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Taking the Kids: Camping doesn't mean leaving tech behind

By Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on

Toilet paper or cellphone? Younger campers say having a smartphone on a camping trip is nearly as important as toilet paper, according to the 2015 North American Camping Report. I'm guessing your kids would agree and, depending on their age, might even say their smartphone is more important. What about you?

If you thought camping meant getting away from technology, think again. According to this new report, citing research conducted by the Cairn Consulting Group and sponsored by Kampgrounds of America (KOA), access to free Wi-Fi ranks among the top three most important camping amenities, right behind clean bathrooms and kid-friendly campgrounds. Nearly all campers bring their cellphones and half of all campers report going online at least once a day.

The report also suggests that campers are using social media to share their experiences in real time rather than waiting until they get home. That's especially true for teens, said Dr. Robyn Silverman, a child and teen development specialist, who spoke on a Camping in the City panel in New York recently about this new research and how camping has changed.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, said Jim Rogers, chairman and CEO of KOA, the world's largest public family campgrounds. "We need to get kids outdoors," he added, "and it's precious for them to communicate that they are having fun."

Certainly we know why we should get kids outdoors more -- for their health, for them to appreciate the importance of conserving the environment, for the learning opportunities in the natural world and perhaps most important, to get them away from their overscheduled lives. Let's not forget the opportunity to create some stellar family memories.

To that end, President Obama has just announced the new Every Kid in a Park initiative designed to get more families outdoors by providing every fourth-grader in the country a free pass to explore national parks, national forests and wildlife refuges throughout the 2015-16 season.

 

National Park Week, (April 18 to 26), celebrates national parks across the U.S., which offer a number of planned activities for all ages, including free admission to all national parks, National Junior Ranger Day (children can participate in hosted activities and get sworn in as junior rangers) and Earth Day celebrations and community "clean-ups".

It's also encouraging that more families from many walks of life are finding their way to campgrounds. For example, nearly one in four campers today are African-American, Asian or Hispanic -- the number nearly doubling in the last two years -- demographic groups that have not traditionally camped out in large numbers.

For those new to camping, "We're making it easier to go from the backyard to the back country," said Jim Rogers. A growing number of campgrounds offer cabins that can sleep as many as eight, swimming pools, organized activities and, of course, Wi-Fi. Families are also forsaking tents for RVs and campers -- a lot easier with young kids, families in campgrounds have told me again and again.

It's also a lot easier -- and more appealing -- to leave work for the weekend and head to a fully-equipped cabin than it is to pitch a tent after dark, suggested Sam Shevat, whose wife's family has long run the Herkimer Diamond Mines KOA in New York State on West Canada Creek.

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