Geocaching With Children

[+CTBob]

I'm so intrigued with the concept of Geocaching that I'm going to purchase a GPS unit for myself and get out there. I'm simply shocked at the large number of caches so close to my home. I'm planning on taking my niece out for on a few adventures with me as soon as I decide on a unit. I've got one really neat cache picked out already.

 

I'm also a freelance writer and I'm planning an article on Geocaching for families or with grandparents and their grandchildren. I'd be interested in hearing any stories you'd like to share about your experiences Geocaching as a family. Also, what advice can you provide that would help a novice geocacher insure a successful adventure.

 

Thanks

Bob

[+Kit Fox]

This picture speaks more than words . I payed a visit to one of my caches, to place a White Jeep Travel bug, and my daughter came along. She loves looking through the toys.

[+CTBob]

That is soooo cute! How old was she when she first started Geocaching with you? I imagine the caches you choose to go after must be very easy and quick.

[+dw]

The secret to successful caching with kids is SWAG! While my enjoyment of caching comes from the hunt and the hike and the challenge, my kids really like the whole finding treasure and trading idea. So micros and long multis are not going to get as good a response as a big ammo can filled with stuff.

 

My daughter's favorites are theme caches - one called Stuffed Animal Exchange was a huge hit with her!

 

Here's a picture of my daughter and her friend finding a TB that was a stuffed animal:

 

[+SteveDex]

I had showed my 8-yr-old son how to operate the GPSr but he still wasn't that interested in being in charge it when we went out. After a while, I was getting vibes that he would rather be doing something else - then I found out by accident that he didn't really understand the screen and how it relates to the surroundings.

 

I fixed that. He had a friend over and we played "Geocache Easter Egg" all over our 1-acre lot. He and his friend would hide their eyes and I would hide the goodie. We did this repeatedly. He soon was able to fly through the menus of my 60CS, choose the waypoint from the list and go right to the hide. We practiced using both the compass and map modes.

 

He now insists on being in charge of the handheld when we hunt.

[+BlueDeuce]

This picture speaks more than words . I payed a visit to one of my caches, to place a White Jeep Travel bug, and my daughter came along. She loves looking through the toys.

Wow! With my kids it's like supper time for the farmhands before a friday night dance.

 

I'm lucky to find a tattered edge of the logbook.

Edited September 5, 2005 by BlueDeuce

[bogleman]

I take the kids out with me a majority of the time (10, 8 & 6). They seem to have a good time with it. Some of the troubles I have encountered are thorns and competition between them (who finds it first). I have three GPSr's and we all have one, and that keeps the fighting down and it gives them something to do. I normally go after quick and easy ones that seem to keep their attention and the excitement going. I have to be careful though I don't want to push them too hard and turn them off and then have to fight with them just to go out so I can have some fun.

 

[+robert]

I don't have any kids but from time to time I've cached with friends who have them and it's a lot of fun. They approach the idea a little different, more of a treasure hunt than anything. Sometimes they can be super tough and tackle the roughest hills and other times they aren't too happy to walk even a bit.

 

My wife and I decided not to have kids when I read that geocaching doesn't care about chinldren. It just didn't seem worth it to us when we wouldn't be able to take them with us.

 

[+Team Neff]

When the kids visit from UK (we're in Michigan USA) we take them out caching with us, it gets us out and about and lets them see some of Michigan they otherwise wouldnt see. They enjoy it, especially when they get to use the GPS and do the tracking for themselves.

[+ADKcachers]

This picture speaks more than words . I payed a visit to one of my caches, to place a White Jeep Travel bug, and my daughter came along. She loves looking through the toys.

Wow Kitfox, that is one of the sweetest, most moving pictures that I've ever seen. What a sweetheart your daughter is.

[+dingermcduff]

Caching with my son is awesome!

 

He's only 3, but he's been with me for 16 of my 18 hides and maybe as many as 3/4 of my finds. He's endured some VERY long hikes and made some tough climbs--with my help of course. He's the best caching companion I could have.

 

Of course, there are those caches I would be a fool to bring him to--not many, he's pretty tough. Use your head and think of what your kid's been able to do in the past. It's also a challenge dealing with sun, steep areas, mosquitoes, dehydration--suddenly you're looking out for someone's safety beside your own. My little boy wandered into a yellow jacket nest a few weeks ago and got stung several times (I did too while getting him out of there), so you never know what will happen. Be prepared, keep an eye on your kid, and stay calm if something goes wrong, I say.

