Left Coast Mama » geocaching

Geocaching With Kids

Gwen — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 04:40:22 +0000

Caching in Pacific Spirit Park in Vancouver

Anthony and I have been geocaching since Aidan was 2 years old. Quinlan has goecached all his life. It is something that gets us out in all weather and has us exploring places we would never have found on our own. Of our almost 800 finds since we started, at least 700 of those have been with the kids.

Aidan finding a cache. He is about 3 in this picture.

So, what is geocaching you ask? Simply put, geocaching is a world wide treasure hunt that uses GPS technology to find a cache. A cache can be as simple as a small container with a log, or as unique as a fake rock. Some caches only have a log ( a place to write your caching name and date) or they can have a lot of trade-ables (little toys etc.) and some have trackable items.

The Floyd Family posing after finding 24 caches in two days. Quinlan was about 10 months old.

We started geocaching with a GPS and an account at geocaching.com. With the advent of smart phones it is much easier to get started, just get yourself the geocaching.com app and see what you can find. If this is your first time, start with caches that have lower difficulty ratings. When we first started out with our boys we would do only 1 to 1.5 difficulties and 1-2 terrain. If you have a child in a stroller stick to the 1 terrain so that you are not frustrated.

Caching with a stroller. This was the first summer we cached.

A good way to get started is to check your geocaching app around playgrounds. I swear that almost every playground in the Lower Mainland has at least a few caches close by. When Aidan was younger we would trade off a playground cache with a few woods caches.

For more information on getting a geocaching account started, how to choose a GPS, how to navigate geocaching.com check out geocaching-101.

Photo Friday: GeoWoodstock

Gwen — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:23:09 +0000

I have a number of posts I am in the midst of writing, like a summary of my first weekend away from the boys, and I have a lot of pictures for these posts. Since the posts are not ready and I want to be posting more of my photographs as well I thought I would have a mostly wordless post. Entirely wordless is beyond me so I am posting on a Friday.

Fake castle in front of a property on the way to Carnation, Washington. I think it was just a farm.

The line up of cars behind us on the way to GeoWoodstock.

Hand detail of the Troll in Fremont, Washington. The Troll is a huge sculpture underneath one of the Fremont Bridges.

One of the Three Billy Goats Gruff just down from the Troll. Fremont, Washington.

Bringing Back Science, Was it Lost?

Gwen — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:15:15 +0000

The Parent Bloggers Network and PBS’s Zula Intergalactic Warrior are sponsoring a blog blast on science education. They are wondering what parents are doing to make science more accessible to their children. It was an interesting question for me. I am a elementary teacher and my husband is an Aerospace and Materials engineer with a PhD. (Just in case there is someone reading my blog that doesn’t know me.)

My first response is when are we not providing our preschoolers with science exploration? We may not call it that, in fact a lot of the time we call it toddler time, or dawdler time. The fact that all babies, toddlers and preschools explore their world in minute detail is scientific exploration at its finest. Babies begin the journey with putting everything in their mouth. Toddlers explore everything, sometimes with their mouth, but always touching and really looking at things. They also try to describe their world and ask tons of questions. Who hasn’t spluttered a wild-assed answer to one of their many questions about the world. They are always looking, touching, exploring.

I think a lot of time we scare kids with science by showing them what we are scared of. How many kids are scared of bugs because their parents are? How many thing do we teach them to be afraid of? How do we keep science, well first we start by remembering what it is like to explore. How do I do this with my child? The answer is simple: geocaching. My husband and I along with our almost three year old spend almost every weekend going off with our GPS, some coordinates and then we explore somewhere we have never thought to look before. Aidan calls it treasure hunting, or caching. He now is almost always going on his own steam so we go slower, look at more things, and generally take more time to smell the flowers. Ok so not flowers, yet, but we get to play in the woods and use our senses to explore our world. What better way to raise a curious, scientific child? If you have an answer let me know.

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Related: Aidan, Blog Blast, children, geocaching, Parent Bloggers Network.

Long Time Away :)

Gwen — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:52:08 +0000

We have been in Nova Scotia for the past two weeks and it has flown by. While we haven’t done too much but visit with family, Anthony and I have taken advantage of the built in babysitters to get some time for us. We actually got to do a bit of gecaching and actually managed to double our cache count. Of course this was helped by getting 40 caches along “Easy street” the 333 between Prospect and Peggy’s Cove. Lots of fun.

I will post some more later this week. Anthony left for home this morning and Aidan and I are staying another week. I am not sure how this will go as we haven’t been apart as a family as of yet. I am hoping bedtime will go smoothly. Wish me luck.