Children MUST Haves While Camping

[nancy1340]

The young scout being found safe less than 1/2 from his camp got me to thinking.

What items should a child camping have in their pockets or person at all times?

These things take up almost no room and there is no reason for kids not to have them on them at all times even while in camp. As soon as they get dressed in the morning until they lay their heads down on their pillow at night.

Knife
Whistle
Compass

Please feel free to add or suggest other items. Things that wouldn't require wearing a back pack to carry them. Maybe a fanny pack wouldn't be to big.

[Bad_Omen]

Hears the address of a site I came across a while back which gives the outline for a kids survival kit.

http://www.mpioutdoors.com/kids_kit.htm

Some good ideas but I'd include a knife and a way to start a fire(probably a fire-steel). My way of looking at it is, if a kids old enough to get lost in the woods he/she's old enough to be taught how to use a knife and fire responsibly. My 6yr old son is learning about using his pocket knife properly and with the proper respect. Next lesson will be fire.

[nancy1340]

Very good Bad O.

I'm kinda iffy on the fire starter for the very young. Kids love a excuse to "play" with fire and that could prove to be a problem with a kid out in the woods. I know, I know we all try to teach them to be trustworthy. "My kid wouldn't do something like starting forest fire" , "My kid knows not to touch my guns" .

And kids love to blow whistles too.

[Bad_Omen]

Very true Nancy, very true. Thinking about it, you'd be bloody careless to put a child in a situation where they could get lost and would need a fire to survive.

I guess the answer is to keep the little perishers on a short leash. ;D

I do like the idea of a kids kit though, more for the sense of responsibility it would give them. Anything that would make them think about how to be prepared has got to be a good idea.

[nancy1340]

I guess the answer is to keep the little perishers on a short leash. ;D

I do like the idea of a kids kit though, more for the sense of responsibility it would give them. Anything that would make them think about how to be prepared *has got to be a good idea.

LOL Yeah, I used to camp with three of the little buggers and at times I would have leashed them if I had leashes with me. LOL OH Boy!

And your right, anything is better than nothing.

[Mac_Muz]

I knida disagree, nanc... Kids should be taught fire early on, even if they get burnt a little bit... They should become familar with fire so there isn't reason to 'play'...

They should be taught the how to and the reasons why....

I used to be a sub for the Randolf Mountain Club, on the Nothern end of the Presidentail Range here in Nh "White Mountains"

I can recall finding things like plastic medicine containers on the trail filled with gasoline!

What that did first was soak some kids pack, and his gear in winter... Then it left anyone like me following an unknown group to find the vial.

Thinking someone lost meds I picked it up with you expecting gasoline, and got that crap on my gear....

Once I figured it out I had no way to carry it either, so I set the whole mess on fire right then and there, making a fire first to see to that the entire thing was burnt to ashes...

That in itself could be bad news for someone else, but I had been a car tech for a long time and understand gasoline..

I have run across all sorts of folks in miserable condtion, in miserable conditons.... Most lacking fire....

They have lighters that don't work being too cold, filled with lint, or just can't understand how to get dry materials in the rain, and or snow.

They don't understand chaos, which fires love.... and they don't get the idea air needs to move into a fire...

Any kid big enough to wander away with out parental concern for 1 hour needs fire... Any child lesser than that should be tied to a tree if you don't plan to monitor every instant of time...

it shows as adults too, not knowing How To.... My x yeah I got one of them too.....

She is a real brain, lemme tell ya... her Bo heads off to nantucket, and she follows on a ferry..... A hurricane comes but the ferry goes anyway and is nearly swamped, but she gets there for the fury....

Power goes down emergency services are over whelmed, and everyone is cold, wet and hungery...

She starts a fire in a fire place and sets up a food kitchen, and the only way I find out is a phone call thanking me for teaching her How To....

A lot more happened and I just have miserable luck :'(

I see it like todays problem with kids and guns...

My dad didn't lock his guns up. He kept them in his closet, and the ammo was in a box.. he left when I was 5, so all I know is sometime long before I was 5 I knew to stay out of that closet, if I knew what was good for me... However he took me shooting alot, and by 6 gave me my first gun a .22..

No tabboo no problem....

[Bad_Omen]

I agree with a lot of that Mac. I'm trying to teach my kids not to fear fire but use it responsibility. Not easy, but we're trying. My kids(6 and 7) both own knives and know they don't touch them with out me. But I don't need to lock them up and I think thats important. It's they way I grew up only I had the joy of guns too.

[Mac_Muz]

Bad, I can't quite bring myself to shorten your handle to "BO" LOL...

You with the rest of yours should stand up and tell the Govt to piss up a tree.

I know if it was me the Govt would have to come every day and confiscate my new device of the day.

I call it civil disobedience, which I still do at the local National Forest over parking fee's. I know that bit of land better than the rangers do..... I pretty much grew up in it....


On that note, first of all motor bikes are exempt because they don't have windshields ...honest I didn't make that up.....

Each cage is reguired to have it's own so you can't own a car with out one, or share on pass to another cage you own....

The fee is $25.00 for one year, and as I grew up in as a kid it was free, being this is my land this is your land....

