Top Tips for Geocaching with Kids
Have you tried geocaching with kids? It’s a great way to get kids outside and is a great activity for families, particularly those with kids of different ages. We had a lovely day geocaching over at a National Trust Property – Emmett’s Gardens and went Geo-caching for our February 12 Family Adventures. It was a really beautiful weekend and I wanted to share with you the top tips for geocaching with kids and how to get started with geocaching if you’ve not been before. We had been geocaching locally earlier in the month, at the woods near our house but wanted to find somewhere a little further afield. I love that geocaching is a fantastic way to explore new areas and new places.
We did have a very early geocaching mini disaster – you can read about that….but after our second adventure, we now love it! Geocaching with kids is like the ultimate treasure hunt! It’s a free family activity and can be incorporated into any day out or even to jazz up a simple neighbourhood walk. We had our first foray with geocaching at a park local to us where, after much searching (I think our app was a little skewed) we eventually found an empty geocache much to the kids dismay! So, next we tried geocaching at a National Trust that we’d been wanting to visit for a while. Basically, geocaching is a problem solving outdoor treasure hunt which can be done in a local park or places further afield – there are geocaches all over England! As a free, family-friendly, outdoor activity – geocaching is the perfect activity for getting outside and help makes a walk more enjoyable for kids. If you’re tired of the same activities for kids, consider incorporating the modern version of a treasure hunt in the form of geocaching adventures. There are different difficulty levels and difficulty ratings making it suitable for kids of all ages. Read on for our top tips for geocaching with young kids and older children too.
Where to go Geocaching with kids
As long as you have a gps enabled device like a smart phone, you can go geocaching absolutely anywhere! We chose a national trust property but there are even some geocaches on our road near home. Emmett’s garden is a Edwardian National Trust property with beautiful views over the Kent Weald. It’s a good one to visit with families – there was a fun activity for the monkey puzzle tree trail on the day we went and they have other seasonal trails throughout the year. There is a natural playground made completely from log and twigs forested from the woods. Little ones will love the little dens and there’s a teepee and wooden musical instruments too. There is a great wooded area where our kids played for ages (Archie mostly spent the time picking up sticks which were three times the size of him!) There’s also a discovery cabin, our little people found a nice little den to draw a picture, a wildlife spotting card and some games to play. Meanwhile you can grab a deck chair and enjoy the peaceful views over Kent. There are also some lovely swings and tree trunks to balance on.
We had a slightly windy picnic on one of the many picnic tables around and the kids were even happy running up and down the steps in the rose garden!
Geocaching at Emmett’s Gardens
There are lots of geocaches at Emmett’s Gardens but we focused on finding just two. One was quite far out on the outskirts and is stuck in a tiny gap in the tree – it took a bit search to find that one! We swapped some snacks when we finally got it out of the tree gap! You can find out more about geocaching at other National Trust properties here.
How to start Geocaching with Kids
Top Tips for Geocaching with Kids
Geocaches can be found all over the world and pretty much everywhere, the idea is you navigate with a specific set of gps coordinates to find hidden treasure someone has hidden. Geocachers usually hide caches in locations that are important to them, the locations can be quite diverse, off the beaten path and random. They may be at your local park or even on your street! You then leave a cache for the next person and write in the log book to show who has found the different caches! Our kids like reading the different comments or names people leave.
Can you do geocaching for free?
You can definitely do geocaching for free! If you’re just starting out with geocaching, we found that there are many different cache listing sites available to choose from but most people use www.geocaching.com. This website allows you to create an account for free and get started right away. There is a free version of the geocaching app which is great for the first time if you’re not sure if the kids will enjoy. But if you find it’s something the whole family will love, there are paid versions which offer more than the basic membership. The free membership tends to have the easy geocaches which are good for families with young kids.
Do you need a premium subscription to go geocaching?
Premium Membership allows your app to see all caches – some would say the best caches, not just the easy Traditionals. It allows you to get instant notifications when new caches are published so you have a chance at a First To Find. It allows you to run Pocket Queries – special searches to find caches in the areas you want to and see a more details of the cache locations and a description of the cache but if you’re just starting out the free geocache app works just fine.
What’s in a geocache?
According to geocaching etiquette, you can take an item from the cache if you like, so long as you leave something of equal or greater value in its place.
There are many different kinds of geocaches you can search for. Traditional caches are the easiest to start with for your first geocache. Read the comments of people via the app who have found it previously before you head out so you know if they’re easy to find. The odd few times we haven’t been able to find a cache, my kids have been disappointed. They are represented by a green dot on the smartphone intro app or a green box on the website. It’s obviously best to start with an easy one, particularly if you have young children who may lose interest if it’s too hard to find! Explain to little kids that they will need to have patience and bring snacks! Geocaching with hungry younger kids is not fun!
Benefits of geocaching
The best thing about geocaching is the sense of responsibility it can give. Put the kids in charge! Obviously, you need to keep an eye on the map, but our kiddos love the responsibility of being the leader although this typically, did lead to arguments with our kids! Drinks and snacks are a must for young kids on a long geocache and also remember to take something with you to swap!
Good ideas for geocaching treasures
The rule of geocaching is you can take the cache but must replace it with another cache such as fun trinkets. Good things to swap are small items: lego/ pokemon cards, foreign coins, unopened glow sticks, new plastic farm animals, army soldiers, matchbox cars, bouncy balls playing cards, anything from a cracker is good! It’s best to keep the cache size small and make sure it’s in a waterproof container. Remember that geocaches can be small – we found one once that was in a tiny camouflaged film canister, so it’s great for building kids observational skills! Try combing a geocaching hunt with a nature scavenger hunt. We have tons of ideas here for scavenger hunts in any kind of weather or season!
The ones we found this day were hidden inside hollowed-out tree trunks, at the base of giant trees, inside stumps/logs, and in between rocks. They ranged in size from a plastic take-out container to a small barrel. Some were protected in Ziploc bags and some were hidden where rain wouldn’t bother them.
What do you need to go geocaching?
All you need is a smart phone, the app (which is free) and some small trinkets or ‘prizes’ to replace the geocache you find so it’s a really cheap way to spend an afternoon with kids! Snacks are also a good idea and you can find ideas here of what we take when out walking with the kids to turn a simple walk into a family adventure!
12 Family Adventures
I’m really loving our little family adventures so far. The last two months have been fairly straight forward things that we have done before. March is more of a challenge – a sunrise picnic! Eeeek! I’m not good at getting up at the best of times. I’d love to hear if you’re following on with our 12 Family Adventures. You can use the #12familyadventures on instagram or pop your adventures in the comments below. Here’s a poster if you’d like to download it for ideas! We’ve now been picking our 12 family adventures for over 6 years so check out our instagram for more ideas to pick your own adventures.
