Summer Tips for Caching with Kids
Kid Caching
Summer is almost here in the northern hemisphere and most kids are out of school or will be out shortly. Father’s Day is right around the corner, the days are getting longer and the call of the Lock N Locks out in the wild is luring geocachers outdoors. Many families take the opportunity of summer break to cache with their children and grandchildren. To help make these caching outings picture perfect and keep the kids inspired, interested and happy, we would like to offer some tips for caching with kids. These tips come from the geocaching family ‘Dasky2869′, who love geocaching with their kids!
They share: We are a family geocaching team in Loganville, GA. We have been caching for around 2 years since my Dad bought us our 1st GPS and introduced us to geocaching. It is always a family affair. Our kids are 3yrs old and 17 months and love caching with us. It is an great family activity that gets us outdoors and to places we have never been before. My husband, David is a Dekalb County Fireman who usually gets the hard job of carrying the 17mth old, Kendall on his back. Our son, Avery made his first find all by himself a few weeks ago in Ohio. He loves finding everything from an ammo box to a nano. He knows it is the thrill of the hunt! I am usually there to catch all of the excitement in photos and keep us going through out the day. We love introducing new families to geocaching and would love to plan a family meet and greet one day!
Here are a few of the things we have learned along the way while geocaching with our kids:
- Park-n-grabs don’t really count to the kids if they never get out of the car…save these for sleeping kids in the car seats.
- Mix in a few larger caches with your micros for the day…it keeps the kids interested.
- Remember to have the “micros don’t have toys talk” BEFORE you find one.
- If they are young enough, bring along an old remote control and let them use their “GPS” too.
- Let them lead for once…just remember how to get back out!
- Remember Mom, if Dad is carrying the baby that means YOU have to climb the tree!
- Pack a small cooler with drinks and snacks to encourage everyone to let you find “just one more”.
- And last but not least, enjoy a beautiful day outside and with your family.
Do you have tips for caching with kids? Please add to the list, and happy caching!
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Great tips! I just had a friend submit an article for my blog (I’ll publish it on Tuesday) about geocaching with kids. She has 5 kiddos ranging from 11 to 2. One tip that she shared was to catch away from busy streets so you don’t have to worry so much about cars when caching AND watching all the kids!
I’ll post the article to http://www.FindYourGeocache.com on Tuesday!
These are some great tips!
We do lots of caching with kids. Ours are 1.5 and 5 yrs old now, and we’ve been caching for four years. Much of what we’ve learned was mentioned above.
The biggest things we’ve learned have to be:
1) The kids set the pace. Watch them closely. When they’ve had enough, it’s time to switch things up or go home.
2) Mix up the cache types. We like finding caches in nature parks or just out in the woods, but the kids can’t do long hikes, and eventually tire of rocks and trees and trees and rocks. So, we try for a mix of urban and wilderness caches.
3) Kids don’t really like micros or nanos. No, really. For kids, the bigger, the better!
4) Geocaches near playgrounds are Godsends — as long as you have your kids with you
It’s a nice break for everyone.
5) Snacks and drinks. For the kids and the adults. Keep the sugar levels up otherwise *everyone* will be irritable.
6) Manage your expectations. For us, 3 or 4 caches per day (in Vancouver area) is typical with kids. In Nova Scotia, it’s more like 6 but it depends on the local cache density. The point is, however, you’re not going to be grabbing big numbers when the kids are with you. And *that’s OK*! With kids, it can’t be about the numbers.
7) When you reach the “just one more cache” mentality, stop. That last cache is rarely worth it
Cheers,
Aerodoq of Team LeftCoastFloyds
(Vancouver BC)
We went out for our first hunt today. Our first stop was Bone Yard. Unfortunately it traumatized us because my 4 yr. old stepped into a yellow jacket nest. He was stung 5 times and I was stung once. It was horrific. My 8 and 7 yr. old girls, as well as my 4 yr. old son were inconsolable. It was just awful. After that we hit two park-n-grabs and it helped ease our nerves a little.
My input - watch your step when going into nature cache hunts. Wear socks and sneakers every time too.