There’s nothing quite like parking your camper or pitching a tent for a quiet weekend getaway. But restless kids aren’t as good at relaxing as you may hope. We put together a list of our favorite kid-friendly camping activities to keep little hands occupied while you tend to the campfire.

Upgrade your s’mores game with Banana Boats or S’mores Cones.

To make your Banana Boat: slice just one side of the skin and cut the banana into pieces. Stick mini marshmallows and chocolate chips in between the slices. Wrap in foil and rest on some hot coals for a few minutes. Carefully remove from the fire and enjoy with a spoon!

To make your S’mores Cones: Fill a waffle-style ice cream cone with marshmallows and peanut butter cups. Wrap in foil and rest on some hot coals for a few minutes. Carefully remove from the fire and enjoy!

Build Fairy Houses.

Use anything you can find, twigs, pebbles, dandelions. Remember, fairies love nature so be creative! Maybe the fairies will even pay your little ones a visit and leave a treat!

Take a nature walk.

Make it into a scavenger hunt! Create a list of things to look for: a flower with 5 petals, a red leaf, a stick as long as your arm, etc. See how many things you can find!

Rainy day? Tell a story together.

Start with a sentence about camping. Example: “On the third day of our camping trip, we saw a family of chipmunks.” Take turns adding sentences and see where your story goes! Write it down as you go so you’ll have a campfire story ready for your next camping trip.

Recruit some helpers.

Kids love helping and camping gives them some exciting new tasks to help you with! Put them in charge of gathering kindling for a fire by showing them which sticks are small enough. Assign someone to pick out enough marshmallow roasting sticks for the group. Have older kids break chocolate bars and graham crackers and put together s’mores plates. Working as a team, you’ll be ready for s’mores in no time!