Who needs toys?

After lashing out against toys and stickers, I had a wonderful toy-free weekend. We took the kids camping, and once again, I was amazed at what kids really like to play with.

Not ONCE did they ask for their toys. They played with sticks, they built "beds" out of pine needles, they went on hikes, they made friends at the playground. We laid on sleeping bags and looked at the stars. We talked about the moon. We sang every song that anyone knew the words to. It was wonderful.

At home I try to be a fairly relaxed person, but I still feel like I am zooming from one thing to another. With all the distractions at home, even when we are all in the house, we can go a long time without actually talking to each other. So it's nice to get away from everything... to get out into nature a little bit ... to look for animals, and just slow down in general. My kids have learned a lot from camping (sometimes they've learned the hard way -- like, don't run around cactus at night) and I find myself learning too as I explain things to them. For now, we are doing car camping because we bring a lot of stuff with us and can't really hike very far with the kids. When they get older, I'd like to try some primitive camping because I think that it might be even more fun -- and the kids are always amazed when we pass primitive campers on the trail.