Twenty-four eager recruits

[+Alkhalikoi]

My first-grader son, whose been caching with me since the beginning, was his class' Star of the Week, which means that among other things, my wife and I went in this morning while he showed off his pictures, an interview the other kids did with him and what not. Anyway, some of the family photos he showed off were of the two of us geocaching. And once the kids got wind that there was buried treasure out there -- including a couple in the park adjacent to the school -- that's all the kids wanted to talk about: when can we go with you? Maybe we could borrow a school bus and *all* go! Do they have caches at the bottom of the ocean? Who is allowed to put out a cache? I hadn't come prepared with a cache or my GPS to show and tell, but it was fun to see just how quickly the kids groked it.

 

I know kids like caching but it was fun to see all twenty-four of these guys light up like a Christmas tree at the very notion of it.

 

The boy is going to have a lot of requests for playdates, I trust, and we're going to have a lot of emails asking for some explanations from confused parents!

Edited January 13, 2012 by Alkhalikoi

[TheCacheSeeker]

Cool! Just make sure to say that caches aren't buried.

[+Presence]

Thats awesome. when I take my son we call it buried treasure(he's 3) and we are pirates.He gets to hold the "map" GZ numbers and the hints (yes I still do it the old fashion way and write everything down)When I tell the other parents about it thats the easiest way for me to explain it in kiddie terms. Congrats and good luck!

[diggingest_dogg616]

Right on, you guys are the cool paretns now!

[+The VanDucks]

That was so neat! Our seven and five year old grandkids love geocaching with us.

 

Just a thought - if the caches in the park near the school are relatively easy to find and within easy walking distance, why not ask the teacher if she'd like for you to set up a "geocaching field trip?" Obviously, you need permission from the school, but you could ask a few fellow cachers to help out and let the school class actually find a few caches with you and see how the GPS works.

 

Our local park authority started holding summer geocaching camps two years ago (with the help of local cachers who placed the "beginner caches" in the parks) and now have introduced many local kids to the hobby.

[+Alkhalikoi]

That was so neat! Our seven and five year old grandkids love geocaching with us.

 

Just a thought - if the caches in the park near the school are relatively easy to find and within easy walking distance, why not ask the teacher if she'd like for you to set up a "geocaching field trip?" Obviously, you need permission from the school, but you could ask a few fellow cachers to help out and let the school class actually find a few caches with you and see how the GPS works.

 

Our local park authority started holding summer geocaching camps two years ago (with the help of local cachers who placed the "beginner caches" in the parks) and now have introduced many local kids to the hobby.

 

Already in the works! It helps that the teacher's brother-in-law caches with his own kids and hers and another teacher at a separate elementary school in the district is a pretty active cacher around here. We'll likely set up some beginner caches as part of it.

[+The_Incredibles_]

Very cool, your kid is going to be popular.

 

Last Sunday, we went geocaching with 3 other families from our daughter's school. They all had a blast and we may just make it a regular thing.

[+A & J Tooling]

Just make sure they understand to swap even or up with the swag. My daughters' teacher is into caching but she sets caches up each year with a class but dosen't maintain them very well.

[+The_Incredibles_]

Just make sure they understand to swap even or up with the swag. My daughters' teacher is into caching but she sets caches up each year with a class but dosen't maintain them very well.

 

+1 Yep, you need to remind/explain to them about fair trading. And monitor them during outings. Everytime I take a group out, I need to bring extra swag because someone is guaranteed to forget theirs.

 

There's one familiy whos particularly negligent in this regard. I really have to watch them and put extra swag in as appropriate. We went through a whole meetup once and later my daughter said gee, they just took stuff and didn't put anything in.