Mom, I'm Bored! Fix #1 - Geocaching

Last week I discovered Geocaching. I'd heard the term over and over again in various places, but never had a clue as to what it was. I finally got sick of hearing about it and looked it up. It's defined as "

Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS device can then try to locate the geocache." ~according to Geocaching.com

OK, so to sum it up - you use a GPS to go find a little treasure. Sounds like something my kids would like.

After poking around the website for a bit, I realized what this could do. It could help eliminate childhood boredom. It could somehow align the cosmos and prevent sibling fights. It could...nevermind. It really could be a fun for the kids and I and since I'm working on getting more active, it seems like it would be a good fit.

When I looked at the database (again, on Geocaching.com) there were over 13,000 caches (potential treasures) within 100 miles. Yup, that could keep us busy for a while. Caches are hidden all over the place - parks, outside malls, basically anywhere you can hide something in plain site.

After posing it to the kids as a local treasure hunt, I loaded my phone with geocaching software, grabbed our CamelBak's and we rode off in search of our first treasure.

One of the main reasons I like this activity is the skills it reinforces. You have to be able to read a map, radar or GPS unit effectively. Since I can't, it made our outing a bit more...interesting. Many of the cache's have codes to decipher, which kids enjoy.

Once you find the area to explore, you have to look for a cache, which is the treasure. They range in size from the size of a shoebox all the way down to a film canister. The difficulty also ranges - if you are going to be geocaching with kids, don't go over a two and definitely start with a 1 in both terrain and difficulty. We didn't and the weeds in our area were so overgrown that we didn't find the cache.

Despite not finding the treasure, we had fun. We got to ride our bikes, run around outside a school using a compass to find the general location of the treasure and then spend time in nature looking for the cache. We went home empty handed, but had fun in the meantime.

Benefits include:

- getting outside and getting active

- develop map reading skills

- ways to be together as a family

Our fist geocache didn't go as well as I would have liked, but we plan on doing more over the rest of summer. 

Have you been geocaching? Would you try it? Let me know if the comments! :)