6 Year old newbie disappointed. Please help.

[KStJ]

My 6 year old son was so excited when I first approached him with a "great summer treasure hunt!" His four year old sister was quick to jump on board. They both *patiently* begged me daily to go hunting.

 

Our first attempt (sans GPS) lead to the three of us waist deep in snow , followed by a flat tire , no cell phone...and a 300$ repair bill . No treasure found.

 

Our second attempt at a new cache (sans GPS, plus google map print out) 6 weeks later (thank Gawd the snow finally melted) lead to aimless wandering for nearly an hour and two garbage bags filled with trash. Apparently we were off by a hundred yards or so. Again, no treasure.

 

Needles to say they are getting a wee bit discouraged at the lack of find. Which brings me here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

If anyone can help me out with user friendly advice and/or low budget options for my kids summer adventure, I'd be ever thankful.

 

I'm GPS illiterate and I generally travel by landmarks rather then street signs. I have no clue what would be a good starter system and my budget is limited.

 

Are there kid friendly GPS units? What should I be looking for in the way of features?

 

Thanks!

 

S.

Mom to KStJ

 

ETA: Canadian location in case that has bearing on product availablity.

Edited April 28, 2008 by KStJ

[+RussellM]

Are you looking to purchase a GPS from the forum's users or for advice on purchasing a unit?

[+RussellM]

Edited cause i somehow managed to post twice....

Edited April 28, 2008 by RussellM

[+XopherN71]

I'm getting Garmin Geko 201's for all my kids (3), although the youngest is only 5 months old

 

Just won a new one on ebay for $49 shipped. (I should wait until I get my last one before I recommend this unit.)

Edited April 28, 2008 by XopherN71

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

Ironically I have a 6 year old son and 4 year old daughter too.

 

I have a Lowrance IFinder GO, which like the Geko will also work well in this situation. But also make sure you're finding good caches to take the kids to. First off, I would go for a regular, not a micro (which I think you are doing, that is going for "regular"), they will be easier to find and will usually have goodies for the kids.

 

Second, make sure the location is a nice park with woods but that is relatively easy for them to handle, not too rocky or hilly and not some "garbage dump". I know that is sometimes easier said than done.

 

Good luck! Does "Rockland" mean Rockland County, NY or does it mean somewhere else (based on your comments on snow I'm guessing Rockland, ME)? If the former, feel free to go into my profile and email me I know (albeit mostly on the other side of the Hudson over the bridge) some good caches for you to try (including some of our own hides) though I could probably also steer you to a couple of good ones on your side of the river or tell you who to contact who would know (MajorMajor 42, who's also in these forums and lives in Rockland, comes to mind right away or the team of Vasaturn and rrlcglag, who cache with small children and though living in CT go all over the area caching).

Edited April 28, 2008 by HaLiJuSaPa

[+cacherunnr]

I have a Garmin Vista Hcx and just bought a Garmin Geko 201 for my kids (plus I wanted to play with a small GPS unit). The Geko has everything the kids need: a method to enter waypoints and an arrow to get them there; there are other useful features as well but the kids don't pay attention to those. We first used it last weekend and it worked wonderfully. Although you can enter lat/long. coordinates directly onto the 201, I would recommend downloading gpx files into the unit from your computer. I highly recommend the 201 and at less than $100, it will provide hours of fun.

 

Mike

Edited April 28, 2008 by michael7136

[+aviatrix22]

I am fairly useless on the computer. I still had dial up wihen I started caching; I now have DSL and wouldn't trade it for anything! I have a Garmin Geko 301 that I got on a fire sale that I found out about in this forum. It is small and very easy to use. I still can't figure out how to interface with the computer and enter all of my WP's manually and this unit is very easy to do that with. I just got a new G60CSX and hope to figure out how to use it with the computer, but I can tell you this...it is a lot harder to enter the coordinates manually; you have to manipulate it much more than my little Geko. I been caching for almost 3 years and have made 1350 finds just with that unit and manually inputting everything! I know I could be more efficient which is why I bought the new one, but I will continue to use my Geko. I think it is ideal for kids and techinically challenged folks like me; and it is very small and light; the size of a cell phone of today....not yesterday's.... like most of the other units. One problem with that it is very easy to lose, so if your kids are going to use it, get them a lanyard or something so that it never leaves their body. I have almost lost mine more times than I care to count. From the other threads it sounds like they are going for cheap on Ebay...good luck and have fun!

[+avpas]

We found our first couple dozen caches without a GPSr. I would only search for regular sized caches and draw a sketch of key landmarks from sattelite images. The sketch would have where in the parking lot to park with paths and large trees drawn. With three landmarks close to the cache site, it was generally easy to find the caches. Of course I spent TONS of time on the computer before a cache hunt picking out those caches that had easily identifiable landmarks close to the cache sites, but the little treasure maps were a big hit with my five-year-old.