 

As for swag, he doesn't care about it. We rarely ever take anything, sometimes leave something. I sometimes ask him if he wants to trade for anything and he usually doesn't. He does like travel bugs though. His big rush is finding the cache before my wife and I. Of course, sometimes we have to give him "hints", but a few times he has actually found a cache we were going nuts looking for. He also likes to be the one to rehide the container--don't worry, if he doesn't do it quite right I hang back and fix it.

 

Crazy as it sounds, my son would rather find a benchmark than a geocache any day of the week. He's ALWAYS looking for marks. If he sees anything round set in concrete, he's yelling "benchmark!" Manhole covers, waterline accesses...you name it.

 

FUNNY STORY:

 

Earlier this spring, I was training for the wildfire season (I fight wildland fires) by putting on a heavy pack and hiking up this steep hill in the mine dumps near my home. Just as I walked out the door I said to my wife, "Well, I'm going for my death march."

 

My little boy jumped up off the floor and grabbed ahold of my arm and started crying and telling me not to go. My wife and I couldn't believe it. Here he was, barely 3, and genuinely concerned that something bad was going to happen to me. My wife looked at him and said, "It's OK, daddy's gonna be OK."

 

That's when we found out what he thought I had said:

 

He cried, "Daddy's finding a bench mark without me!"

 

Apparently "death march" sounds like "bench mark" to a little benchmarking addict.

[+trailbuster]

We regularly cache with our girls, 7 and 3. We started when they we still in a back pack and they love to "treasure hunt". If I told them we were going for a 3 mile walk they would put a such a fuss it would not be worth it but one mention of geocaching and they are at the car ready to go, trade items in hand. Teach them the joy of being outdoors and the thrill of the hunt. The 7 year old is using the GPS and has been trying to get the whole compass thing down. Take them when you can they will learn to love all sorts of things.

[+thekueglers]

We considered ourselves a fairly active family, but we had never been on as many hikes as we have since we started caching. Our four year old daughter walks most of the way, rides on shoulders a bit. The 16 month old goes in a back pack; one parent carries him in, the other carries him out. Katie loves finding the treasures. We rarely do micros, as for her it's all about the swag!

 

On another note, CT is a great place to cache, especially the northwest corner. I have several pages of caches within ten miles of my house!

[Clan Riffster]

Our 10 year old, "Munchkin", is every bit as addicted as we are. Here's a pic of her feeding Scrubjays.

[nobby.nobbs]

 

geocaching for kids usually great as it's a treasure hunt! real life pirates hidden stuff.

[+Codfish116]

I don't like geocaching with my kids! I took my 6, 8, and 10 yr. olds out last weekend and it was horrible. The oldest TOOK MY GPSr!!! That's MY toy. No body would let me find a cache. And to top it all off, THEY TOOK ALL THE GOOD SWAG!

 

But seriously, it was great to see them get excited to find a ammo can filled with trinkets. I just get a warm fuzzy when they ask if we can go out "looking for treasure" again.

 

 

my new wallpaper

[+Wadudu]

I recently returned from a ten day trip to visit my family in Oregon and my husband missed me so much that he bought me a romantic present upon my return home. I opened the package to find a new gps. "Uhh.... gee thanks. Is this for me or for you?" I asked a little amusedly. He explained that the idea behind it was to get his pregnant wife and two children (4 and 2) out in the desert by geocaching. (We moved to Arizona from Alaska around the end of June for my husbands job.) He thinks the desert is just beautiful and I don't exactly hold the same opinion. His plan has worked excellently though. My kids love it! It is funny to hear the word 'geocache' come out of my two year old daughter's very limited vocabulary. My son has rounded up all sorts of trade items from his bedroom. (I help him sort explaining that the toys need to be in very good condition and that there are enough special rocks in the desert that we don't need to include his. ) The kids do slow us up a little bit, especially with my daughters insistant, "I do it!", but really we are doing this to spend time together as a family. Honestly, I don't think it would be nearly as much fun if the kids were not with us. My husband and I always let them do the final discovery. You should see how proud they are when they pull out the cache. So far it has been a great way to be motivated to get out of the house and find all kinds of amazing places that you would have to live here a life-time to know of them all. We plan to keep on caching until the baby is born in October, maybe take a week off and then get back out there!

