I've written a booklet - Wild Camping for Families - Thoughts Welcome!

Another idea Melissa see what you think

Many people who don’t camp, think we survive on cold tins of beans, live the life of Neanderthal cavemen.

They obviously not the case , and as a kid myself ,I loved the meals my mum would rustle up, smash veg and tinned stew proper cowboy grub ...of course you can go as complicated as you want last year at a meet at magbrins place they had an escoffier evening chef god !

There are a collection of recipes in the forum , feel free to use any I have shared.....of course with inverters remoskas , slow cookers all offer opportunities without being tied to the kitchen ..again with children in mind it is a great opportunity for them to discover new flavours there is a post at the moment that mentions Arbroath smokies , Scotland of course produces the best shellfish in the world ...all on our doorstep and softfruits raspberries Logan berries eccefechan tart with cream .....English cheeses ...I would argue taking kids out of school is educational sampling the fantastic varieties of our native peoples...showing kids how to dress a crab it’s a dying skill , but can spark an interest ,,,,apologies I am getting far too enthusiastic lol
 
channa said:
Another idea Melissa see what you think

Many people who don’t camp, think we survive on cold tins of beans, live the life of Neanderthal cavemen.

They obviously not the case , and as a kid myself ,I loved the meals my mum would rustle up, smash veg and tinned stew proper cowboy grub ...of course you can go as complicated as you want last year at a meet at magbrins place they had an escoffier evening chef god !

There are a collection of recipes in the forum , feel free to use any I have shared.....of course with inverters remoskas , slow cookers all offer opportunities without being tied to the kitchen ..again with children in mind it is a great opportunity for them to discover new flavours there is a post at the moment that mentions Arbroath smokies , Scotland of course produces the best shellfish in the world ...all on our doorstep and softfruits raspberries Logan berries eccefechan tart with cream .....English cheeses ...I would argue taking kids out of school is educational sampling the fantastic varieties of our native peoples...showing kids how to dress a crab it’s a dying skill , but can spark an interest ,,,,apologies I am getting far too enthusiastic lol
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Hi Channa,
Thanks - makes me wonder if I'm missing out by not having an inverter! :)

I shall go and take a look at the recipes and add a few more respectable ones to my 'Cooking section'! lol That has also made me think of something worth mentioning of doing with kids - wild grub gathering. I'm also going to look for a good nettle soup or blackberry recipe to add :)
 
Nettle soup, followed by saddle of wild venison with blueits, with a dandelion and sorrel salad drizzled with an elderflower purée, puff pastry nests with wild blackberries and clotted cream ....very British ..not far off king johns coronation meal with a modern twist
 
channa said:
Nettle soup, followed by saddle of wild venison with blueits, with a dandelion and sorrel salad drizzled with an elderflower purée, puff pastry nests with wild blackberries and clotted cream ....very British ..not far off king johns coronation meal with a modern twist
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I misread the accompaniment to venison as " bluetit"! That could be a step too far for foragers/ wild grub :eek:
 
to go hand in hand with your certificate idea you could also do a 'fire starting' progression, starting off with say a magnesium block, then moving on to a fire steel (using slithers of silver birch bark being a great/fun tinder) and finally ending up with bow and drill (very difficult and child needs to be of an age were failure can be met without tears) with other techniques in between. Many different techniques with varying degrees of difficultness. Loads of vids on Youtube.
 
Hi Wisewoman (and everyone else) this is Francesca, hijacking Tookey's account at his request.
I've just had a scoot through your book. There's some really great stuff there and you've written it in a really accessible style. I have a couple of extra suggestions: there are some great stovetop baking recipes out there, including for brownies! See BiggerBolderBaking.com. Our camper-beast only has 2 hobs so we'll have to get creative with meals. Audiobooks are a life-saver for longer journeys, particularly on winding roads where it can feel a bit icky to read. Some councils (Lancashire County Council for example) do free audiobook downloads as part of their library offer. Saltdough is easy to make on a hob and provides lots of rainy-day entertainment - it'll keep for 6 months if you use cream of tartar.
If you want to bounce ideas off a fresh brain/pair of eyes I'd be happy to help out: I was an outdoor activity instructor for 7 years, a teacher for 3 and I'm a Forest School practitioner so I've got a few ideas up my sleeves - especially for outdoor stuff. :) It can also be handy to get new eyes on it to scan for typos (it's so easy to miss them when you've written it yourself) I'd be happy to help with proofreading your finished piece before you go to publish if that would be useful. We'll also send pics of our little Duracell bunny of a boy-child having camper fun when we get a chance.
Keep up the good work. xx
 