Topping this off when so-called improvements are made as parking there is no cycle pad and they bitch about side stand damage! it is where it can be 115'F in summer and -50'F in winter easy.....

They call it wilderness to keep out gas engines, but have no problem putting in new loo's along the main road....

I could go on and I do to them... After i get my ticket they get to watch me tear to bits and stuff the pieces in a pocket, as I don't litter... So far this works over the past 5 years, but I am close to being able to run a camp stove with ticket bits...

[hanabal89]

perhaps a couple of the cyalume glow sticks so they have some kind of light in the dark, or for signaling in the dark as well.

[nancy1340]

perhaps a couple of the cyalume glow sticks so they have some kind of light in the dark, or for signaling in the dark as well.


Thats a good idea Hana.

If their old enough then I would agree with them needing the ability to make a fire. One of the problems is that with so much drought around they might be in as much danger from the fire as the cold.

[Rama_das]

a little bag or belt kit with a flash light, a whiste and a glow stick or two, and a mirror. and shown how to use them. a lost kid's first pirrority should be to find help. not start a fire. fire even with training can kill a kid. they are scared, lost and a kid. i'm not saying don't teach them. . . as soon as they can handle it they should know how why where and when!!! but getting help is the number one thing.

nothing else is needed once you have help. fire, shelter etc comes later.

water too, but that goes without saying. . .i'd think

[nancy1340]

Good suggestions all.

My objective was a kit for IN camp that would be worn at all times. A larger kit for if they were going out of the immediate area of the camp ground.



psssssssst and Thanks Rama. ;) ;)
I saw it while it was there.

[Mac_Muz]

I still maintain that if they can leave the visual eye sight of an adult they need fire...

[hanabal89]

A few years back i belonged to a wildland search and rescue organization. Probably the most important thing for a child to when they realize they are lost is to stay put. Staying where they are lessens the risk of gettin hurt, or gettin deeper into the woods. The deeper they go the longer it will take to find them. The more the wander around, the more likely they can fall, get stung by poisonois insects, or even run into dangerous wildlife.

[Mac_Muz]

A few years back i belonged to a wildland search and rescue organization. *Probably the most important thing for a child to when they realize they are lost is to stay put. *Staying where they are lessens the risk of gettin hurt, or gettin deeper into the woods. *The deeper they go the longer it will take to find them. *The more the wander around, the more likely they can fall, get stung by poisonois insects, or even run into dangerous wildlife.

IF this is true then kids need fire which would get them found faster... Also even if they didn't use the fire any adult would have a better chance for fire if it were needed after the finding...

basicly if a kid is considered freeer and old enought to be out of sight that child needs to be able to make fire....

Ages may matter, but at 5 with no help I made fire. Kids were different back then. I grew up with no neighbors and so no friends. I had to hike maybe 3 miles to visit with other kids thru dence woods.

I spent most of my time alone in the woods well before 5. In first grade my teacher was crippled from polio, on her left side which made her madder than hell about me being lefty...

At X-Mass vacation school was out, but from that point to sometime in March I didn't go back... Yeah I am a first grade drop out. ;D

In March the school called my mother who figured I had been in school all that time and was more than confused to find I hadn't...

I had been in the woods building camps and making fires.

Mean while my Dad was away in far off lands (rebuilding japan) leaving my mother with booze.....

I became more wildland creature than boy, and mistaken for a deer once... I carry that little scar in my back to this day.... That hunter was very bummed when his deer became a child, poor guy... I don't blame him either, and more blame me for not knowing he was there... If I had fire then he would have known better...

[Al_Coda]

IMO a lot depends on maturity and prior experience in the woods. If you wanted to go hog-wild on safety for the average 5-14 yr old, how about:

A GMRS/FRS radio (write the channel # on the radio in permanent marker) and a whistle. Granola/oatmeal bar. Cheap plastic rain poncho and emergency blanket from the dollar store. LED flashlight. Note with instructions (stay calm, stay put, listen to the radio - only transmit about once an hour, etc). 1 water purification tablet. All stored in a SEALED container that would hold water.

Personally, I'd avoid fire, knife, and even a compass unless the kids were mature enough to think somewhat logically. If they have a knife, they'll find something that 'needs' cutting or stabbing (maybe themselves by accident), matches/lighter and they'll 'need' fire even in the warmest/driest/windiest conditions, a compass would have them trying to self-rescue themselves (unless they were paying attention to it before they got lost of course) and possibly hampering finding them. Just my opinion.

[Mossback]

Our kids were instructed to stay put. They always carried at least a whistle, a bright bandanna to tie to a tree branch by their hiding spot, water and a granola bar -- sometimes a little survival kit with fire/silver blanket.

I once did the mall tour in Washington DC with 3 kids under age 10 by myself. I dressed them all in matching red baseball caps and they all had whistles around their necks. I made sure they had a note with the name of the hotel. The littlest one I had on a leash. The trip was uneventful, but ya just never know.

[JAK]

How's this for a 'must have'? Kid's 'must have' already spent a day and a night in the woods simulating a lost in the woods scenario, with parent standing by to answer and ask questions and provide encouragement etc. What the point of them having skills and stuff if they haven't practiced using them?