[+Ed & Julie]

I used to take my nephews (ages 10, 10 & 11) geocaching with me, but cachers in my area are obsessing with placing microcaches, which the kids hate.

 

We switched to locationless caching, which the kids got a kick out of, but those days are numbered. We have logged a few benchmarks together also.

 

Here's us goofs:

Hard to see, but there are about 15 tbs in the back of my car:

Nephew Brandon's first benchmark find:

Edited September 6, 2005 by The Badge & the Butterfly

[+reveritt]

I started taking my Granddaughter caching when she was six. She is eight now, and probably has probably found 40 or 50 caches herself, and has been along for many more.

 

It's not about the numbers for us. Julia likes the trading, but I think the real pleasure is from being out in the woods together. We take the time to observe plants and wildlife, collect specimens, and take pictures. We are learning to identify trees, wildflowers, and animal track. Sometimes there is an opportunity to climb on a tree or some big rocks. Julia can read a topo map and use a compass. She loves to cross a stream on a narrow log bridge, or catch frogs by the edge of a mudhole.

 

Julia also has several travel bugs of her own, and her own cache. She found the hiding place herself, picked out a container, and came up with all the stuff to go in it.

 

Life is good.

[+CompassCollector]

I take my girls out all the time. We've had some adventures along the way. One caching trip in particular my youngest still talks about, because it involved a climb up a difficult hill. At one point I slipped while carrying her, so now she tells people that she "Almost died". But then again, she begs me to go. :-)

[+Jdakj]

My three love to go as well (13, 11 & 2). The hardest part is keeping the littlest one from shouting out about the "treasure". He's the chatterbox in the group! My 11 year-old is the best by far - I swear she has eagle eyes. While I'm looking at the GPS and trying to get close to where the cache is, she usually shouts out "I found it"! All three of them definately love the swag, but enjoy the clever micros we have found as well.

[+Sinbad7Seas]

I have been going out for about a year now with my two sons who recently turned 4 and 6. They love going out, finding the treasure and picking out prizes. And if there is a playground nearby, even better.

 

Mike and Tim

 

-Sinbad7seas

[Shoobie & the Sand Crabs]

Kid's love to geocache playing Hide-n-seek and you get a toy at the end what could be better?

[+StarBrand]

Really - How many 3 year olds can say "Geocaching"?? and visually recognize a Travel Bug?

 

Mine loves to go caching, find treasure and play along the way.

 

 

Number 2 is scheduled to arrive on November 4th. Caching with a pregnant wife can be interesting....

[+overtaxed1]

 

Number 2 is scheduled to arrive on November 4th. Caching with a pregnant wife can be interesting....

I definately agree (we're expecting on Nov 3rd); convincing your 6-month-pregnant wife to go on a 1 mile hike up to a ridgeline is pretty tough so currently we stick to easy ones when she is with.

 

The kids love it and I like the excuse to get them away from the TV. Besides when they come with I don't get that twinge of guilt by leaving my family at home while I go playing.

[TookDadAlong]

I cache with my 12 (almost 13) year old daughter all the time. 10 yo son comes alongs some of the time. Have taken Cub Scouts, tiny nephews, Cub Scout's younger sisters etc. In our area there are lots of fairly easy caches. The kids love the swag!

[+Husker]

Kids don't like geocaching.

 

 

But seriously, the other day my son, Lego Master, and I were walking back from a cache and was telling me why geocaching is cool. He said liked going to places we might not normally go to, he likes spending time with me (that was a good heart tug), he liked to bike and canoe to caches, he likes going to events and meeting people and just to hang out.

 

We opened Lego his own account so that he would have to do some creative writing. He's an excellent reader but a poor writer. My hope was this would help him a little with putting words to paper (or electrons). He's about a dozen caches behind but he wants to get caught up.

[+Bear Paughs]

I cache with my 7 and 9 year old boys. I hope that I'm instilling in them my love for the outdoors, and I think I've been pretty successful. Geocaching has taken us on many fun adventures. We continue the learning experience from their computer and the library after our day's caching is over. We're always looking up different plants, animals, etc. we've encountered on our trips, and we've been on caches that have piqued our interest in a lot of local history as well.

