Kids and Caching.

[Mister Greenthumb]

I recieved a nomination this year, but declined for several personal reasons including being unemployed for a year now. If I had been elected to the board one of my main areas of interest would’ve been including kids more in the WGA and it’s activities. Through no fault of any past or present board members I feel this is an area that has been lacking both activity wise and in educating. By activity I am looking for things beyond temporary caches which the kids do enjoy. Anyone who caches with kids knows that it is sometimes a challenge to keep their interest up for more than a couple of hours when out caching. I have 3 grandkids who got us into geocaching and are all very active still so I am speaking with them in mind. If elected what do you feel you could do to address this issue.

[K0rpl]

Mr. Greenthumb, thank you for bringing this up. In the past, the WGA, has had a couple of kids friendly caches, but there can always be more. I personally have not had alot of oppurtunity to cache with children, but can full understand where you are coming from. In the past, we have done 5 gallon bucket sized caches for children. Games could also be added to the WGA events to keep children more entertained.

[Barry Butrymowicz]

With my wife and I not having kids, this is a little harder for me to answer, we have cached with Val’s Niece “littlefinn” and have taken her on a 6 state week long geocaching trip when she was 8. I understand that keeping a child’s interest can be hard. but do not have much first hand knowledge with this. Some events that we have attended have had kids games, or arts and crafts areas to keep some interest, but this ultimately should fall in the parents hands, as each child is different, and a event holder should not have to provide a baby sitter so the parents can enjoy themselves.

For the older “teens” there can be things set up a scholarship;

Maybe in the memory of one of its past members a scholarship aimed at assisting our next generation of youth in their studies of outdoor recreational activities, or environmental sciences in hopes of helping them gain an appreciation of the outdoors while learning to be good stewards of land conservation and the environment in general.

Any WGA member, their spouse or their child or grandchild, who will be attending a college or university, could be eligible to apply for this scholarship

[Team Deejay]

I like this idea, but I’m not exactly sure how it would work beyond the kid caches that Jason mentioned. Would you suggest some sort of organized activities? Would they be segregated by age groups? From my limited experiences caching with kids, I’ve found that those that like doing it will go all day, with the adults dragging behind, but those who don’t like it won’t cache at all. What I would see happening would be the cache liking kids would be running around with their parents, while the others would be doing the activities. Would this work? What sort of activities would people like? I guess my answer is that I like the idea, but I think the details will be difficult.

[-cheeto-]

This is a very important topic for me. I am a father of 3 wonderful kids (I sound like a game show contestant) ages 7, 9, and 11. They all have varying interests in geocaching.

As far as activities for kids and families at our WGA events, I agree this could be expanded upon. Especially at the camp-out. What makes the camp-out unique is families come together to camp and attend the event. It’s also not a single day event but spans the weekend.

Some activities my kids have really enjoyed at events (not all WGA) that could be borrowed or continued (as we do some great kid friendly activities already at our WGA events):

– a handful of kid-friendly, stocked caches within a half mile of the event pavilion
– if possible some permanent kid-friendly caches in the area. For the 09 camp-out I placed a kid friendly perm in the state park that seemed to have went over very well. (it was a stocked ammo can covered in thousands of googly eyes if you didn’t get a chance to find it.. still active)
– The “mystery” kid cache at the cache bash last year was a blast and a good one to “borrow” from
– Having a playground nearby the event pavilion goes a long way
– The night caching contest (and night caching in general) is a big hit with our kids.
– We could bring some non-caching related games to the events or invest in some to own. Like that game with the golf balls on strings. Horeshoes perhaps. Bocce ball? Badminton? that kind of stuff.
– “Kid prizes” are a great thing too. Target the 8 – 14 age group. There were a lot of under 6 targeted items at the campout last year and not a lot of under 6 attendees. Also, kids tend to choose something “the older kids like”.
– The “turkey shoot” is a great family-friendly activity that our kids enjoyed at the cache bash. For those who don’t know what this, animals are scattered around the area and you try to mark accurate coords for all and the closest to the pre-determined wins.
– Another idea could be a scavenger hunt. Kids like these. We could use caching containers to find and in each one describe the nature of the next “hide” and a hint to get there. No GPS needed. End with a bag of candy or something.
– the “geocaching 101” class at the cache bash was enjoyed by families and kids as well. I volunteered with the hands-on portion of the class and helped out a couple families with some temp class caches. The kids love to learn about geocaching! We have to remember that not everyone who attends our events are veteran cachers. There were families at the campout last year who would have attended a geocaching class.

Outside of events, I really like Barry’s scholarship idea. A geocaching related scholarship would be awesome!!

