Table of Contents

• Parenting Manga “Great Adventures at Home!
• How does it affect your child? Are there ways to have fun at home? Family smiles brought out by camping

Parenting Manga “Great Adventures at Home!

Profile
Eiichi
After working for a design company in Tokyo, he became a freelance illustrator. He is a hard-working father who creates animation, manga, and illustrations, including winning the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival’s International Short Film Showcase Division Excellence in Animation Award.

How does it affect your child? Are there ways to have fun at home? Family smiles brought out by camping

Children’s Growth and Parent-Child Bonding Nurtured at Camp

Skills that can be learned from elementary school students that will be useful when they enter the workforce

　What impact do outdoor activities have on children’s development? We spoke with Mr. Endo, a leader in the Boy Scouts of Japan, a public interest incorporated foundation whose philosophy is to develop better members of society through outdoor activities.

　Mr. Endo himself has been involved in Boy Scout activities since childhood and has experience in overseas deployment. He also has a child who joined the Boy Scouts and has witnessed his child’s growth.

　Outdoor activities such as camping allow children to learn spontaneity, imagination, self-sufficiency, and cooperation, all of which are essential for working adults.

　In everyday life, we take for granted that we will have food to eat, shelter from rain, and a place to sleep, but when camping, we have to make all these preparations from scratch. You need to be able to make arrangements for where to start, and you also need to use your imagination to figure out what you need.

　Campers work as one group, a family, so each member must be responsible and work for the family. Since cohesion as a group is necessary, discipline and cooperation are also required. The ability to be self-sufficient, to think and act from start to finish on their own, is a skill that is difficult to acquire even if one tries. In order to develop this ability, it is important for adults to maintain a moderate distance from the children, not too much support and not too much neglect.

　While it is obviously necessary to learn knowledge and other skills at school or in cram school, I believe that nurturing wisdom through outdoor activities is also an important skill that will be useful when one enters the workforce.

Parent-child bond strengthened at camp

　Shingo Inomata is a photographer and camp coordinator.

　Since my son was less than 2 years old, we have visited various places as camping trips. He has been outdoors for more than 15 years and is currently training in packrafting, which involves rafting down rivers in a one-person rubber boat. We interviewed Ms. Inomata, who has been outdoors almost every week, about her relationship with her son through outdoor activities.

　When my son was born, I was both happy and anxious about raising a child for the first time. I wondered what kind of parenting I could do and came to the answer that it was to learn with my child through camping and outdoor activities. Then, when my son was 10 months old, we started taking camping trips together.

　I started camping about 15 years ago under the influence of my photographer mentor at the time, and I was able to interact with our employees and business partners. Now, I camp as a way to create memories with my son and as a way to travel to different areas. For example, I want to go to Tanegashima to see rockets, so we go camping there, or I want to see fireflies, so we go to the mountains and camp there. My son now has many requests for things he wants to do, and I am happy that he is so curious.

　Having camped with my son, who is now 5 years old, I think he has become a lot tougher. When I see how he is able to sleep anywhere, I think he has developed a mentality of not being fazed, no matter what the situation is.

　I believe that the camp will be useful as disaster training. Even if lifelines were to suddenly stop due to a disaster, etc., my son and I would not be fazed because we have the knowledge and experience of camping and have learned how to overcome the situation.

　Camping has a high affinity for other hobbies and can be multiplied. You can combine it with mountain climbing or packrafting, and just having camping gear can be a disaster prevention measure. There are many compact and easy-to-use gears on the market, so start by buying them.

Families who enjoy “#camping at home” talk about it.
Attraction of Home Camping

The best smiles children bring out at camp

　With two children, a first grader and a junior high school student, and over 10 years of camping experience, the Hoshino family camps at least twice a month. They practice home camping to enjoy spending time at home with their family, even during the Corona Disaster. We asked them about their experience.

　I started camping at home because I was thinking about how to release the stress of having less time to experience the extraordinary, and because the people around me were also camping at home.

　We started by setting up our tent equipment in the garden and cooking outside for a trial. Just using the cassette stove in the garden gave us a taste of the outdoors, and the children responded well.

　When using a fire in your yard, it is important to be careful not to disturb your neighbors by using low-smoke charcoal and avoiding dropping fat from the meat on the fire.

　The children were happy because they could experience something out of the ordinary by simply changing the furniture in the house to create an outdoor atmosphere. It also generated conversations like, “What are we going to do next? It also creates conversations like, “What are we going to do next?

　I think home camping is effective because it provides image training for those who are just starting out or have little experience with camping.

　It’s why we’ve been camping for more than a decade. There aren’t many events that can bring out the kids’ unique smiles and unite the whole family, and camping is the perfect way to spend a holiday because it can do that.

　Camping provides dads with a rich environment in which to “teach” their children, and it makes them look cool, so I recommend it from that aspect as well (laughs).

Redecorating furniture into camping equipment! Enjoy a sense of the outdoors with a little ingenuity

　Ishimine was a member of the Boy Scouts as a child and was familiar with the outdoors. Two years ago, he started camping after being invited by a friend and his family. During the period of self-restraint, he enjoyed the outdoors in a variety of creative ways.

　You can also see the fun at the camp through Instagram.

　Before, weekends were limited to shopping trips, but since we started camping, we have time once or twice a month to work together as a family, which I think has strengthened our bond. Since I work in the clothing industry, we all wear matching outfits when camping, which adds to the event atmosphere.

　A camping product that I have been using a lot lately is a powder that changes the color of flames. Just put it in the fire and enjoy the flames changing to various colors. My kids and I are always excited to see it.

　At camp, I think the most important thing is to enjoy yourself first. Just me having fun keeps the kids interested, so the whole family can spend meaningful and fulfilling time together.

　For home camping, we first changed all the furniture in the living room to camping specifications. We changed the table and chairs, and the tableware was made of outdoor stainless steel. We also put up a fire pit to create an atmosphere. (We didn’t actually make the fire.) This alone gave the kids a sense of the extraordinary.

　We recommend turning off the lights in the house, using lanterns, and playing a video of the campfire on a tablet PC to further enhance the camping atmosphere.

In our everyday lives as a family, we don’t often have the opportunity to work together toward a single goal and accomplish something. Camping is one of those events where you can have a very fulfilling time.
Also, the extraordinary experience of being in nature is full of firsts for children and satisfies their curiosity. You can have fun at home by being creative, and we encourage you to make camping a family event, as well as an opportunity for dad to show his cool side, which he usually can’t show.