Hi Francesca,

Thank you for your post - stove-top brownies - now that sounds like a valuable camper-van recipe that needs to be included along with my 'no-oven cookies'! :)

I really like your suggestion about audio books and shall work that in somewhere. I think many of the county councils do the free audio book loans through the library services so that is a great tip. As too is the salt dough.

Some simple forest school ideas from you would be great! I'm actually an assistant Beaver leader with Scouts and whilst my essential camp-craft may be OK, I'm absolutely rubbish at remembering knots and using wood-related tools! If you have some simple fun forest school type things that I could include that would be really great. I guess I should say something at least about the basics of fire wood gathering.

I think my booklet is sort of targeted at 'average Jo Blogs' new to this whole thing, and whom would benefit from some ideas until they find their own way. I feel that parents everywhere are starting to think twice about this electronic / virtual / fake / social media world we now seem to be living in and which readily sucks our children in. I see them in Scouts, trying to encourage their kids to do more 'real-world'type things and WC is certainly one possible answer to that. I've been in IT for over 30 years and have quite strong feelings about these things, also about the modern school system, but I wont go into a rant here. :)

Thank you also for your very kind offer of proof reading, this forum is so good, that someone else has already offered me the same and is currently looking at it. I hope to get a slightly improved version up on here in the next couple of days and would certainly welcome any critical eyes reading over it and letting me know what they think. Your photos would also be most welcome. I've put a new picture in my latest version of kids running after 'Wolfie' and towards a rope swing. Wolfie is a camper that belonged to my friend - I just love that picture!

I am hoping to get a first eBook version submitted to Amazon in the next week. I'm then aiming to briefly recording further thoughts and revise it further in a few months time. I'm terrible at letting go of projects and whittle away at them but the reality is that I have far too much else in my life demanding my time to become the ultimate decadent writer, free of all other distractions!

I'm starting to feel that this 'essentials booklet' is turning into something a little more so I guess it's a watch this space. :)

Cheers
Melissa
 
Melissa,

Due to the increase in 'van life' popularity and I suspect a future increase in domestic holidays due to possible Visa requirements for Europe I think your booklet could prove to be popular. Rather than providing the booklet free I wonder whether on line companies such as Amazon kindle provide the option of a donation, 50p let's say, to your chosen charity that has to be made to 'purchase' the booklet when on line.

Just a thought, I have no idea if its possible
,
 
Re Channa's inverters and slow cookers - why not mention the thermal cookers such as Mr D's or the Wonderbag, saves drawing power from your batteries and work just as well as slow cookers.
 
Tookey said:
Melissa,

Due to the increase in 'van life' popularity and I suspect a future increase in domestic holidays due to possible Visa requirements for Europe I think your booklet could prove to be popular. Rather than providing the booklet free I wonder whether on line companies such as Amazon kindle provide the option of a donation, 50p let's say, to your chosen charity that has to be made to 'purchase' the booklet when on line.

Just a thought, I have no idea if its possible
,
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Excellent idea - I actually suspect that Amazon wont allow me to put it on for free. Last time i put a little e-booklet on Amazon, on behalf of my brother, they wouldn't allow me to put it on there for free - though I happily wanted to. (My brother had passed on and wrote a wonderful story that I just wanted to share with children). I haven't looked into it yet, but I suspect I may have to put this booklet on at 99p. Of course it will be available for free on here somewhere ( ADMIN Phil permitting) ;-) I will look into the Amazon charity donations option and if there are any!
 
