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How do you keep the kids happy and caching?


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My question is this, when you are caching with your kids what do you do differently to keep them happy/enjoying the sport...reduce grummbeling from from upcomming excersize?

 

After 7 months of caching and over 60 caches I can honestly say that when the kids are along we do things a bit differently. The kids have participated in over 90% of the caching we do. Our 12 year old son doesn't like to miss any and right now is proudly sporting the ring that he got at the LOTR multi cache. The girls are a different story. Our 14 year old daughter has a developmental disability so at first the hiking was a challenge to her. She still is not all that keen on hiking but doens't want to miss an opportunity at a prize. And I must say that her coordination is now way better than it ever was. Before she would lag behind but now, in fear of getting last dibs on a prize...keeps up with the pack. Our youngest gets winded easily and is very thin. So at times now Mike carries her and they resemble a sort of female tiny tim Dickens duo.

 

So what we do differently,

 

*No more than 3 caches a day esp if the girls are along and not off with friends.

*Watch the terrain difficulty. Try to keep around a 2- 2 1/2.

Honestly after the number we've done and the shape we are in as a whole a 1 seems way too easy.

*Promise to go to a buffet afterwards. Son has sprouted over 6 inches so far this year. And they all can find what they want. The quality isn't the best at these places but hey if I can get em caching I'm all for it.

*Rotate who finds the box. Son is the best.....and even when the girls are "allowed" to move ahead (he just out paces them) he seems to find the best prizes while they are being distracted.

 

So what do you do?

 

Dx

 

There in the sunshine are my highest aspirations...

I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them

and try to follow where they lead.

LMAlcott

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Personally, we just make caching a small part of an otherwise busy day. For example, last Saturday we went to Devil's Punchbowl County Park. Hiking the loop trail and looking for a cache was just part of the day.

 

We took the trail spur to the stream at the 'Punchbowl Proper', followed the stream to the the small gap, and scrambled back (3 2-3' ledges) up to what is called "Wallbanger Wall". A nice picnic lunch, followed by some toprope climbing. An impromptu game of splash-the-really-chilly-water-from-the-pool, and a search for fossils and certain minerals along the stream pretty much wound up our day.

 

We've tried watercolors of sunsets, sketches of pictoglyphs and petroglyphs, intertubing, wind surfing, horseback riding... Anything to give the kids an opportunity to try something new.

 

Another thing I always do is give the kids a contest or job. Plodding relentlessly while mom or dad say "just a little farther" is tedious for anyone. I let my daughters navigate with a map and compass. It really helps them get more excited about the journey, and it teaches them a useful skill.

 

Sort of like teaching them to keep a score card at baseball. It gives them something to do at the games between massive doses of junk food. Paying attention to keep score, shows them that stuff is going on and makes them feel more a part of the action.

 

Asking questions and making decisions based on their work makes it important (no one likes makework).

 

-jjf

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My kids are a bit younger - Miss Pumpkin is 5 and Curly Tiger is 3. I always plan a cache with a playground at the end of the day. We bring a wagon, so if they are getting tired, they can ride. I let Miss Pumpkin hold the GPSr a lot. We try to keep the terrain to a 2, although we have done some 3s. We have a tradition of Egg McMuffins for breakfast, Happy Meals for lunch, and trail mix throughout the day. If the kids are getting tired, Nutri-Mom will sometimes stay with one or both of the kids at a playground while I hunt alone or with Miss Pumpkin only. I've learned that sometimes we can't do all of the caches we've planned, so we cut the day short and just have fun in a park someplace, with naps for EVERYONE when we get home.

 

25021_1200.gif

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My wife likes to geocache as well as myself, but the kids run hot and cold. I have a 7yo boy and a 9yo girl. I usually save the caches with a park, museum, etc for them. I make them take turns finding the cache when we are close. I stop short and send them in the right direction. They each get to pick a prize, sometimes they just dont want anything. I always leave two trinkets if they pick two. Usually 3 hunts a day are their limit. I save the long hikes for my wife and I when then kids are in school.

Another thing that has made a difference is that my brother in law (who is a woodworker) hand carved a hiking staff from beautiful twisted wood. They each have one and they cant wait to get into the woods with it.

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I have found that I just don't get as many caches in a day as I would like. I got into this as a fun thing to do with the kids, and a day at the part seems to be as much fun to them as the hunt. My daughter is 10 she always takes time to throw rocks in the water, play on the play equipment, swing etc. Several times I have brought her friends with us. So far my record for caches in a day is (2). It's all about having fun and getting us out of the house.

