Geocaching birthday party?

[findnewthings]

HI-

My almost 12 year old would like to have a geocaching birthday party. Although I truly enjoy caching with my family, I am not sure how to do something like this with a group of about 10 12 year olds. Would I purchase(or rent) GPSs? When we cache together I use my phone but most of these kids dont have them. Also, do we only look for one or should we look for several? Should I scout out the caches first before taking these kids out? Thank you for your feedback! PS- I am in NJ in the US and the time frame is mid march.

 

[+WarNinjas]

It would be entirely up to you.  You could plan your party near a cache that you know is cool and there.  You could plan it near a trail with several caches to go for.  I am sure you could find a few phones for the kids to use.  If a couple have the phones with coords and the others could just look.  My daughter planned something like this out with a group from her rainbow thing.  She didn't pre-find them. Well 2 were missing so there was no find.  Then at the 3rd they found it and it was a nano.  The log was also full so no one got to sign it.  I don't think they were impressed.

  The only other thing I can add is try and make sure the friends you bring are cool.  There have been several posts on here about a younger kid who loves geocaching.  Then they decide to show one of there friends who doesn't understand caching.  The friend then takes the cache.  The one like your 12 year old ends up feeling bad because they showed it to them and then they destroy it.

Most of all just have fun with it.  I would think knowing the cache was there and somewhat a fun find would be a good idea so the kids think caching is cool and not end up finding a cache that is full of water with a moldy log that can't be signed.

[+noncentric]

Another option would be to place 'personal caches' yourself, just for the birthday party, and then remove them after the party.  These would be caches that you do not submit to geocaching.com - but just ones that you place for the party.

You'd place the cache, maybe stock it full of toys/prizes, and take the coords before the party. Maybe place several in the general area. Since they are not for the website, then you don't have to worry about proximity rules. Give the kids the coords, which could be entered into Google Maps, and send them off to find the caches. Of course, that still leaves you with the issue of kids not having phones. So, you could consider using letterbox style clues to have kids find the caches, instead of using coordinates.

[+cerberus1]

On ‎2‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 9:44 AM, findnewthings said:

My almost 12 year old would like to have a geocaching birthday party. Although I truly enjoy caching with my family, I am not sure how to do something like this with a group of about 10 12 year olds.

Similar to both replies so far, we've seen enough caches destroyed/stolen by "friends" of a young cacher.  Kid's really into it, thought it'd be fun to introduce them to the hobby they enjoy, then find that they've now created a game of "steal that cache/trackable" with kids they thought would understand.   Sometimes it's by another that friend brought later, showing them the "cool stuff you find in the woods".  "Treasure" mentioned somewhere doesn't help...  We've had similar happen to our semi-urban caches.  Whenever a log says "took my friends to introduce them to the game" by a young cacher, many around here realize maintenance is probably right around the corner.

I'd think creating something akin to a scavenger hunt would be just as fun, still gets you out of the house, while keeping you friendly with the cache owners around you. 

 

[+NanCycle]

8 hours ago, noncentric said:

Another option would be to place 'personal caches' yourself, just for the birthday party, and then remove them after the party.  These would be caches that you do not submit to geocaching.com - but just ones that you place for the party.

You'd place the cache, maybe stock it full of toys/prizes, and take the coords before the party. Maybe place several in the general area. Since they are not for the website, then you don't have to worry about proximity rules. Give the kids the coords, which could be entered into Google Maps, and send them off to find the caches. Of course, that still leaves you with the issue of kids not having phones. So, you could consider using letterbox style clues to have kids find the caches, instead of using coordinates.

This is probably the best idea.  You could submit one (or some) of them after the party to be "real" caches.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 2/8/2018 at 11:44 AM, cerberus1 said:

Similar to both replies so far, we've seen enough caches destroyed/stolen by "friends" of a young cacher.  Kid's really into it, thought it'd be fun to introduce them to the hobby they enjoy, then find that they've now created a game of "steal that cache/trackable" with kids they thought would understand.   Sometimes it's by another that friend brought later, showing them the "cool stuff you find in the woods".  "Treasure" mentioned somewhere doesn't help...  We've had similar happen to our semi-urban caches.  Whenever a log says "took my friends to introduce them to the game" by a young cacher, many around here realize maintenance is probably right around the corner.

I'd think creating something akin to a scavenger hunt would be just as fun, still gets you out of the house, while keeping you friendly with the cache owners around you. 

 

Another activity that I've seen done at a GPS related event was to provide a set of lat/long coordinates and a flag on metal pin that could be stuck in the ground. They everyone was told to "place the flag" at the coordinates given.  It was a good demonstration on how far off several GPS receivers could be, even though they were identical model under the same satellite conditions.