Review: The Down and Dirty Guide to Camping with Kids by Helen Olsson

Book link: http://www.amazon.com/Down-Dirty-Guide-Camping-Kids/dp/1590309553/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1333047931&sr=1-1-catcorr

I asked Jason to review this book in hopes of learning some tips, especially in the activities and cooking sections, from someone experience at camping with kids. We know lots of people that camp but very few do it with young children. We’ve learned from trial and error as we’ve gone along. Here is what he had to say about the book:

This book offers a lot of information that’s good for people that have perhaps never camped before, but doesn’t offer much to people who have been doing it for a few years. There are some things conveyed by the author that made me think that if the reader needs to be told or informed of such things, they shouldn’t be trying to camp. I also thought that the suggested activities chapter (games, crafts, activities, etc) was one to be glazed-over. Anyone going camping with their own kids should already know what needs to be brought along for entertainment. If they don’t then the parents need a lot more help than this book can offer.

A better title for this book would be “How to prepare your family for camping in a tent and hiking.” Camping is not exclusive to sleeping in a tent. There was nothing in this book pertaining to camping in an RV. As a parent of kids and having RV camped with the kids for a number of years now, I was rather disappointed reading this book. Very little of the content pertained to my situation and I would have been disappointed with the book had I purchased it. I hope that anyone needing a beginner guide to camping would not be going beyond camping itself, let alone hiking for multiple hours with children.

On a positive note, I liked the checklists that were provided. Being a forgetful person myself, I appreciate the organization that is suggested with the lists. Overall though I regard this as a book of common sense things that someone who is serious about getting into camping really shouldn’t need to be informed of.

Apparently Jason wasn’t as impressed with the book as I had hoped he would be. He did end up finding one thing he loved in the book. It was a reference to a website that sells ground mats. He found an orange mat which will match the Argosy. We’ve been searching for the right mat to go under the Argosy awning for over a month and hadn’t found the right one. We’ll be buying this one! http://www.cgear-sandfree.com/products/sand-free-mats/sand-free-mat.html