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When the weekend comes and my nearly 3 year-old twin boys realize that I am not going to be leaving for work (spying that I am wearing slippers rather than shoes), the conversation usually takes a pretty quick turn along the lines of "want to go caching!", "find a treasure!". I have to continually assure them that indeed we'll be "caching", until I get lunch packed and make sure all coords are loaded and any necessary printouts are in the van. My 8 1/2 year-old loves it too, she's my main partner. My mom has started coming along too, so we can take turns herding the slowest kid (my wife enjoys her time alone during our caching).

 

As far as differently, the pace slows and we enjoy whatever is interesting along the way, but they always know there is a treasure to be found.

Last weekend we found 5 caches, but they all were level 1 hunts. Usually, if there is a level 2 or 3 then we have to find one or two level 1's before the tough one, or else it's a 1 cache day icon_wink.gif

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When the weekend comes and my nearly 3 year-old twin boys realize that I am not going to be leaving for work (spying that I am wearing slippers rather than shoes), the conversation usually takes a pretty quick turn along the lines of "want to go caching!", "find a treasure!". I have to continually assure them that indeed we'll be "caching", until I get lunch packed and make sure all coords are loaded and any necessary printouts are in the van. My 8 1/2 year-old loves it too, she's my main partner. My mom has started coming along too, so we can take turns herding the slowest kid (my wife enjoys her time alone during our caching).

 

As far as differently, the pace slows and we enjoy whatever is interesting along the way, but they always know there is a treasure to be found.

Last weekend we found 5 caches, but they all were level 1 hunts. Usually, if there is a level 2 or 3 then we have to find one or two level 1's before the tough one, or else it's a 1 cache day icon_wink.gif

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I've been trying to convince my 5 year old that "treasure hunting" is fun. The few hunts that he has gone on with me, he has had fun, but most of the time if I ask him to go with me, he says "No, I don't wanna, its boring". So I go by myself and when I bring back some cool toy that he wants to play with, I tease him by saying that it's my treasure and that if he wanted something he should have come along with me. After which I ask him if he wants to go with the next time I go so that he can get his own toy to play with, he turns to the TV and says, "No Thanks, its boring".

 

Sometimes you just can't win. icon_razz.gif

 

 

-------------------

 

Lost? I'm not lost. At least I don't think I'm lost, well............OK, maybe just a little.

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I've been trying to convince my 5 year old that "treasure hunting" is fun. The few hunts that he has gone on with me, he has had fun, but most of the time if I ask him to go with me, he says "No, I don't wanna, its boring". So I go by myself and when I bring back some cool toy that he wants to play with, I tease him by saying that it's my treasure and that if he wanted something he should have come along with me. After which I ask him if he wants to go with the next time I go so that he can get his own toy to play with, he turns to the TV and says, "No Thanks, its boring".

 

Sometimes you just can't win. icon_razz.gif

 

 

-------------------

 

Lost? I'm not lost. At least I don't think I'm lost, well............OK, maybe just a little.

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Wow! These responses are most amazing!! What I have enjoyed the most about the sport is how conversation has opened up among all the members of our family. BGC (before geocaching) the kids would come home from school and turn on the tv before their backpacks ever hit the ground. then just sit and stare while a mindless (my opinion) cartoon was on. Now as we spend hours every weekend in the woods and on the way to the woods, everyone is compelled to talk. Geocahing is a two way interaction with the environment ...watching tv a one way........

 

BTW we cut cable 3 weeks ago. At first there was a whole lot of moaning going on.....now they just seem to be in withdrawl. Kids go into a trance when they go to a friends house who has cable...but they are all getting along more...and talking....Ok I'm a speech pathologist...talking is my bread and butter. icon_razz.gif

Dx

 

There in the sunshine are my highest aspirations...

I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them

and try to follow where they lead.

LMAlcott

Link to comment

Wow! These responses are most amazing!! What I have enjoyed the most about the sport is how conversation has opened up among all the members of our family. BGC (before geocaching) the kids would come home from school and turn on the tv before their backpacks ever hit the ground. then just sit and stare while a mindless (my opinion) cartoon was on. Now as we spend hours every weekend in the woods and on the way to the woods, everyone is compelled to talk. Geocahing is a two way interaction with the environment ...watching tv a one way........

