Born To Camp: Book Helps Kids Enjoy Outdoor Experiences

Load up the camper—even with those with loaded diapers.

Stephanie and Jeremy Puglisi are the creators/co-hosts of the RV Atlas podcast and the authors of nine books about outdoor life. Stephanie started camping as a young girl, and in high school she and her family introduced Jeremy and other classmates to the joys of spending time in nature.

For the past 15 years, the Jersey residents have spent 80-plus nights a year in their RV with their three sons, 16-year-old twins and a 12-year-old.

Who better to help other moms and dads introduce their children to the camp experience with the board book Terra Babies on the Go: My First Book of Camping, for little explorers aged 0 through 4.

The book is a cozy camping experience filled with gooey s’mores, river fishing, and hiking. Toddlers and preschoolers can follow along as they discover the joy of wandering in the woods, making shadow puppets, and sleeping in a tent.

All books in the Terra Babies on the Go series, which also includes My First Book of Hiking, are made with environmentally friendly FSC materials and soy-based, nontoxic inks and are 100 percent recyclable.

Straus Media sat down with Jeremy, who has appeared on TV and has been featured/published in major print and digital publications on the subject of RVing, to find out what makes camping beneficial, what outdoor life has done for their children, and how to prepare your own kids for the experience.

So, you really like camping.

We bought our first pop-up camper when [the twins] were 1. We fell in love with camping and the RV lifestyle very quickly after that, and just really moved in that direction for all of our vacation time and our weekends.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about traveling with young children that most parents wouldn’t expect?

There are incredible long-term benefits to getting your kids camping and into the great outdoors. It’s inspired my sons to stay off their phones and not spend their time playing video games. They crave outdoor adventure, love to hike, fish, and surf. One of them talks about becoming a park ranger. My two oldest are lifeguards now. As their father, I see a connection between that and all the time we spend outside.

I also think it gives them a lot of confidence, physical strength, and flexibility. They’re willing to be in different environments. They’ve learned to thrive in new situations because we put them in so many different places.

We challenged them physically when they were younger. We did some very difficult hikes in Glacier National Park, and in Yellowstone. There might have been a tear or two along the way, but now they’re physically rigorous young men, which is something I don’t take for granted in our cultural moment.

What’s the most realistic first camping trip for Manhattanites with no backyards—the ideal first campout locations?

While you learn the process, pick somewhere close to home. A local county or state park a short drive from your house. If things don’t go well, or it pours rain, or you can’t get the tent set up, you can abort the mission and go home.

New York State campgrounds are an amazing place for people to start camping close to the city.

What are the biggest mindset shifts parents need to make to truly enjoy camping with little ones?

Stephanie always used to say that it’s challenging raising kids—why not do it in beautiful locations? Whatever challenges you might face with kids camping are probably the challenges you’d be facing with them at home. You can keep it comfortable, keep some of the elements from home with you when you go on a camping trip.

There are benefits for mom and dad when you take the kids camping.

We would put our kids to bed in a pop-up camper, and then step outside and have a campfire, a glass of wine, and be in the great outdoors and enjoy each other’s company.

How has all this hands-on experience shaped what you included in the book?

So in both of the books, My First Book of Camping and My First Book of Hiking, we put in real places we’ve been. It was important to us to inspire the parents reading the books and these young potential campers to be like, “Oh, where is the Frying Pan River? Where is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Naming places gives a sense of authenticity.

There are activities in the book, too, that kids can do, like creating a shadow-puppet show on the wall of your tent. That’s something we did when [the boys] were little.

What made you decide to do children’s books at all?

We were both educators. Stephanie taught elementary school for 20 years, and I taught high school for 20 years.

It was sort of a lifelong goal to do children’s books before we even got into the adult guidebooks. [The Puglisis have also published several guides for adult campers].

Creating all this great camping content on our podcast, where we talk about family camping . . . the children’s books are a natural extension of that.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is a frequent contributor and novelist.