thecatsdogs

Hi- I am a bit of a newbie myslef but if I were in your area I'd totally help you out. You just kinda have to go try it. Since your son is young, I'd try it alone a couple of times because NOT finding isn't fun for kids. Also it helped me a lot to go to youtube and watch videos of people finding and hiding caches and looking at Ebay to see what some geocaching containers can look like. Kids usually like larger containers that have fun things in them so look for those first. I took my 12 year old nephew out for the first time a couple weeks ago. We looked for and found two small containers but I could tell he was interested but not thrilled. Then we went to a place where I had already found a large cache filled with stuff. I let him find it and he went nuts, digging through the container. He was hooked! I'm sure a lot of others can give you better pointers but the videos and ebay helped me a lot. Good luck!

If I could just interject here, as pretty much a newbie.... I started in April and only have 117 finds and two hides as of today. First of all, P&Gs are a great way for some of us to learn the ropes. I have discovered lots of things I never knew, such as light post skirts lift up. Never knew that. Not a big deal in the scheme of things but hey, I still learned something. I've been working on getting a cache per day and I'm around 41 days in a row or so. Most days I try to find something challenging, but sometimes I don't have time to really look hard and find something else if I can't find the original cache I wanted, so again, P&Gs fit the bill nicely. I like them just fine, thank you. I realize that you're talking about hiding 100s of them and maybe that's a different story, but consider this: As a very, very new hider...It can be really intimidating. There are pages of rules we have to adhere to. I was really nervous when I did my first hide. Was it ok? Did I meet all the criteria? Did I break any rules? Would people actually LIKE the hide? Was it too easy? Too hard? did I get the coordinates right??? You get the picture. There was a fair amount of stress involved and some apprehension. I actually lost some sleep over my first hide, wondering if I did it right and if it would get published. Then I got a note from the reviewer that they weren't going to publish it because it wasn't within a certain distance from my home. I had to go back and make a note for the reviewer that we own a vacation home accross the street from the hide and since I maintain that home and visit regularly, I was sure I could maintain this cache by myself. Another day goes by and more anxious hours and again a little lost sleep. It did get OK'd the next day. You may think I'm being overly dramatic and maybe I AM a bit too sensitive, but it was intimidating and kind of scary. I am guessing that if someone has found a procedure that works for them, maybe they don't want to mess with it. I don't really know why someone would choose to do it but I'm just asking you all to remember back to when you were new at this and see it from that position. Maybe they are just playing it safe to avoid any problems.

I am reading this topic with interest but have a question. In my area there are TONS of caches with 5 or more DNFs and no Founds since early 2010 or even 2009. Nobody seems to be fixing them, archiving them or in any way making an effort to correct the problem. I feel like they are taking up cache sites where someone could place a nice active cache. What is the procedure, other than just logging a DNF? I've even emailed the cache owner and asked if they are still playing. I've tried logging Needs Maintenance but it's been weeks and still no movement. Maybe this topic is addressed elsewhere but I couldn't find it. Thanks!

Of COURSE they like the swag! They're kids!!! Using your adult brain, think about working at your job for a day. Would you rather, at the end of the day, receive a pay check or just a verbal thank you from the boss? It takes maturity and perspective to work when you are not receiving a tangible reward. That's why there isn't an over supply of volunteers for non-profits, coaching kids teams, animal rescues etc. That having been said, I raised two sons to adulthood. Neither of them were much on family time and joining in, unless it was their idea. I would suggest looking for very few micros, and taking the long hikes out of the equation. Look for local caches. Pretend you guys are 007 or something. Play spy vs. spy with them. Maybe look for one or two caches total in a day, but that's it. Kids have short attention spans. Look for and find a nice cache with swag for them to trade. Then look for a micro- but plan some sort of celebration when it is found. Ice cream or other treat, the celebratory micro cache dance (whatever spontaneous silly dance you can make up), a specific family microcache cheer (made up and practiced beforehand)- anything to up the reward and fun factor. With my kids we hunted beach glass and if they found a piece of blue glass, I did the dance. They would do anything to see me make a fool of myself on the beach! Face it, we do this for fun. If it becomes a chore, we stop. Kids are the same way. Do whatever it takes to be sure they are having fun and when they are no longer having fun, stop. This isn't the place to teach about perseverence, unless they are into it. Schoolwork, chores, and other 'have-to's' in life will take care of that. Hobbies are supposed to be fun.

I just started last month and was also frustrated. Now I've got 100 finds under my belt and it has gotten much easier. The above advice should really help. Despite some effort, I've not been able to find a friendly geocacher locally to help get me going so I had to tough it out on my own. Let me just 'ditto' a couple ideas. First, leave the kids home until you get the hang of it. Check to be sure the caches you're looking for are NOT micros AND that they have been found very recently (within the past 2 weeks or a month). Then go look and allow yourself lots of time. Get as close to ground zero as you can with your GPS, and then look around. See if anything rings a bell with the title or the hint. Reading the comments of others who found the cache also helps. If nothing jumps out at you, look for where you would hide a cache. Look for the best hiding place. Touch everything. Often times, a cache will wiggle or move, when what is normally at the location will not. Look for anything that appears even slightly out of place or odd. Three stick in a row, a pile of acorns, a pipe that looks like it doesn't do anything - any of them could be the cache. Also, if you go to youtube, there are lots of videos of people finding caches so you can get a feel for what it is like and what to look for. Look on Ebay for cache containers again, so you will know what kinds of things they can be. All of that should really help. What I did with the kids was, I found a few near us that were regular caches and so contained some swag. Then I went back with the kids and helped them find the caches. That way they were almost guaranteed success and a good time. Once they were interested and we all were a bit more experienced, they were more excited about going out to look. It really is a great family activity and kids are often very good at it because they see things differently than we do, and have a different vantage point. Good luck and hang in there!

Wait.....are you married to MY husband???