 

BTW we cut cable 3 weeks ago. At first there was a whole lot of moaning going on.....now they just seem to be in withdrawl. Kids go into a trance when they go to a friends house who has cable...but they are all getting along more...and talking....Ok I'm a speech pathologist...talking is my bread and butter. icon_razz.gif

Dx

 

There in the sunshine are my highest aspirations...

I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them

and try to follow where they lead.

LMAlcott

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I have a thirteen year old daughter and the way I keep her interested is to let her work the gps on her own. She sets the beginning waypoint and she leads the way. I also forget (on purpose) my reading glasses and depend on her to read the print outs we take along. And when we get to the cache site I rarely find the cache first (even if I see it). I will redirect her or find it if she can't after a long time but she is thrilled to find it before me. And I let her deal with the cache, she picks what she wants to keep and what to leave and she does the log. And he has her own long-in to the web site and enters her own report. And she brings a friend along sometimes. All and all this is a big confidence builder and keeps her interested in going out caching.

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I don't try to overkill my kids on caches. Maybe 3 tops of easy ones or 1 somewhat difficult one. My 11yo is the tough one, he doesn't like exercise while my 3yo loves daddy's shoulders. My advice is if they don't want to go don't take them, it will only ruin the experience with the bickering. If they go be sure to let them find a cache, nothing will spark a kid more than finding treasure. Just my .02

 

geosigbuscard.jpg

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I almost always take my 6 year old son (RC) with me. He has even forbidden me to go to anything except a virtual without him. Caching is our special time together without 2 year old sister (CB). Most we have ever done in one day is 3. He gets bored after that. I always pick easier caches. He loves to hike and climb and stuff in the woods so we don't do the "urban" stuff. We also don't go every weekend so it doesn't get old. He gets to raid the box when we find it while I sign the log. He can take whatever he wants and then I help him decide what to leave. He also gets to take a picture with the Polaroid or Digital camera. So far, he has never said no when I ask him to go. When he does, I will just go alone or do a virtual or something.

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I do not have kids of my own and my nieces and nephews haven't been out with me enough yet. So I don't have a good opinion on your original post.

 

I'm just glad to hear your son is enjoying the ring I left at the LOTR cache. It meant a lot to me too because I found it in my first cache and wore it around my neck as a good luck charm! I couldn't think of a better item to put in that cache.

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We've only been on one cache hunt so far but definitely plan to make it a family thing. We'll probably make the hunts part of another outing and limit it to one a day or two if they happen to be fairly close.

 

The kids are young (7, 5, and 2) so we'll keep the difficulty levels down for now. The oldest would enjoy the more difficult hikes but our 5yo is a rather reluctant hiker. He's good for about a mile or so and then he's ready to quit. We have to remember that when we're not doing a loop trail as we've been in the miserable situation of being a mile or better out on a trail and had a kid refusing to walk another step! icon_eek.gif He's coming along though and our 2yo will hike just as far as her little legs will allow. We've always tried to plan hikes with some sort of goal (waterfall, highpoint, nice overlook, etc.) as an incentive to keep going. Geocaching definitely makes the incentive part easier and much more tangible for the kids! icon_biggrin.gif

 

Lastly, we always make sure we take water and snacks and stop to rest frequently. The kids like having their own backpacks or fanny packs to carry their snacks.

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We've only been on one cache hunt so far but definitely plan to make it a family thing. We'll probably make the hunts part of another outing and limit it to one a day or two if they happen to be fairly close.

 

The kids are young (7, 5, and 2) so we'll keep the difficulty levels down for now. The oldest would enjoy the more difficult hikes but our 5yo is a rather reluctant hiker. He's good for about a mile or so and then he's ready to quit. We have to remember that when we're not doing a loop trail as we've been in the miserable situation of being a mile or better out on a trail and had a kid refusing to walk another step! icon_eek.gif He's coming along though and our 2yo will hike just as far as her little legs will allow. We've always tried to plan hikes with some sort of goal (waterfall, highpoint, nice overlook, etc.) as an incentive to keep going. Geocaching definitely makes the incentive part easier and much more tangible for the kids! icon_biggrin.gif

 

Lastly, we always make sure we take water and snacks and stop to rest frequently. The kids like having their own backpacks or fanny packs to carry their snacks.

