Camping Activity of the Month:
The Paper Boat

If you’ve ever read that Curious George book where that mischievous monkey folds the newspapers and floats them down the river...then you can picture this month’s craft. It’s simple, inexpensive and with a small stream or creek – you and your campers can enjoy hours of fun!

You can even decorate the boats with stickers, small sails, cocktail flags, or wherever your imagination takes you. It’s a good camping craft for ages 7 and up. Just seek out small shallow streams, gentle banks, and look for a branch to catch the boats at the end so as to not litter. Have fun! Here’s the step-by-step folding instructions for the paper boats.

Camping Tip of the Month:
Seal those tent seams!

Well, Spring time is upon us and that means families all over the world will be pitching their new tents up and enjoying the great outdoors. And there’s also a good chance that many of them will spend a rainy night in the woods. Most good quality tents have taped and reinforced seams which do a great job of keeping the moisture out, but water is very persistent and can have a knack for finding that needle-sized hole in the seam…over your sleeping bag?!

But fear not…there’s a quick and economical solution. Buy a bottle of seam sealer. For just a few dollars at your local sporting goods store, a small bottle should be more than enough to give your seams a good application. It also gives you a chance to test that new tent in your yard before you head out into the woods. The seam sealer is an adhesive-like formula that fills the tiny sewn areas of the tent fabric…and keeps you dry. So don’t let a leaky tent ruin your sleep - leave that to your young campers ;-).

As little league ends and summer begins so too do our family’s outdoor adventures. I’ve got a back-log of pages to build on craft ideas from my creative boys. I also have a few exciting product reviews to post on some lightweight and fancy camping gear. I’m looking forward to adding to the site this summer based on our adventures and would welcome any feedback and tips that you have.

During the past few months, we’ve added pages on camping games, activities, tree and animal field guides, and much more. We’ve also added camping gear buying guides for tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, and more.

I’d also like to welcome a new site sponsor, Eurocamp, which offers some nice planning tools and campground locators if you’re looking to vacation in western Europe.

Happy Spring!
- Mike