Remember rashies and hats (much better than sunscreen especially when you can’t shower).

Your pack will have a list for families that are new to camping. Just ask one of the leaders.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for advices. Any link for 4pp tent and sleeping bags recommendations? My friend tells me that I can borrow their 2pp tent, but I doubt that it maybe tight. We have a boy and a girl, and I don't mind buying bigger sizes to last longer for sleeping bags.

Go to REI. The people who work there are very helpful in suggesting equipment that fits your budget and needs.

Anonymous wrote:Put a tarp under the tent. Get a small battery to charge things or charge in the car.

Be careful of charging in the car especially something like an air mattress. My friends killed my battery doing that back in the day.

I would want shampoo to wash my hair in the sink or spigot if staying more than overnight.

Fishing equipment if fishing.

We use that Walmart Ozark Trail 4-person tent for two people. Others have larger Ozark Trail tents or tents from Costco.

Did anyone say whistle? Walmart has ones with a compass that are fun for kids.

Personal fans, cooling towels, or whatever you use for the heat of going soon. If going in the fall, pay attention to how cold it will be overnight and when you wake up. We brought extra blankets. I had a thermometer, and it was in the 50's in our tent. Also bring a hat (stocking cap) and gloves, maybe long johns, and extra socks to wear to bed.

I remember my grandfather saying that you shouldn’t have anything touching the sides of the tent when it rains because apparently that will make it leak. He had learned the hard way and was speaking from experience.

We love family camping with cub scouts and go 2-3 times a year. Almost every family comes as a family, with just a handful that have a parent or parent and another kid stay home.

A 4 person tent is going to be right, doable, but tight. If it's marketed as 4 person thats 4 people side by side, like tetris pieces. Especially for casual family camping I would get a 6 person tent so there is room for 4 people plus your stuff.

If this is something you're not sure of doing more often, maybe ask buy nothing or a neighborhood listserv if someone has one you can borrow before spending money if this might be a one time thing.

But give it a shot! In our experience it's been very fun!

The other thing I would make sure to pack is some camp chairs for sitting around the camp fire.

Anonymous wrote:Not fun for adults.

Totally disagree. We had never camped until my son joined cub scouts a couple years ago. Now our family of 4 does twice a year camping trips that sound just like what OP described. We love it! Built in activities and playmates for the kids, pack leadership handles the food (which is hugely helpful!), and we’ve learned a lot. Enjoy, OP!

I recommend headlamps over flashlights for the kids. That way they can run around but still have hands free, and they don't leave them places. A couple of other things for you to consider:

1) Consider having just 1 kid and 1 parent go (assuming your 4 people is 2 parents and 2 kids) if only the 1 kid is in scouts. You will need less on supplies, and your non scout kid won't be stuck being the tag along. If those two really enjoy camping, then you can expand and do it as a family.

2) Keep an eye on the weather and you can adjust your plans depending on that. Last time we did Cub Scout camping, it was Friday night to Sunday morning. We camped Friday night and left around 8pm on Saturday because it was supposed to rain overnight Saturday. We only missed the Sunday morning breakfast, and avoided getting all our gear soaking wet and having a miserable night.

3) For 4 people I recommend getting at least a 5 person tent, and probably more like a 6 person tent. Once you get bags and air mattresses in them they are very tight. You may want to go somewhere like REI where you can see set up tents and get a feel for how small they are.

4) Don't feel like you have to go to every single meeting or event. Many of them are optional, but the way scouts is structured, they offer a lot of opportunities to participate in things. People will pick and choose depending on their interest and schedule.

Anonymous wrote:Not fun for adults.

To each their own. My DH went (our troop didn’t do family camps, just scout and a parent and it was 90% dads) and he treasures the memories. And the boys would agree. DH is a total luxury hotel guy so it wasn’t his comfort zone, and he loved it. Sore back and all. He, and some of the other older dads, would bring a cot.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/257465101?sid=9f703815-fce4-4c60-b47b-795828b716c4

We have this tent and love it. It’s easy to set up and go. I am able to fit a twin blow up mattress and two kids comfortably and all of gear. I have a blow up mattress that is also powered via USB. I think if you have extra battery pack things you could use that to inflate the air mattress. As far as sleeping bags. You could invest in nice expensive ones, but I would just go with basic ones for now. If you find your family likes camping and then I would splurge for nicer ones.

Some one had a nice list of items to bring. I can’t remember if they suggested, but clean dry socks for night are a must.

Not fun for adults.

Everyone in our cubscout pack uses this tent

https://a.co/d/d8ygmA2

Op here. Thank you. This is our first time to join cub scout. And I am told that they do camping 2x/year, a few fundraising events a year, pack meeting 1x/month, den meeting 2x/month, and other service date etc.. It is a lot more meetings than I thought to be, and it is like 5-6 meetings per month for 1 kid( not include to count the camping trips). Is that common? I feel like it may be more than I could bite because my 2 kids do sports and recital. I only sign up one kid at scout luckily.

We hate that sort of thing and would do it for as short a time as possible. Since no showers, I'd bring some sort of wet wipes. Mosquito repellant , flashlights, snacks.