Today's Fun Jar Friday~
The Geocache Edition
Now that we have reached the end of August (seriously, where did the summer go?) we have also reached the end of the summer Fun Jar Activities. Which means after this, there will be no more bonus activities. But the good news is, next week we start Fall Fun Jar activities! In the meantime, I am going to end the summer Fun Jars with a classic, totally awesome activity - Geocaching!
For those of you who haven't experienced geocaching, you're missing out. We've
beena fan for awhile. And I am always trying to think of new ways to enjoy geocaching.
If you don't know, geocaching is a modern day treasure hunt. All around
the world, even places you visit every day, people have hidden caches. Some are tiny
and hard to find and some are large and filled with "treasures" that you can trade. You
can look on the geocachingwebsite to find locations to these caches and hints of how to
find them. Then the hunt is on! It's a great activity to do with kids and
if you haven't tried it, I suggest you do.
Now on to the Activities!
#1 Go Geocaching
Well, yeah, this one's obvious. But I'm going to give you some pointers
on how to make you geocaching experience a positive one.
If you are new to geocaching - The first thing you need to do is visit the website. Sign up for free. Once that is done, you can do a search for caches near your house. You will be surprised how many there are. Now to find a good cache.
You'll want to start with just one or two. Don't overdo it. And if you are just starting, you want to make sure you can find it or everyone will feel discouraged. The caches are listed nearest to your location first. The first thing you want to look at is the column that says "last found". This tells you when the cache was found last. The closer it was found, the more likely it will be that the cache is still there and not "muggled." Muggled means someone who is not geocache friendly took it or destroyed it.
Now you can click on the cache name and find out the details. Some other things to
look at are the comments. If the most recent comments say they couldn't find it,
then hold off on that cache. Also, they now have attributes listed on the side. If the
kids attribute is listed, it's a good one. And as a bonus, read the description and if it says
anything about being a small or large cache with anything in it,
you have a winner that the kids will really enjoy.
Now to find the cache, there are clues all over. First off is the
coordinates. They will give you the exact area of the cache. There are coordinate
apps that you can put on your phone to help guide you there. Then look at the name,
and the cache summery. And if you need further help, you can read the hint. They
provide a decoder hint which is fun for older kids to decipher, or you can just click
the decipher button and it will do it for you.
I like to make an extreme close up of the map as well in satellite view and print that off to really give you a good view of what you are looking for and it makes the kids feel as if they have a treasure map for their hunt. Once you are ready, you can head out for your cache. Bring along a pencil because when you find it, you get to write your name and date down in the log book that is kept with the cache. Also, many caches have some small toys or trinkets as treasure inside, left by previous geocachers. You can leave your own treasure, and trade with what's inside! Always trade the same number of treasures that you take.
Now, once you've done a few caches and have got a feel for how it works, you can take it to the next step. I like to look at the map of nearby caches and pick an area that has quite a few close to each other. Then I plot out a path in order to hit several at a time. I print out all the clues and map close ups and number them in the order we will hit them. and now you have a full geocaching adventure.
This year we found 6. We ended at one that was at our nearby Walgreens.
So we treated ourselves to an ice cream for the way back.
The result was a couple of very tired, very messy, and very happy kids.
#2 Make Geocaching Tokens
When Geocaching it's always good to have some tokens or trinkets on hand to trade. This year we made fun magnets to trade that we found in
FamilyFun. All you need are thick magnets, craft bottle caps, decorative paper, and epoxy stickers.
Punch circles out of the paper using a 1 inch circle punch. Hot glue the circle to the inside of the bottle cap. Place the epoxy on to the paper. Lastly, hot glue the magnet to the back. Now you have cute magnets small enough the place in a cache!
#3 Make the Proper Attire
This year, I wanted to make something for the kids to wear while we cached. I decided a treasure map would be the perfect image. If you haven't figured it out, making your own shirts is so easy and a lot of fun for the kids.
To start with, trace the image onto a piece of freezer paper.
I've even supplied the image for you!
Using an exacto knife, cut the image out.
Place a piece of cardboard inside a cheap t-shirt to prevent the paint leaking
through to the back of the shirt. (I reused the shirts I got for my
paper onto the shirt until it is adhered firmly. Using fabric paint, paint the image,
making sure to cover all the areas where the shirt is exposed.
For the thinner lines, sometimes it works better to dab first, then brush.
Then you let it dry and remove the freezer paper. It is seriously that easy!
#4 Hide your Own Geocache
Now that you are completely schooled in Geocaching, you are ready to hide your own. The first step is location, location, location. You want to find a place that you are near and that you visit often so that you can check it to make sure it hasn't been muggled. I picked a park we walk to often. It also has to be at least 500 ft. from another cache. There are more rules and guidelines that can be found
here. But basically, make it where there isn't a lot of people, not nearby another, and legal to dig at. Usually, if you've found caches in the area before, you should be safe.
To make your cache, you are going to need a water tight container.
I chose a peanut butter container with a good screw on lid.
I used some nice camo cardstock and made an "official geocache label" for it.
This isn't necessary but it helps people know they found the cache and not a piece
of garbage and throw it away. I simply mod podged the paper to the
INSIDE of the container. We don't want anything on the outside since the cache is
going to be exposed to the elements. To mod podge, paint the inside of the container
and quickly press the paper to it. Wait 15 minutes and then cover the entire inside
with mod podge again. Now your container is done.
Now it's time to fill it. First off, you are going to need some paper and pencil
so people can sign it when they find it. Here's how I made my paper pad.
First I mod podged some matching camo cardstock to a 3x5 piece of card board. When it was dry, I punched two holes in the cardboard cover. After that, I lined up note cards with the cover and punched matching holes in all my note cards.
Put the cover on and fasten the together with metal rings. You'll need to put the paper pad and pencil in a plastic bag in case for some reason it gets wet on the inside of the cache. I also included a sharpener because pencils often break. I made sure to make a note in the summary not to take the sharpener.
After that, we found several toys and our magnet tokens to go in to the cache for trade.
After we hid our cache, I brought my phone along and used a coordinates app
to find to proper coordinates for the cache. After that, we just had to fill out
the details onto the website and wait to be accepted!
So that is the end of our summer of Fun Jar Activities. This summer has been a total blast and I'm sad to see it come to an end. But I am also eager for a schedule again and can't wait to start thinking of new activities for next summer! Stay tuned next week for Fall Fun Jar Activities!
Until next time, Tiffany!