 

While seven year old Ryder loves caching (well, mostly the treasure ones for him), it's nine year old Julian who has really fallen in love with the activity -- and benefitted from it the most as well. Julian has Aspergers Syndrome and is challenged more than most children in a lot of areas. Since we've started geocaching early this summer, Julian has simply blossomed. His physical coordination has improved immensely, although there is still the occasional trip and fall ("I'm okay!), and he demonstrates a lot more focus most of the time. He has matured considerably and is much closer to his peers in a lot of developmental areas than he was two months ago.

 

I call Julian my "warrior". If ever there was a kid who had every reason to give up and have a defeatist attitude, it's Julian, who faces real challenges in nearly every thing he does. But Julian doesn't quit, or even whine -- he goes after every cache with gusto and encourages me and his brother along as well. Some of the terrains he and I have done would be difficult for most nine year olds without special needs, and yet he does not give up. One day we climbed to the top of a mountain in almost 100 degree weather (we hadn't realized this is where we'd be going when we started our journey at the bottom). It's one of our proudest moments to achieve that. But the best part of that day was on the way down, when he said to me, "I have a really good life, I'm a lucky kid." Then he thanked me for making parts of his life really good.

 

 

 

[+CTBob]

"I have a really good life, I'm a lucky kid."

 

Bear Paughs, it doesn't get any better than that

[+Bear Paughs]

"I have a really good life, I'm a lucky kid."

 

Bear Paughs, it doesn't get any better than that

Don't I know it! That conversation with Julian was probably one of my greatest moments in life. I'm the lucky one!

[+shadows_crew]

"I have a really good life, I'm a lucky kid."

 

Bear Paughs, it doesn't get any better than that

I couldn't agree more. Gives me goosebumps. Too bad I didn't find this sport until recently, my daughters are in their late teens and caching is definetly not cool!!

[+Thrak]

I hate finding children in the cache.

 

Actually, I'm pretty bummed that this wasn't around when my kids were small. I think they would have loved it and it just seems to me like a really great family hobby.

[+Tonylama]

It's amazing - I was contemplating the "cache with kids" issue all week - after a 6 hour geo cache day with my two children (7 and 10) and their two friends (9 and 10). I was hoping to find something on the forum with some words of wisdom on the subject. So I'm happy to see this thread.

 

We had a great day - but I must admit it had its moments. Each of them put at least one foot in the mud up to their knee... Two crying spells over thorns, and the occasional "when are we going to be done..."

 

I think the hardest part is the "extra" time it takes to get in, find the cache, and get out when you have kids in tow. But I can't say no when they ask to go with me and actually want to do something involving the outdoors and exercise. (I even manage to work a little MATH into the process for them ... but they don't realize that yet...

 

Last weekend we picked up a huge bag of trash at and around a cache site. Somone jogging along the trail actually stopped and thanked the kids for cleaning up the trail. You would have thought they had been given a congressional medal - they were so proud!

[+tls11823]

I'm in the "too late" category, but also in the "still in time" category. I have three sons, ages 19, 13, and 7 (I know...). While the older two have gone caching a few times, it hasn't been very frequently. The seven-year-old, however, loves it. There have been times that I wake up on a Saturday morning and he says, "Dad - you finally woke up! Let's go Geocaching." It does my heart good to have something that we both enjoy.

 

I posted this thought once before, but I think it bears repeating: As a parent, you find that there are some things that you enjoy, but the kids endure. There are many more things that the kids enjoy and you endure (Chuckie Cheese comes immediately to mind). Then there are a few things that you both enjoy, and love doing together. For us, Geocaching is one of those rare things. These are the things that will be good memories years down the road. My parents gave me plenty of those memories, and I'm pleased and proud to pay it forward.

[nobby.nobbs]

there's always the grand kids to look forward to.

 

be the coolest grand parents ever taking kids on treasure hunts. kids'll love it and the parents will love to forever for giving them some time off from the little darlings!

[SCP-173]

Hey, one of my kids looks just like yours!

 

[+dingermcduff]

Taking my 3 year old to do a couple caches today. One is a 4.9 mile round trip hike, the other is a 1.7 mile round trip hike.