Camping with kids: 8 must-haves for your packing list

If you're reading at home in the evening, you definitely need a hammock when you're out and about. And if the children are not at all tired in the evening, mom or dad can disappear into it with a flashlight for a shadow figure cabinet. Much like the throw tent, the hammock becomes the ideal storage space when leaving the backcountry camp for a day trip. We especially like extra-light specimens with good pack size, but also ovingly woven net and cloth hammocks or the superlative: a children's hanging cave.

We all remember marbles, yo-yos, Tamagotchis, Rubik's Cubes, Slime, Furby or Monchichis in the schoolyard. After the Fidget Spinner, Push and Pop toys have recently become one of the boredom-bridging devices of the modern age. The colorful rubber mats with the pimples come in shapes such as T-Rex, rocket, apple, unicorn or ice cream on a stick. The sheer endless processing of the colorful sensor toys is reminiscent of pushing in bubble wrap and bridges long car rides as well as traffic jams. Uninteresting? Then the only thing that can help is Igor Lange's “Camping Wimmel book”. 

We parents attach importance to the enamel camping mug or the bamboo plate in mint green. Sure! The camper or caravan becomes home on rubber socks - and there we want to make it nice. This should apply just as much to the littles. If you don't have a children's wooden board for the camping vacation yet, make an event out of it. Go to the kitchen section of the supermarket or the hardware store; get out the tools and then carve a tippi, fire, ice or a palm tree into the board under supervision or with an extra child's carving knife (our favorite, for example, is from Opinel.

The domestic Trip Trap made of wood is too heavy and bulky for the camper luggage. There are good outdoor chairs to fold. But it doesn't always have to be new and expensive. In the classifieds, at nebenan.de or at children's flea markets there is a popular classic for little money. The Antilop high chair from Ikea has plug-in feet and a hard plastic shell plus a tabletop to click into. Pack size is good and the chair is not only washable, but also an ideal shower companion in campsite washrooms. Watering can and bucket on the table and off goes the shower party! For older children, a reversible piece of furniture like a table chair.

Do not forget the bucket and shovel from Spielstabil. Dad can also accidentally drive over them with the Defender - do not break. There is everywhere what to collect or cook. This can be a soup of wilted rhododendron flowers, snail shells and meadow weeds - or a mud pudding casserole with acorns and beechnuts. Not yet to your liking? Then the little ones will have to go out and look for more material. And so an afternoon goes by quickly, giving parents time to concentrate on reading or listening to music. Buckets and shovels are also wonderful tools for teaching children about nature.

The mud pants are a classic that should not be missing even when camping. Especially for children with a lot of ground adhesion, it provides valuable protection against morning dew, mud or dry dust in the summer - and saves valuable wash water. On unsettled camping nights, a wool-silk bodysuit and sleeping bag is a must. The fabric combo warms on cold nights and cools on warm ones.

Anyone who takes a camper out into nature is inevitably surrounded by wild animals. Among the rather unpopular neighbors in the tall grass and around bodies of water are mosquitoes. Protecting the little ones from the pesky bloodsuckers is not so easy. In addition to classics such as nets, citronella candles, or coking coffee powder, colorful mosquito patches with child-friendly motifs from the drugstore or pharmacy can help. There are plasters that are supposed to prevent mosquitoes from landing thanks to essential oils and equally colorful stickers if they have bitten anyway - to relieve swelling and itching. If you're at the pharmacy anyway, get an additional medicine bag with a safety device to store the plasters and other medicines.

Not every day at the campsite holds great excursion adventures. When it rains, a family member is sick, or there's simply a need for lazing around, life takes place in and around the bus. For growing children, the living space then sometimes becomes very small. Simple solution: throw out the throw tent! It's the ideal play den and a shady spot to snuggle up with mom or dad. Here, too, the weight and pack size are convincing - and many parents still have an old tent from the wild festival days in Scheeßel, at the Nürburgring or in Lärz. The nicest side effect: when leaving the Hinterland Camp, the tent serves as a garage for everything that should not fly around loose.

Want more tips on camping with kids? Here, Vanlife author Pia reports on her family road trip to the Hinterland and shows favorite spots on farms and the like.