Entertainment
6 Surprising Things I’ve Learned About Camping with Kids
Before having kids, my husband and I spent our anniversaries camping on an island off the coast of Washington State. We’d pitch our tent in the woods and wake to the sound of harbor seals splashing in the waves. Then, when I was pregnant with our firstborn, we went camping in the nearby national forest. I spent the lazy days reading in a hammock by the river, and in the evenings, we sat by the fire, imagining the family camping trips we’d soon take.
The next summer, we returned to the national forest with our six-month-old. Not only did we forget to bring firewood, but within an hour of falling asleep, our daughter woke up inconsolable. Eventually, we packed up our gear and left, grateful the next morning to wake up surrounded by all the comforts of home.
We waited a year to try again and were pleasantly surprised at how fun it was to camp once our daughter was a bit older. Over time, we’ve figured out what works (and doesn’t work), and now family camping trips are one of our favorite pastimes. Here are six things we’ve learned…
1. It doesn’t take much to have fun outdoors.
Our favorite state parks have amenities our kids enjoy, like playgrounds and paddle boat rentals and ice cream stands, but we have the same amount of fun at campgrounds without much entertainment. We’ve learned to pack accordingly. We bring a frisbee and whiffle ball to the campground with the big grassy field; we bring a kite and sand toys to the one with the beach; and we always bring our field guides and binoculars (plus a monocular, which I’ve found is easier for kids to use). With freedom to explore, our kids usually make their own fun. And, this may be breaking all the rules, but when we camp at state parks on the San Juan Islands, we make a vacation out of it, heading into town to browse the bookstore and get coffee and pastries or to (gasp!) eat at a nice restaurant.
2. Camping with children looks different, and that’s okay.
When our youngest was born, we upgraded from our two-person backpacking tent to a family-sized tent (similar), which the kids named Bluey. We also bought a used pop-up camper, which has made camping even more comfortable. (We switch off between the two, depending on the campsite.) When our kids are older, we’ll take them on remote backpacking adventures, but for now, I appreciate the ease. We decorate the camper with stickers from every campground we visit. Older couples walk by and tell us, We used to bring our kids here. Tucked into the camper at night, listening to the sounds of my family breathing, I think, this is all I need to feel at home.
3. Group camping trips are like a big sleepover.
Every year we go on group camping trips with friends, and we always come away from these weekends saying, this is why we camp. The big kids race their bikes in loops around the campground and lead the younger kids in sprawling games of make believe. And it’s fun for the grown ups, too — we enjoy the unhurried time to hang out. Every meal is a potluck, and if you run out of sunscreen or forgot to pack ketchup? There’s always more than enough to go around. After the kids fall sleep, someone puts another log on the fire. Some of us drift off to our tents, and some of us stay up, talking and laughing quietly until it’s time to douse the embers and call it a night.
4. Park rangers are the best.
We’ve found that some state parks have ranger-led nature activities for kids, so it’s something we ask about when checking in. One of my daughter’s favorite memories is the time a park ranger stopped by our campsite with booklets filled with nature-themed puzzles and activities. He promised that once their booklets were completed, they could earn their ‘Junior Park Ranger’ badges. My daughter, who was five at the time, diligently colored her way through the whole book. On the last day of our trip, we stopped at the ranger station. Not only did the ranger on duty bring out a box of wooden badges, he led a very official swearing-in ceremony. I teared up as our kids pledged to care for the land, waterways, and wildlife around us.
5. It’s helpful to take notes for next time.
When it’s time to start packing for a trip, I open the camping checklist I keep in my Notes app. The list keeps getting better over time, since I’m constantly adding anything we wish we’d brought. For food, we chop, dice, and measure out ingredients at home and make as many meals ahead as possible. Because I’m extra, I also like to bake blueberry scones, which we reheat over the fire to enjoy with morning coffee. We use a cast-iron camp cooker for egg sandwiches, which makes breakfast almost as fun as toasting s’mores. While walking around the campground, we keep a note of sites we’d like to reserve for next time and jot down what we liked about them. State parks book up early, so this helps us in late winter when our group chats start buzzing about making reservations.
6. Best of all, our kids remember the good stuff.
When we swap stories about past camping trips, we’re always surprised by what our kids share. They remember the way the stars looked at night while walking to the bathroom, not the runny nose that kept them up late. They remember drinking hot cocoa with marshmallows before breakfast, not the time I cut my palm slicing bagels with a dull knife. They remember listening to audiobooks with their stuffies in the backseat, not the miserable hour my husband and I spent breaking down the campsite in the pouring rain.
Back at home, when our kids wake up and climb into our bed under the eaves, they reach their hands up to touch the low ceiling that slants like a tent above us, and say, It’s just like camping.
Kaitlyn Teer’s debut essay collection Little Apocalypses: Essay on Motherhood, Climate Change, and Hope at the End of the World is out today! She is the senior editor of Big Salad (and you can read her recent Big Salad interview and garden tour here, if you’d like). Kaitlyn lives with her husband and two kids in Bellingham, Washington.
Now, I’d love to hear, do you enjoy camping? What traditions do you look forward to every summer?
P.S. 10 readers share their favorite outdoor activities, and five family vacation ideas.
(Top photo by Dave Hoefler/Unsplash.)
