Geocaching with Kids – Lesson Plans

August 19 is National Geocaching Day, but we’re heading into a great time of year throughout the world for geocaching. If you’ve never done it, or never heard of it, geocaching is like a big outdoor treasure hunt. People place “caches” in various designated locations, which you can get coordinates for using an app.

The app uses the GPS on your phone to direct you to the location of the cache, which can be anything from a plastic bag to a fake rock with a hidden compartment. All caches have a log book, so you should bring a pen to sign it, but a lot of caches also include little trinkets or special items. You can simply enjoy looking at these items, or you can take an item if you leave something of equal value in trade.

It’s a great way to make a hike or time in nature a little more fun for kids, and lets them live out their treasure hunting dreams (and maybe yours, too!).

You might be surprised at how many caches are available where you are (the page linked above tells me there are more than 700 in my town alone!) and the app ranks the caches by difficulty, both in terms of how hard it is to find the cache and how hard it is to get to where the cache is located.

Run Wild My Child has a great post all about geocaching with kids, and it notes that the free version of the geocaching app only shows easy caches, which is great when you’re doing it with kids. Tales of a Mountain Mama also advises that you check that a cache was found recently, because sometimes they do disappear and you don’t want that kind of disappointment when kids are around.

It’s always a good idea to bring a pen, and maybe some paper, and some little trinkets to drop in the caches you find, but Geocaching.com has a great post with some other things you might want to pack when you go hunting for caches.

Have you ever done geocaching with kids? I’d love to hear about your experience.

[Photo: Run Wild My Child]

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Play Like a Pirate with These Fun Pirate Activities for Kids

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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