I will do what I can as a BOD member to get some of these things incorporated into our events in the years to come. The camp-out is becoming a family tradition for my family and I suspect many other member’s families. We build tradition with great events that please everyone attending. 😀

[thepharmgirl]

Q: How can the WGA do a better job of including kids in geocaching activities?

A: I bet there are a lot of families out there who began geocaching specifically so that they could spend time together as a family and get the kids active outdoors. So there is definitely a niche for family-friendly geocaching activities.

I’m actually the person who thought up and wrote “The Case of the Stolen Candy Cache” at the Friday Meet and Greet for last year’s Cache Ba$h. I wanted to provide a family-friendly activity, and I think it went over pretty well (while it was light out). Kids of all ages enjoyed the candy. I figured we’re all sort of detectives when we’re out seeking caches, so a fun little mystery seemed like a good fit.

I like Cheeto’s idea of outdoor games during the WGA events, like Ladder Golf or Bean Bag Toss, for those kids who get sick of geocaching for the day.

What about an educational game or display that explains satellites and stuff like that (“stuff’ is a very technical term..haha).

What about a “Hide and Seek” type caching game … Each KID is each allowed to hide a cache (with the help of their parents) at the start of the day, marked with a name/number. They would learn how to mark a waypoint and record coordinates and be active in deciding what makes a good hiding location. Perhaps it would have to be within a certain radius, so they’d have to learn how to mark the “home” waypoint too. The event organizers would have containers from which they can choose (big and small). Then, at a specified time, they get a list of all those coordinates, and everyone tries to find each others’ caches. The kid whose cache is brought back to home base last (their cache lasted the longest) wins.

As for non-event ideas to get kids involved and more excited about geocaching…

I know there are educational cards about wildlife and invasive plant species. What about encouraging kids to match up those pictures with real-life examples that they spot while caching? As a kid, have you ever played car bingo? It would be like that, only with natural/environmental squares. This could be done within an event or just within one’s family. Perhaps different Bingo cards could be available to print online.

I don’t have kids, so I’m not the best expert here… but why not ask the kids what THEY’D like to be doing or what they’d like to learn about or ways to make events more fun? Post a topic in the forum about it… parents can ask their kids and report back to us. Kid answers only. I bet we’d get a lot of fun answers and ideas!

[Averith]

I agree with many of the posts that the other candidates have made, with my kids now being older (17 and 19) I don’t have the pleasure of caching or camping with them very often anymore. As for younger kids, I feel that the WGA has made good efforts to include them in the fun.

Age appropriate games would be a possibility, perhaps nature hikes if that would be of interest. An educational type program could also be interesting, learning to use a map and compass would be one idea.

With each child having different interests and likes I can see it being a challenge to find activities for everyones kids, but I do think it’s something we need to work towards.

[labrat_wr]

I totally understand the issue when you have a child who wants to go caching with you and konks out after an hour or so. My daughter is one of those who, no matter the activity, lasts a short time and wants to move on to something else.

While the WGA has done some kid friendly activities, it can be hard to find that one greatest activity for them to do. I don’t have any fantastic kid ideas but would certainly invite the membership to have input for the BOD to evaluate and see what can be done. Geocaching is a fantastic family activity and there are values in it. Family values, health values, educational values, environmental values…. The sport runs the full range of ages from the young to old. To make it interesting for all, sometimes a difficult thing to answer.

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[Team Black-Cat]

My family and I volunteered to help out at the WGA picnic this summer. We set up a few games, a coloring contest and kids’ movies on a laptop. With all of the activity going on, the few kids that stuck around the shelter were pretty well entertained for most of the day. The picnic and campout committees should make sure to appoint a volunteer at future events to be in charge of activities for younger cachers.

I wish we had gotten to WB early enough to see how PharmGirl set up the kids’ cache so we could have borrowed the idea for the picnic.

As for everyday caching, keeping kids interested is tough. As mentioned before, some kids just won’t enjoy caching. Nothing the WGA does will change that.

Short of a scholarship, the WGA could recognize the achievments of Kids in Caching. This could entail certificates, badges or just an online “leader board”. The achievments could include, but not be limited to just finding caches. Envolvment in any geo-friendly activity might be worthy of recognition. This idea seems open-ended and could grow to be as big as the WGA wants or is able to maintain.

[-cheeto-]

The picnic and campout committees should make sure to appoint a volunteer at future events to be in charge of activities for younger cachers.

This is a great idea.

Anne’s idea to have the kids hide a cache could be a definite winner as well. Perhaps even through in a bit of arts and crafts with some camo tape 😉 It would be fun to have the kids hide a cache and their parents have to find it with them. My youngest would love that. However, this would be difficult logistically if younger kids want to participate so I think having the parents with to hide and other kids hunting them would be best.

Thanks to Mister Greenthumb for a great question.

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