With back-to-school right around the corner, there are only a handful of summer nights left for the kids to stay up late, sleep in and enjoy their days off. For some families, there’s no better memory than “camping” and sleeping under the stars during the summer. Campfires, stories, hiking, rivers, swimming, fireflies and more – there’s so much bonding to be done out in Mother Nature! Whether your family likes to rough it or if you’re indoor people, sleeping under the stars is easy with our Glow-in-the-Dark Galaxy Dome Tent.
Glow-in-the-Dark Galaxy Dome Tent
It’s time to blast off into the cosmos with our Glow-in-the-Dark Galaxy Dome Tent! This tent is perfect for night use, because the adorable stars actually glow in the dark! At 48″ x 48″ x 42″, this tent can fit plenty of space explorers having an interstellar time whether it’s outside in the backyard or inside for sleepovers. The waterproof floor is easy to wipe clean and lets you take it on to the grass while having no mess on the inside, and the no-see-um mesh ensures no outside space critters enter the station. The durable, high quality polyester promises no rips or tears and will last for many trips to deep space for years to come, along with our coated fiberglass poles which are stronger than normal tent poles and designed to prevent splinters or shattering.
You can also connect tunnels to the built-in tunnel port to build the ultimate spaceship! We have a tunnel that matches this tent, you can check it out here. When it comes to your imagination, the sky is the limit in the Glow-in-the-Dark Galaxy Dome Tent!
DIY Planet Mobile
This week, we wanted to make a DIY Planet Mobile to help take your little one to dreamland! As you know, mobiles are super important for young children to help with their development. They’re great for learning focus, hand/eye coordination, color, movement and shape. They can also be visually stimulating as well as calming to children, even as they get older. You’re never too old for a mobile, and integrating some education about the solar system into them is always a plus.
What you need
- Popsicle sticks (7)
- Buttons
- Glue gun
- Glue sticks
- Acrylic craft paint
- Paint brushes
- Circular shaped craft wood (2)
- Utility knife
- String
How you make it
- Cut your popsicle sticks varying lengths so that your planets hang at different levels.
- Paint them a dark color – gray, blue or black – so that they can create the illusion of floating in outer space.
- Take your circle shapes and paint yellow on both sides to represent the sun.
- Lay one of the sun shapes flat on a surface and start gluing your varying length painted popsicle sticks to the outer ridge edge of the circle, with even spaces in between.
- Once you have all your popsicle sticks glued to the one circle, you can add the other painted circle on the other side.
- You can add buttons to the ends of your popsicle sticks that are still exposed.
- Add with a glue gun and put a button on each side.
- Once you finish putting buttons on your popsicle sticks, grab some string and tie a loop around one end of a popsicle stick to hang inside your favorite Pacific Play Tents!
More backyard camping ideas
Are you getting the itch to have a backyard “campout” now in these last few days of summer? If you’ve got a tent, they are super easy to put together and keep the kids entertained. Aside from crafting the DIY Planet Mobile, you’ll need some activities to do to keep the kids busy if you’re not letting them inside the house except to use the restroom (isn’t that rule #1 for backyard “camping”?). Drag out your Glow-in-the-dark Tent and check out some of our favorite activities and tips below to help make your backyard campout feel like the deep woods of Montana:
Lawn Twister
If your kids love playing Twister, then they will love when you make it extra fun by recreating the board on your own grass! While you can play Twister outside with the regular board, lawn Twister beats the irritation of the plastic board sliding all over the place. All you need is some red, blue, yellow and white (to replace the green) spray paint. Spray rows of circles to match a Twister board and start spinning the wheel!
Terra Cotta Fire Pit
“Camping” just isn’t camping without S’mores. If you want to roast some s’mores in the backyard but don’t have a fire pit, don’t worry, you are in luck! We found this adorable tutorial to make your very own! All you need is a terra cotta pot, charcoal, lighter fluid (if needed), lighter, foil to line the pot, s’more sticks and everything else you need to make S’mores. The bigger the pot you get the bigger the fire! Another fun tip is to get everyone their own individual pot for their own fire, and decorate the outside of the terra cotta pots earlier in the day with the leftover paint from your DIY Planet Mobile! * Parents only – practice caution when dealing with fire.
Backyard Bingo
Recently, we did this blog about a backyard scavenger hunt and included a printout to make it super easy! This same scavenger hunt board would work great as an activity to keep the kids busy without any of their electronics. Since they are searching for items that already exist in your backyard, you don’t need to do anything else but print the printout and let them go! For added difficulty, do it at night and (maybe!) let them use flashlights.
Ladder Bean Bag Toss
If you are looking for more fun games to play outside, ladder bean bag toss is always a classic. Just grab as many pieces of paper as there are steps in your ladder and add numbers on them, such as 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, etc. or even as high as 100 or 500. The points are up to you! Open the ladder and hang the point papers on each step. Toss the bean bags and whichever step the bean bag sails above is the number of points you get! We show you how to make your own DIY bean bags here from a previous post.
Let us know!
Tell us all your “camping” stories – whether it was a big family trip or just a night spent in the backyard! Did you make the DIY Planet Mobile? Let us know in the comments below!