Camping Word Find

Since we have been staying in campgrounds recently, I thought I would make a camping themed word find/word search!

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Camping Word Find

Camping Word Find Answers

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ANSWERS BELOW!

Camping Firestarters

Hubby and the boys like to go camping when the weather is nice, whereas I am completely happy sitting in front of the firepit in the backyard. With either option, making a fire is involved. I am getting better at making fires, but I still use a fire starter. I bought some Fire starters that work great, but I still wanted to be able to make our own and reuse some of the things we had laying around. I had tried making our own fire-starters with dryer lint and wax, which worked ok but not great. A friend recently told me about making fire-starters from pine cones (Thanks, Beth!). We have a lot of pine cones that fall in our yard throughout the year, so this was the perfect idea to try!

You can make it two different ways: with a wick and wickless. To make a wickless pine cone fire starter, you will dip the pine cone in wax but leave the top of the pine cone out and wax-free (when pine cones are dry, they will burn). The other idea is to place a candle wick down the center of the pine cone and then dip the entire pine cone in wax.


You will need:

• Pine cones
• Wax, bees wax, or old candles
• Wicks, optional
• Wax paper, tongs
• Scents, optional
• Crayon pieces, optional, to add color

Directions:

1. Collect pine cones. If the pine cones aren't dry yet or aren't open yet, let them dry on a sheet in the oven at 150 degrees F for about 1 hour. Keep a close eye on the pine cones since they can catch fire easily!
2. If using wicks, tie onto pine cones. You may have to play with it a little bit and find the best way to attach the wick. I tried a couple of different ways: I tied on and brought up the middle and wrapped around at the top, next I tied a knot at the end of the wick and stuck it under a tight cluster of the cone leaves. 
3. Melt wax. Follow the directions on the packaging (old soup or coffee cans are great to create a double broiler). If using old candles, you can sometimes even just place the glass jar in a saucepan. Fill saucepan with water, but make sure it only comes halfway up the can/jar. Add wax to the double broiler (in my case a soup can). Melt on low heat on the stove top. Add scent or color to melted wax (optional).
4. Once it is melted, dip the pine cones into the melted wax. Make sure to coat both sides. Remove with tongs. Allow excess to drip off.
5. Place on wax paper to set. Usually 1.5-2 hours.

DM Tips:

• According to some things I read, you can sprinkle salt onto the wax before it dries. Supposedly, Epsom salt makes it burn white, Table salt makes it burn yellow and Salt Substitute makes it burn violet. For more ideas on making a colored flame, check out chemistry.about.com and sciencecompany.com. I sprinkled some on mine, so I'll let you know if it works!
• If you want a pine cone with a wax base, you can oil the inside of a muffin tin or use waxed cupcake wrappers. Wrap a piece of twine or place a wick down into the pine cone. Pour a little wax into muffin tin, place in pine cone, and pour additional wax in until you have 1/2 to 3/4 inch of wax.
• You could also tie a thin wire or a longer wick around the pine cone to dip into the wax instead of using tongs.
• You can make a bunch of these and wrap in a basket for a housewarming gift.
• I used small pine cones because that was what was currently in my yard. Although the small ones worked fine, I think the larger pine cones would probably last longer.

Why I Love Glow Sticks, Let Me Count The Ways

I love glow sticks and bracelets/necklaces. They seem like such a simple little thing, but they have a ton of uses! I try to always have some on hand because I can pull them out when the kids are going stir crazy and come up with something fun. Here are just a few of my ideas:

• Glow Stick Ring Toss. There are lots of ways to make a Glow in the Dark ring toss:
• Use a normal ring toss stick and use the glow necklaces or bracelets as the rings.
• Place a glow stick in a water bottle to create the stick and use glow necklaces or bracelets as the rings. DM Tip: I found it helped to have about 2 inches at the bottom of the bottom to help keep the bottle from tipping over.

• Easy Kid ID's in the dark for camping, walking at night, or trick or treating.

• Bath time fun. These would also be great to bounce around the house or outside.

• Tent line marker when camping. We always attach a glow stick to the end of the tent line where it is attached to the ground. It helps a lot once the sun goes down. Kids tend to run around the campsite and I am a klutz, so marking the tent lines helps keep us out of trouble.

• Add fun to drinks! You will need a colored cup, a clear cup, and a glow bracelet for each person. Place the glow bracelet in the bottom of the solid cup. Next, place the clear cup on top. Fill with ice and drink and watch their faces as the lights go out!

• Hide and Seek. Hide glow sticks in your yard (or in house if it is a cold or wet night) and have the kids find them. Alternatively, you could also hide only 1 stick and whoever finds it first gets to hide it again.

• Nightlight. If the power goes out, these are great to put on the kids and help them feel not as scared.

• Glow Stick Cotton Candy. You could use a LED stick (battery side far away from biting zone), so it is nontoxic for smaller kids who might bite the stick. (Do NOT bite the glow stick!)

 

What are your favorite uses for glow sticks?