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This has quickly become a family sport. We have 4, but the oldest (19) is at college. The others are almost 18 (girl), 15 (girl), and 10 (boy). We try to plan several caches on a trip (we are now travelling 25-30 miles to geocache), and the times the girls haven't been able to come, they were disappointed. They take turns leading the way, but when we get to the site, the more eyes the better! We usually decide as a group what goodies to take and trade, and sometimes one of the kids takes a shine to a particular goodie. Fortunately, they all like hiking and the outdoors, and look forward to the weekends we can geocache! icon_smile.gif

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This has quickly become a family sport. We have 4, but the oldest (19) is at college. The others are almost 18 (girl), 15 (girl), and 10 (boy). We try to plan several caches on a trip (we are now travelling 25-30 miles to geocache), and the times the girls haven't been able to come, they were disappointed. They take turns leading the way, but when we get to the site, the more eyes the better! We usually decide as a group what goodies to take and trade, and sometimes one of the kids takes a shine to a particular goodie. Fortunately, they all like hiking and the outdoors, and look forward to the weekends we can geocache! icon_smile.gif

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Hey! Yes geocaching is our family sport too! Actually I am amazed at myself because it is the first organized sport that I enjoy...I was very uncorrodinated in high school...

 

We are getting ready for our Easter vacation. We're going to cache on the way to and from my parents house 1300 miles from here.....Made not taking a plane the prefered option.....

 

Have a great Easter! I may not have internet access but already have the caches printed and ready to go!!

 

Dx

 

"Have you no news on your travels?" the Book of fairy & folk tales of Ireland (1888)

 

[This message was edited by DxChallenged on March 22, 2002 at 11:05 PM.]

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My boys are 4 and 5 years old. The 4 year old really could care less, unless he wants to be competive with his big brother. The 5 year old wants to go on ALL my trips. I draw the line at difficulty 3 on terrain- but he says "Daddy, I promise I can keep up, really!!"

JoeyBob

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I guess we are lucky, since we got into this you can't beat the kids to the truck when we decide to go out caching. I have two girls, one 10 and one almost 8. They spent the night at my brothers in North Richland Hills last week and made him get out his magellan 310 that I don't think he ever had used and went caching in that part of the DFW area. They found one of Web-ling's and since they had seen his logs from all over, even Scotland, they were stoked.

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A new twist on an old tradition I guess. We'll only be about 350 miles from home (also visiting family) but found a cache reasonably close. Funny, but our idea of *reasonably* close seems to keep extending further and further away...

 

Hoosiermom - team leader of Geostars

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"We prefer to find the cache with a map and compass and when all else fails on goes the little tool."

 

Wow you are a purest!! We're safe and sound in a great Inn. All wired. Lap top is up and running, kids have their gameboys linked and running, daughter has her favorite show on tape (EMERGENCY) in the VCR & running in the room and the his & hers GPS are getting loaded up for coordinates for tommorrow.

 

7 kids.? God love Ya!! Husband is from a family with 7.

 

Kids are looking forward to caching after being in the car for 6 1/2 hours today!!

 

Dx

 

"Have you no news on your travels?" the Book of fairy & folk tales of Ireland (1888)

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Ok... A new must for the list.

 

We are currently in the south for a caching vaction while on the way to Grandmothers house in NC.

 

We did a cache 2 days ago where we were the unwilling mode of transportation for hundreds of ticks. Checked, rechecked, flicked, sprayed, prayed and tryed showering them off.

 

Did a darned good job of getting almost all...I found one attched to me yesterday....

 

So to the list...bug spray...hats in the backpack for when you are disturbing the bush...reminders to wear light colored pants and a picture of a tick. To show to the kids that don't want spray on...

 

icon_rolleyes.gif

 

The picture helps with compliance while you spray prior to entering the trail.

 

Dx

 

"Have you no news on your travels?" the Book of fairy & folk tales of Ireland (1888)

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Ok... A new must for the list.

 

We are currently in the south for a caching vaction while on the way to Grandmothers house in NC.

 

We did a cache 2 days ago where we were the unwilling mode of transportation for hundreds of ticks. Checked, rechecked, flicked, sprayed, prayed and tryed showering them off.

 

Did a darned good job of getting almost all...I found one attched to me yesterday....

 

So to the list...bug spray...hats in the backpack for when you are disturbing the bush...reminders to wear light colored pants and a picture of a tick. To show to the kids that don't want spray on...

 

icon_rolleyes.gif

 

The picture helps with compliance while you spray prior to entering the trail.

 

Dx

 

"Have you no news on your travels?" the Book of fairy & folk tales of Ireland (1888)

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