I had never really heard about geocaching until a few months ago until a family friend took Michael and Reggie on a geocaching treasure hunt. Michael enjoyed it so much that he wanted to go on another one the next day! I still didn’t quite get the appeal, so I was eager to learn more when PBS invited me to join in on a webinar about the Dinosaur Train Geocaching Challenge.
Overall, I learned that geocaching is basically a high-tech treasure hunt. Participants use GPS coordinates to locate hidden treasures (geocaches). What makes it family-friendly/great for kids is that participants must work together as a team and it gets everyone out in nature. An estimated 3 – 4 million people already geocache worldwide (which is surprising since the whole movement only started in 2000). You can see a visual of the process below:
The entire webinar was helpful and the great part is that you can catch a replay of the entire Dinosaur Train Geocaching Challenge webinar at this link. It will be available until the end of January.
Meanwhile, there were a few points that I noted for future reference:
-You can get a geocache in your own area or you can create your own.
-When you look at the geocache information online, the difficulty and terrain numbers are important. (Go for lower numbers with kids. The higher the number, the more difficult it is.)
-Also note the sizes of the geocaches. Microcaches are small and more difficult to locate. It is easier to start with larger caches.
-If you can, try to find the geocache beforehand by yourself before going out with your kids. That way, you can help your child enjoy the experience more fully when you go out on your treasure hunt together.
Helpful Sites:
–http://www.geocaching.com/ – The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site
–http://www.geocaching.com/dinosaurtrain/ – The site which gives information regarding how to find PBS’s Dinosaur Train geocaches
Have you ever been geocaching? Do you think that your kids would enjoy it? (Since Michael really loved it, I’m considering buying him a handheld GPS unit for his birthday so that he can do more of this when the weather is nicer.)