
• A flashlight and a couple of books.
• Your kiddo’s favorite toys.

What’s next:

• If you have a tent on hand, go ahead and pitch it wherever you have space – in the living room, the playroom, or in the backyard. If not, you can create a blanket fort by placing chairs in a semi-circle and draping big blankets over them.
• To recreate the campfire, start by placing the rocks in a circle.
• Then, take the cardboard tubes or pool noodles and use the crayons or paint to make ‘em look like real logs.
• Prop up your logs within the circle of rocks so that they form a cone.
• Grab your tissue paper, place one color on top of another, pinch the paper at the middle and crumple them up about halfway (you want to leave the top flowy to resemble flames!).
• Pop in the colorful tissue paper between the logs. The more the merrier!
• If you want to make it more life-like, place electric tea candles or a small lamp right in the middle of the campfire and turn on a little fan nearby to make the flames dance in the wind!
• Hang up a string of fairy lights above the tent or in the room so your kiddo can gaze at the stars!

You can take this on solo or encourage your little one to help out throughout the entire process! Once it’s all set up, everyone can crawl into the tent, get cozy among the pillows, and play some games. Or sit by the campfire and enjoy gooey s’mores. Or maybe turn on the flashlight and read bedtime stories until your little camper drifts off into the land of dreams.

Get inspired by our other summer activities for kids! Play road trip bingo, organize a scavenger hunt in the park, find treasures in a pool, or make art with toy trucks!