Grab some firewood and the kids, head outside, and prepare to build your own campfire! One of the first things my husband taught me was how to build a fire. This is an important life skill that even the youngest minds should know how to do.
Our kids love to help us build a campfire, and it is something that we have been sure to include our kids in learning the process. Knowing how to build a fire is something everyone can learn to do. After you build it, reward yourself with making S'mores! A yummy way to celebrate the fire you built.
Log Cabin Style Campfire
Materials:
- Firewood
- Newspaper
- Cardboard(boxes or paper towel tubes)
- Fatwood (firestarters)
- Matches or Multipurpose Lighter
Steps:
- In the wintertime, it is important to shovel out your fire pit or area that you will be building a campfire.
- If you don't have your firewood split into small pieces, you should take time to split it into smaller pieces (there are different ways to split your wood, we use a Kindling Cracker.)
- After splitting 4 or 5 pieces of firewood into smaller pieces, you will want to place 4 pieces into your firepit in the form of a log cabin (take two pieces and place parallel to each other with some space in between, then place two more pieces on top perpendicular to the bottom pieces.) See pictures below.
- Take some newspaper and shred it into long pieces. Place in the middle of your 4 pieces of wood. Add some fatwood and some tinder (small sticks and branches). Add some cardboard if you desire.
- Repeat the process of placing your wood into a log cabin style layout and adding some more newspaper shreds
- Make your "log cabin" about 3-4 layers high.
- Top with some more tinder and newspaper.
- Light with matches or a multipurpose lighter in 3-4 places.
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Campfire building tips:
- Use dry wood (small pieces to start)
- Use tinder or small sticks and twigs
- Build a ring out of rocks
- Build small, not big
- Have some water or snow on hand to extinguish
