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| If you are one of those people who think that "roughing it"
means staying at a four star hotel instead of a five star hotel, camping
may not be your best choice.
But if you enjoy the
out-of-doors, getting away from the daily routines, meeting friendly
people and just relaxing with family or friends -- try camping.
Various types of
camping can accommodate almost every personality. For those who
really do like to "rough it" more, tent camping may be the
best choice. For
those who like camping, but would rather not rough is quite as much, tent
trailers allow for some of the creature comforts (even a sink,
electricity and air conditioning!), but at a price that is quite
affordable.
For those who want to take
their home-- even the bathroom -- with them, there are a multitude
of RVs just waiting to be checked out. From travel trailers to fifth
wheel trailers to Class A and Class C motor homes, RVs can fit your
lifestyle. One type of trailer has room to haul the bigger
"toys" like small cars, motorcycles or ATVs. One woman uses
her "hauler" trailer to take her
many dogs to various dog shows around the country.
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RAIN
| TIP#1: Never assume it won't rain
when you're camping! Take along things to use in case you do have a
downpour. Throw in an umbrella or poncho, and be sure to have a pair of
sandals or flip flops if you need to take a run to the bathroom in the
rain!
TIP#2: On our most recent weekend
camping trip, we had a huge thunderstorm. We heard a crash and peeked
out the window. The neighbor's canopy had crashed to the ground under
the weight of the rainwater. What to do? Before it starts raining,
shorten one of the poles that holds the canopy. This will angle the
canopy toward the ground on one side and will send the rain off the side. |
COLD
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TIP #3 Be prepared for cold. Now if
you're going to be camping in Florida in the middle of July, you might
not need this. But if you are going north or into the mountains remember
that it does get cool in the evenings and early mornings. Throw in a
sweatshirt and/or sweatpants, or just a sweater for those cool times.
TIP #4 I'm sure this is
obvious, but also be sure to check the weather forecast of where you're
headed. We took a trip to South Dakota in June and it was 34 degrees at
night and snow was being forecast! We built a nice campfire and stayed
really close because our "warm" clothes weren't quite warm
enough!
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What about the
shoes?
Depending on where you are camping, it
may be quite easy for your children to get wet or muddy/dirty
shoes. If you have any type of camper, one thing that you can do
is to have a small plastic shelving unit to sit right outside the
door. Your children can take off their shoes BEFORE they come
inside the camper and drag all the dirt or stones or leaves or
whatever inside. |
© 2007 Wendy Toy
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As a homeschooler, you have many opportunities to use your time with your
children wisely and let them see places they have heard about or read
about in books. You are not tied down to a classroom or school in order
to learn. Homeschooling can be mobile. If you want to use textbooks
while you travel, just take them along. If you use tapes or DVDs in your
homeschool adventure, they can ride along with you.
You can keep a log of activities that your
children do each day. Or the children can keep a notebook with
information they learned or pictures they've drawn of the places
visited. This is a good place to use some of those notebooking
pages you can find for free on many sites.
Camping is a great way for
families to spend time together enjoying each other and God's creation.
Want to learn about how families
on the road homeschool? Roadschooling
is the operative word here!
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Take Your Cooler
Keep your food and drinks cold in a
cooler. If you have a small refrigerator, there is not always a
lot of room for those extra things like bottles of water, juice,
or soda. One thing we've done is to freeze a gallon or two of
water (especially if it is hot) and put that inside the cooler.
This can be used in the place of ice in the cooler. Then as the
water melts, it can be used to drink.
I did this with a gallon of iced tea. I
put the gallon jug of iced tea in the freezer the day before we
planned to leave. (Also used a gallon of water.) We just put that
frozen tea and frozen water in the cooler along with the other
items that needed to stay cold. (Be sure to let the tea thaw
totally before you drink it -- or it gets strong at the beginning
of drinking it and gets weaker and water-like toward the end of
the gallon.) |
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