Caz said:
Re Channa's inverters and slow cookers - why not mention the thermal cookers such as Mr D's or the Wonderbag, saves drawing power from your batteries and work just as well as slow cookers.
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Wow - I've never come across Mr D's or the Wonderbag before - Do you have one? Does it work well?
 
Wisewoman said:
Wow - I've never come across Mr D's or the Wonderbag before - Do you have one? Does it work well?
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I don't have one, not really worth it for just me and when the kids used to come with me we always had to be on EHU for the TV/DVD player/video games etc, hairdryer, curling tongs etc, so I used my slow cooker. I don't cook now if I can help it.

I have friends who use them though, and they think they are great.
 
OK, I was brought up in the 70s and early 80s with parents who had a bay window VW campervan, a tiny thing in retrospect. Four of us children plus the parents. Long academic holidays so often 6 weeks away. We saw a lot of Europe. The eldest two of us, then all four of us sleeping outside in small tents whilst the parents were in the van.

Nothing like electrical hookups then, nor any gadgets nor heating. Just a two burner stove run off campinggaz cylinders and a small water supply. No loo. But we coped.

Overall it was good, hence my love of these things nowadays.

But it was not always great, and we were always very relieved to get back home again to catch up with my friends. Sure we played with other children and amused ourselves as best we could, reading and re-reading books mostly, but it wasn't all ways such a great experience, in retrospect. Sometimes quite miserable. And confined.

With mobile phones etc. its all quite different now.

I'm sure my parents enjoyed their travels, but as a kid I was too young to appreciate all of that. If you are going to travel with small children, well they must absolutely come first. The OP seems to be doing a good job at that.

It is a choice to do this, children won't complain, they are resilient, will fit in with whatever you do, or whatever restrictions you place upon them,, as with dogs. But that doesn't mean that they will become better socialised by the experience.

The pamphlet is good, very cheery, in accordance with your experience, I hope it does well. But a few little mentions of how not to do things might not go amiss.
 
Something advised to me for longer trips was that it is important for kids to have days when there is no driving. Also a day or two every week were the destination, activities and the food (all within reason) are determined by them. The day can be named (Ralph Day in our case) and it is really emphasized that they are in charge, ultimately you of course steer their decisions and are actually in charge but they don't need to know this as you can direct them through suggestions. Of course if you fancy ice cream for breakfast you could experiment with simply going whole heartedly with their choices.
 
Hi Sharpie,

Thanks very much for your comments. I can't imagine 6 of you in a bay window - That's a whole different level of van tetris!

I agree that children wont necessarily become better socialised whilst away and indeed Florence did start to miss her friends when we did nearly a month around Ireland last year, but I would like to think that the wide and varied experiences she has had compared to many children in her class, will help to make her well-rounded and I think, confident.

The thing I like best though, is when I see her totally absorbed in wave jumping or something similar. Whilst there may have been protestation from her initially, when I see that, I know I've done right thing. She goes into what I call 'the zone' and you just know that is a good head space to be in.

Thank you for your point about saying something about how now to do it. I shall ponder on that one. This is very much an ongoing thing and I would love to include others stories and even writings from children. and give it a collectively produced type feel - but then I'm a middle aged would-be hippy! ;-)

Cheers,
Melissa
 
Tookey said:
Something advised to me for longer trips was that it is important for kids to have days when there is no driving. Also a day or two every week were the destination, activities and the food (all within reason) are determined by them. The day can be named (Ralph Day in our case) and it is really emphasized that they are in charge, ultimately you of course steer their decisions and are actually in charge but they don't need to know this as you can direct them through suggestions. Of course if you fancy ice cream for breakfast you could experiment with simply going whole heartedly with their choices.
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That's a great point you make about having no-driving days and something I didnt mention but really should have - I will fix that!
 
I would also suggest that they take on roles such as tyre condition and pressure checks, moving on to such things as oil levels when older. The importance of their role should be emphasized so it is made clear that they are part of the team and not just along for the ride. At the end of the trip their role in making it a sucess should be pointed out to them and should be thanked for their contribution
 
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