Entertainment
How to watch Verona vs. AC Milan online for free
TL;DR: Live stream Verona vs. AC Milan in Serie A for free on BBC iPlayer. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
Serie A showcases a number of interesting matchups this weekend, including Verona vs. AC Milan. These teams are at either end of the table, so most fans will be expecting a comfortable victory for the visitors. There’s always the possibility that the slim chance of survival will drive Verona on to do something special at the Marcantonio Bentegodi.
If you want to watch Verona vs. AC Milan in Serie A for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
When is Verona vs. AC Milan?
Verona vs. AC Milan in Serie A kicks off at 9 a.m. ET on April 19. This fixture takes place at the Marcantonio Bentegodi.
How to watch Verona vs. AC Milan for free
Verona vs. AC Milan in Serie A is available to live stream for free on BBC iPlayer.
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BBC iPlayer is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can unblock BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world.
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The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Verona vs. AC Milan without committing with your cash. This isn’t a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to live stream select fixtures from Serie A before recovering your investment.
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Entertainment
Meta finally adds direct messages to the web version of Threads
Meta is adding a feature to the web version of Threads that, honestly, probably should’ve been there a while ago.
As spotted by Engadget, Threads executive Connor Hayes posted an image showcasing a new redesign for the web browser version of the Twitter-like social network. It’s a pretty substantial redesign, including a bunch of new elements on the left sidebar such as the ability to easily switch between different feeds. Eagle-eyed viewers will also undoubtedly notice the addition of a direct message inbox. That feature has been available in the Threads mobile app since last June, but web users have been without it for almost an entire year. That, seemingly, will change soon.
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Hayes’ post didn’t include a specific timeframe for when this new redesign will go live, so don’t get too excited just yet if you’re a web-based Threads user who wants to send and receive DMs. The only hint Hayes gave is that users can expect to see some of these updates “in the coming weeks.”
Longtime social media users might find it strange that there has been such a massive gulf in feature availability between the mobile and web versions of Threads, but it makes a certain amount of sense. Threads has actually become pretty popular, but largely on mobile. X is still the preferred microblogging service on web browsers, at least going by user count. Meta is just operating where its bread is buttered. At least now web users can rest assured that they haven’t been forgotten.
Entertainment
At BookCon 2026, Heated Rivalry author Rachel Reid and show creator Jacob Tierney sit down to talk about instant chemistry and whats next for the show
The first panel at BookCon drew lines of fans an hour before its start. Fans have shown up in style. I spotted dozens of iterations of t-shirts with the faces of actors Hudson Williams and Connor Storie plastered on them. Boston Raiders, Montreal Metros, and New York Admirals jerseys are in abundance, too. 3,000 fans are here, waiting to see Rachel Reid and Jacob Tierney in conversation for the first time.
But while this may be the first public conversation between the Heated Rivalry author and show creator on a grand stage, it’s clear that these two have been in perfect sync since their first Zoom call. Moderated by former Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Versha Sharma, Reid and Tierney took to the stage at BookCon for a session called “Game Changing TV: Heated Rivalry.” The conversations spanned across their entire collaboration, from their very first DM to the music that makes the show, to how their lives have changed since the show aired.
Tierney, whose knack for comedy shines through, discussed how the show moved at a lightning pace. The adaptation kicked off in August 2023, with the first episode airing on November 28, 2025. Heated Rivalry’s inception and creation happened at lightning pace for television. Tierney, who was the co-creator and director of Letterkenny, said that, rather than the show being slowed down by roadblocks, at every turn it appeared to accelerate instead. The show was sold to HBO before it was even finished, with episode six only finishing four days before it aired.
Reid, who has penned six novels in the Game Changers series, has been involved in the journey since the beginning, first meeting Tierney over Zoom. The author said that throughout the process, she felt respected and involved in reading script drafts and audition tapes.
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While the show’s leads, Hudson Williams, who portrays Shane Hollander, and Connor Storie, who portrays Ilya Rozanov, weren’t physically present at the panel, both asked questions on behalf of the pair. Storie’s question was apt, asking the pair what made them such a mutually good fit for this adaptation. The pair said that their visions have felt instinctively aligned, with Reid noting that, as she wrote the infamous kiss between Scott and Kip depicted in episode 5 of Heated Rivalry, she had an image of the cinematic version, which Tierney was able to bring to life.
The show, which has become known for its intimate and plentiful sex scenes, is not there just for the sake of it. Tierney said he wanted to make a show with queer joy and a horny show at that, but more so, sex is a vehicle for the show’s characters to be honest and vulnerable with each other.
Music also came up, with the show’s needle drops, including Tatu’s “All The Things She Said” and Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe in Anything,” having a renaissance two decades after their release. There’s no formal equation to the music; instead, they let the songs be like casting the right actor, with Tierney noting that songs should serve a “specific task.”
Tierney is in the midst of writing season two of Heated Rivalry, which takes on Reid’s sequel, Long Game. The writer and director called Long Game “an emotionally sophisticated book” and said that parts of Reid’s Role Model will find their way into season two. For Reid, a new book in the Game Changer series, Unrivaled, is due for a 2027 release. The author is still in the writing stage, mentioning that while she felt pressure writing Long Game, the previous book in the series, Unrivaled presents a whole new challenge because of the show’s massive popularity.
Fans in the room seemed alight, hearing first-hand from the author and creator of Heated Rivalry, basking in an hour dedicated to a show that set the internet and book world ablaze. Moderator Versha Sharma ended on the sentiment that the whole room could agree on: “Rachel Reid’s universe is the world as it should be.”
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