What to get a child? Advice please

[+laslow3]

My 8-yr old son got into geocaching through his cub scout leader and shared his interest in it with me. He is much more experienced that I (40 finds to my puny 14), but we have only been doing it together for 2 weeks. Nonetheless it has been a great bonding experience and something that I am very eager to get more involved with.

 

Anyway, Christmas is in 5 days and I have already bought my son a GPSr (for both of us really) and bought him 3 travel bugs so he can make up his own quests. Then this evening, while we were searching for a cache we had great difficulty retrieving it until i pulled out some needle-nose pliers. This got me thinking. As an additional Christmas present, i thought I could build him a "Geocaching Kit."

 

So my question is this: What sorts of things would be useful to take along on a typical excursion? We live in a large city so most of our caching will be in urban areas. Thus tools like a machete or snakebite kits may not be helpful.

 

Thank You so much

[+briansnat]

A bunch of inexpensive and small toys for him to use as trade items. Die cast cars like Hot Wheels and Matchbox, toy figurines, etc. Go to the party favor section of the store and buy a few bags of the kinds of toys given out at parties. Very inexpensive.

[+DonB]

My 8-yr old son got into geocaching through his cub scout leader and shared his interest in it with me. He is much more experienced that I (40 finds to my puny 14), but we have only been doing it together for 2 weeks. Nonetheless it has been a great bonding experience and something that I am very eager to get more involved with.

 

Anyway, Christmas is in 5 days and I have already bought my son a GPSr (for both of us really) and bought him 3 travel bugs so he can make up his own quests. Then this evening, while we were searching for a cache we had great difficulty retrieving it until i pulled out some needle-nose pliers. This got me thinking. As an additional Christmas present, i thought I could build him a "Geocaching Kit."

 

So my question is this: What sorts of things would be useful to take along on a typical excursion? We live in a large city so most of our caching will be in urban areas. Thus tools like a machete or snakebite kits may not be helpful.

 

Thank You so much

Some things I have found to be useful is a small flashlight, I carry a 3 watt led light, a leatherman tool, and a good pair of tweezers. Some people use a backpack but I keep a larger bag in the car full of swag and use a five dollar fanny pack from Walmart to carry my caching tools and a small assortment of swag with me. You will probably think of other things as you do more caches.

[+FrogAndPig]

 

So my question is this: What sorts of things would be useful to take along on a typical excursion? We live in a large city so most of our caching will be in urban areas. Thus tools like a machete or snakebite kits may not be helpful.

 

Thank You so much

 

Frog says:

 

We're new too. We found some good trade items for kids at Party City.

[+at play by jc/eaglei]

Hey great for you! you have gotten plenty of good sugestions, I hope you & your son have many happy adventures, I cache with my Geograndkids and they love it and there parents join in often (my daughters)

Again many happy adventures [] get your son a compass if he doesn't already have one...

[+ECplus3]

Most of the stuff I carry has already been mentioned by others. Some other great things to add to your caching kit include:

 

extra pencil and/or pen

bandages

empty ziploc baggies of various sizes to replace ripped ones in the cache

spare log book to replace full/wet log in the cache

batteries!!!

 

For those excursions out in the wilderness, I always keep a spare set of clothes waiting for me in the car, just in case the 'may require wading' attribute understated the situation!

 

I haven't done this yet myself, but plan to do it soon: buy a roll of small labels and print your caching name and/or an icon on them with a blank for the date. Then you can just write the date on the label and stick it on the log page. Its easier than trying to write on a damp micro-log!

[+ourfamluvscaching]

Well we have been caching for a little while now and have found a backpack is great to carry swag in along with some bug spray and bottled water for the hike. Also rechargable battery set is a good idea. some other things might include flashlight and a dental mirror on like a long handle, pencil sharpener have all been used on our journey. Enjoy the time it's great to see ya doing this with your son !! Also just thought a simple/basic first aid kit wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Edited December 25, 2008 by ourfamluvscaching