[+GeodeHunters]

I use a Garmin eTrex H. Never had an issue, and its the only GPS we have between myself and three kids. I spent 99.9% of my time on the 'goto' screen: very simple screen with nothing but an arrow on it to show the direction of the cache, the distance to / from the cache in miles then in feet, and an average of your speed with an estimate of when you'll arrive.

 

It's cheap, simple, and has WAAS. What more could you ask for?

[KStJ]

Are you looking to purchase a GPS from the forum's users or for advice on purchasing a unit?

 

A bit of both. Looking for what would be a good unit for a child and a new to technology mom and if someone has something available, I'd be interested in negotiating with them.

[KStJ]

The local caches *seem* to be fairly easy. By that I mean lots of people have logged them. Nothing micro on my list. That's just crazy talk at this point. Parks are a definite plus. Makes it easier to entertain the kids while Mom tears her hair out poking in tree stumps. Dispite my comments...I am enjoying the *anticipation* of finding a chache somewhere. That's gotta count right?

 

Rockland means the wee little town outside of Ottawa Canada. We went back to *cache 2* this afternoon for another peek about. Thinking of making this a weekly search. lol

 

First off, I would go for a regular, not a micro (which I think you are doing, that is going for "regular"), they will be easier to find and will usually have goodies for the kids.

 

Second, make sure the location is a nice park with woods but that is relatively easy for them to handle, not too rocky or hilly and not some "garbage dump". I know that is sometimes easier said than done.

 

Good luck! Does "Rockland" mean Rockland County, ).

[KStJ]

Great review. Thank you. I'll definitely add this one to my list of ones to check out.

I have a Garmin Geko 301 that I got on a fire sale that I found out about in this forum. It is small and very easy to use. I still can't figure out how to interface with the computer and enter all of my WP's manually and this unit is very easy to do that with.

[+GlitchWizard]

I think I'd start little ones out on caches that I hid myself for them. You know their level of skill. They don't need to know you hid them. :-)

[+Tony Banks]

Glitch Wizard beat me to the punch. If you hide the caches yourself, you can usually find them....I hope. At any rate, if you feel as though this would be cheating them, then you may want to consider finding the caches without them first. You may even cheat by sending messages to geocachers claiming to have found the caches, and asking them to tell you exactly where they are with landmarks (not street signs)

[+AKelvis]

Hiding some Caches yourself would be pretty slick, or if you have the time, try to find them on your own first then bring the kids along. Also, take your GPSr along with you where ever you go and play around with it. I know with mine, it is kinda finicky and I notice that slow and steady wins the race so to speak, when I walk zig zag, change direction (north to south or east to west) the GPS does all sorts of wierd things and isnt accurate at all. One other big thing I have learned when dragging the kids along - Use the Yahoo/Google map and click on it - then use the terrain feature, it shows you a satellite image of the area (a birds eye view from above so to speak / a picture from a plane overhead looking down?) then you would have a much better idea of where you will be heading.

 

Good Luck!!

Edited May 11, 2008 by AKelvis

[+The Cookie Makers]

Have you thought of looking for some fellow geocachers in your area to take you out for your first one? You could learn a lot, and learn it quicker with someone explaining while doing hands on. I doubt it woud take too long to find a whole group of people in Ottawa wanting to teach the sport to some new people.

 

 

My 6 year old son was so excited when I first approached him with a "great summer treasure hunt!" His four year old sister was quick to jump on board. They both *patiently* begged me daily to go hunting.

 

Our first attempt (sans GPS) lead to the three of us waist deep in snow , followed by a flat tire , no cell phone...and a 300$ repair bill . No treasure found.

 

Our second attempt at a new cache (sans GPS, plus google map print out) 6 weeks later (thank Gawd the snow finally melted) lead to aimless wandering for nearly an hour and two garbage bags filled with trash. Apparently we were off by a hundred yards or so. Again, no treasure.

 

Needles to say they are getting a wee bit discouraged at the lack of find. Which brings me here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

If anyone can help me out with user friendly advice and/or low budget options for my kids summer adventure, I'd be ever thankful.

 

I'm GPS illiterate and I generally travel by landmarks rather then street signs. I have no clue what would be a good starter system and my budget is limited.

 

Are there kid friendly GPS units? What should I be looking for in the way of features?

 

Thanks!

 

S.

Mom to KStJ

 

ETA: Canadian location in case that has bearing on product availablity.

Edited May 14, 2008 by The Cookie Makers

[+blb9556]

We found our first couple dozen caches without a GPSr. I would only search for regular sized caches and draw a sketch of key landmarks from sattelite images. The sketch would have where in the parking lot to park with paths and large trees drawn. With three landmarks close to the cache site, it was generally easy to find the caches. Of course I spent TONS of time on the computer before a cache hunt picking out those caches that had easily identifiable landmarks close to the cache sites, but the little treasure maps were a big hit with my five-year-old.

 

I did the same thing. Hmmm I wonder? Must be the people in Central ohio!