Family caching… Where to start?

3 and 6 are on the young side to have any lasting interest in looking for the cache. Heck, half the time the only reason my girls come along with me is that they know I’ll get them some fries or something if they don’t whine the whole time! They are fun to take along though and are really starting to get into the hunt more.
– Find caches that are 1/1 or 2/2 at most.
– Find caches that are located in parks with playground equipment and “reward” them with some time on the swings after finding the cache. This will help break up the day.
– Skip Micros
– Don’t plan on finding alot of caches.
– #1 Complaint this time of year is cold toes and fingers. Bring hand warmers.
– Let them hold the GPS on the way back to the car. Show them how to make the mph numbers go up by running with it. This works well on longer hikes back and forth.
– Hiking sticks. Don’t leave home without ’em. or find one for each and take them with you from cache to cache.
– Bring snacks.
– Find an area with high cache density to reduce the amount of time in the car between caches. Especially since you may not visit many of the caches in that area.

As they get older you can get them more involved and interested in the hunt itself and all that goes into finding the cache. Enjoy! I also look forward to seeing other folks’ ideas in this area!

[edit] spelling [/edit]

[This message has been edited by arcangl7 (edited 11-30-2004).]

With Abby (my 5yo), the goal is to try and find
caches that are in/near parks. We trade off and she can play before/after we find the cache. And if the terrain is a bit over her, mom will sometimes play with Abby while Dad hunts.

We havn’t done this a ton (yet), but we did discover new parks in Appleton, Oshkosh and even our hometown (Green Bay/Depere).

I always take at least one of my kids (ages 8 and 5) out with me when “hunting”. The best I’ve ever gotten out of a day (barring events) is 4 geocaches found. And that was with plenty of playtime in parks between.

The only original piece of advice that I can think to add to the list is to bring a camera. My kids love to look back and see themselves finding the caches.

Our family consists of my wife, 6 year old daughter ,3 year old son and myself. We have cached as a family on about 1/3 of our finds, the rest were done solo. I do enjoy the family but also enjoy getting out in the woods to relax by myself.

When we cache as a family, we strive for maybe 10 caches at the most. If the cache is over a .25 walk, plan on carrying the little one. We have discovered many, many playgrounds while caching. WZBT03 has shown us many in Janesville that we still go to in the summer. We also let one pick the restaurant for lunch and the other one gets to pick dinner. We also take turns on who gets first pick on the ammo box caches. Towards the end of the day when Daddy has to get “just one more cache”, Mom and the kids usually stay in the car and I hit the woods.

Somedays it’s hard to get them out of the house but I believe it has paid off. They are very at ease in the woods. When my daughter goes out on Girl Scout hikes, she leads the way and has no fear of getting lost. Most of the girls get afraid when they lose sight of the lodge.

We used to have a cache at the top of a nice sized hill in Kettle Morain South. The kids loved climbing it to check the cache. Most of the time they would shout out army slogans while running up it (I like old war movies). It would crack me up when the kids would run past a 10 year old couch potato yelling “up the hill, up the hill, who wa, get some, it’s a good day to die, huh!”. I know they will look back and remember all the good times we have had together as a family.