In my anxiousness to be in the wilderness, I had the great idea of teaching and practicing fire starting skills with my kids. We went out to the small parking lot that is located across the ally from my house - it's one of their main play areas. Sad, I know. Why do you think we love camping so much?? Anyway, we went out there and I had them gather some small sticks, tinder and pieces of bark. We made a good fire bundle that could start easily. What I was trying to do was teach the kids how to start a fire without a lighter, matches and newspaper.
First, we tried a magnifying glass in the sun. It smoked a bit on the tinder but we couldn't get it to ignite. The sun kept going behind the clouds. For this technique to work you need good direct sunlight.
Second, we tried the old-fashioned way of rubbing two sticks together. We got the sticks pretty hot but no fire. The sticks were a bit damp from a previous rain and we could not find any drier ones. There are not many sticks to chose from in a parking lot.
Lastly I brought out a firesteel. Firesteels are great because they create hot sparks that will ignite your tinder - I recommend every camp kit have one. They even work in the rain.After sparking it on our tinder a few times we successfully got a fire going. It worked great.
Immediately, the kids got out the marshmallows and had to roast them by our "campfire" in the parking lot.This was a great time because all the kids got involved. Even my 3 year old was looking for good tinder. My 6 year old daughter was able to get the fire steel to spark, too.
After the fire-starting lesson, my son decided it was time to set up camp and hunt for food. He gathered up some small branches and an old piece of canvas and proceeded to the back of our house to set up a make-shift tent inside one of our window wells. He was doing a great job using whatever was available to him to make it work. He even tried to set up a trap to catch some food.
