From Forts to Foraging: Top Tips for Encouraging Creative Fun and Outdoor Play for Kids on Your Next Camping Trip
- Hill Farm
- Jun 20
- 6 min read
Some of my favourite memories and moments at Hill Farm Caravan and Camping are watching families have the best time here. There's something about watching children kick off their shoes and run carefree through the camping field —mud-smudged faces, wild hair, totally free—it never fails to put a big smile on my face.
I don't think there's joy quite like camping when you're a child.
Camping’s a place where children let their imaginations roam, play, surrounded by nature.
What a lot of people don't realise before arriving at Hill Farm is the space we give you.
Next to the camping field is our no-mow adventure field.
An outdoor playground for free-range kids to explore and love the nature we have on the farm. Here, little adventurers can build forts from fallen branches, forage for natural treasures, and dive into the fascinating world of bugs and butterflies. It's the perfect screen time swap. When you get down to it - nothing beats the great outdoors. Let's explore how your next camping adventure could be the best yet for the whole family.
Discovering Nature's Outdoor Playground
In this month’s blog, we are doing something slightly different. Scroll to the bottom of the page to grab a downloadable PDF— perfect for Hill Farm (or any camping trip)—designed to help your kids connect more deeply with the outdoors.
Let’s face it, we want a generation of happy little campers to grow up loving the outdoors, knowing the thrill of exploring and simple joy of bare feet adventure in the soft grass.
So, with you, I’m going to explore how camping in nature offers endless opportunities for learning and fun, through a mix of nature-based activities and challenges— that every kid loves.
They’ll bring a CRAZY FUN dimension to ALL your future camping trips. Nature trails and exploring the great outdoors will turn every family day out into an opportunity for growth and discovery.
Benefits of Outdoor Play for Kids (while camping!)
Here’s what the internet told me about outdoor play (honestly most of it I’m sure you know). I think it’s a good reminder to get the kids in our lives outdoors:
🍃 Helps children's physical, mental, and emotional development.
🍃 Promotes active lifestyles and helps build stronger, more resilient bodies.
🍃 Nature-based activities stimulate creativity and imagination. Children learn to think outside the box and develop innovative solutions to challenges they encounter.
🍃 Spending time outdoors also reduces stress and anxiety, improving overall mental health. It fosters a sense of peace and connection with the natural world.
🍃Biodiversity education helps children understand the interconnectedness of all living things.
🍃 Hands-on experience, kids learn to appreciate the delicate balance of nature.
🍃 Foster a sense of responsibility towards the environment.
Understanding biodiversity also helps children develop empathy and respect for all forms of life, big and small.
So, here are some IDEAS!
Encouraging Creative Exploration
At Hill Farm Camping, Glamping and Caravaning. It really is easy to turn your camping trip into an adventure playground. Here’s 6 simple activities to spark imagination and play in the great outdoors. Head over to our patch of wild field to get started!
Building forts and imaginations outdoors
Fort building is a timeless activity that combines creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork. It's a FAB way for kids to engage with their environment.
Not only do they have to figure out how to make something stand up with support, they can’t help but let their imaginations run wild as they rule the butterfly kingdom from their castle or out smart bad guys from their secret hideout, they may even blast to space… You’ll hear all about their adventures around hot chocolate and delicious cheesy hamburgers later (or kebabs ordered from Sam’s Food Truck!)
Foraging and nature Play
Foraging for treasures is a fun way to get the kids running about. Give them 10 minutes to find the most colourful piece of nature’s treasures then identify it using Google lens. After their excitement dies down, send them on another mission, this time it could be something tiny, or heavy or soft….
Nature play can extend to creating art with foraged objects, like leaf rubbings, stone balancing or stick sculptures!
Appreciate the outdoor skies
From cloud watching to star gazing, there’s a lot of simple fun to be had making up shapes, pictures and stories in the moving clouds.
Or at night, after full bellies and a campfire, lie and look at the stars, use a star app to figure out constellations. Or better yet, bring a telescope!
Outdoor games
Ditch the tech, and make camping your opportunity to play different or maybe even new games! Quick cricket is always a winner, some families bring swingball or spike.
All good fun, but…
I’ve got another to add to your garden and camping games collection: Molkky
Have you heard of it? It’s like skittles, but you add up your score in rounds and you have to hit 50 exactly or you lose your points and drop back down to 25…
You gain points by knocking over the skittles, if you knock over one, you take the point value on the skittle. If you knock over more than one, your points are the number of skittles knocked over. It’s brilliant fun for both adults and kids! The only question is, who’ll win?
Outdoor play & creative crafts
Okay, so this idea might take a little more planning than showing up at a camping site.
But they’re easy crafts and will get you kids busy with pens, working their little fingers and minds!
Coffee filters
Pens
Pipe cleaner
Water
Paper
Glue stick
Pens
Leaves of different shapes and colours
Art collages, rock towers and stick sculptures are all ways to get creative with nature, that don’t require home-brought supplies! Tag us in your creations and we’ll share them on our socials!
Scavenger Hunts When Camping
I’ve kept my favourite till last. Who doesn’t LOVE a scavenger hunt?
It's an excellent way to keep kids engaged during your camping trip, especially if chips from Sam’s Food Truck is the winner's prize!
Here’s one we’ve made specifically for Hill Farm! Make sure you print it out and bring it with you!
Embracing the Glamping Experience
Hill Farm is your home-from-home campsite. We want you to relax and get away stress-free. Camping is timeless fun, but we do know families love to have a tent ready and waiting, especially with a hot tub (or cool dipping tub for hot summer days) right outside your Lotus Belle tent or cosy glamping pod.
I mentioned earlier that you can grab breakfast from Sam’s food truck, well, plan dinner with us too! Then, after a family day out adventuring, you can literally arrive back at your tent with dinner ready on the table!
We book up fast over bank holidays and school holidays.
If you’ve never camped with kids before, I’d recommend booking a Bell Tent, our beautiful Lotus Belles create magic, and take a lot of stress away from a camping trip. No tent to put up (arguments averted) and no wet, muddy tent to deal with when you get home, win win!
Book for the summer now to avoid disappointment!
Any questions, you can email or call anytime.
Tara x
Tara’s footnotes:
Wondering what Hill Farm is all about and what you’ll find?
Check out our walk throughs here:
Tara runs the day-to-day at Hill Farm Caravan and Camping. When you make a booking, you will find Tara at the end of the phone.
Ollie Cotton and his family have owned and run Hill Farm Caravan, Glamping and Camping for generations and love nothing more than to provide high quality and affordable escapes for outdoor enthusiasts, adventurous families, gig-lovers, multi-people rallies & get-to-gathers.
Here’s what you’ve been crying out for- NEW changes for 2025 💫
👌 All our lights around the pods and gazebos are currently solar and don’t work 24/7 in winter. We know this has been a let-down for some guests. SO we are going electric with lights — everything will be lit up all the time in the winter.
😆 All pods have mains electric (not solar), we have 4 bell tents left to do.
⛺️ We are adding 2 more standard lotus belle tents to our site this year - you can book them for Download 2025, contact me directly to secure them.
🌮 SAY HELLO to a street food truck this year. All details are here
🤐 OUR LIPS ARE SEALED RIGHT NOW, BUT WE HAVE ONE MORE GLAMPING ADDITION BREWING…
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