What a Cache!
We’ve never been a family that needs a reason to go out. Whatever the weather my children have enjoyed freezing February days by the sea or hot and sticky rambles around Ancient ruins at the height of Summer. But for many friends, a challenge is a key driver for getting the kids off their gadgets and outdoors. Be it a treasure hunt, spot the Pokémon, Paddington or other animal challenge, thousands of families up and down the country have been motivated to ditch screen time in favour of a good old game. Like the timeless games of peek-a-boo, hunt the thimble and hide and seek, these challenges offer the excitement of the chase and find. They also satisfy 21st century children’s need for immediate gratification as sadly an adventure outside is no longer enough for many children. It is this addiction- fuelling dimension that I’ve so successfully resisted, until that was we discovered the hidden world of geocaches! Armed with the mobile phone app, GPS helps lead children and adults to a location where with the help of a clue they search for tiny objects and lists hidden in discrete nooks and crannies or masquerading as a bolt or rock!
It’s a game which cleverly combines problem solving as children try to solve the clues, hone their map reading skills and which definitely rewards the eagle- eyed. With children typically fascinated by detail, be it a special stone or shell, pattern on a tree trunk or particular creepy crawly, keen observers like my son are likely to excel, much to the chagrin of his older sister! In fact, many geocaches seem to be hidden in those very places that children are naturally drawn
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to, and health conscious adults, myself included, tend to recoil from, like the hole in a concrete post, the rim under a noticeboard or bolts under a park bench. With children’s fingers often described as an extension to their eyes, children can have a big advantage in the geocache hunt!
A deliciously sunny yet fresh day was the backdrop to my first foray into geocaching. We found ourselves unexpectedly covering miles as each solved clue revealed another cache and a couple of hours of time evaporated in the chase. Trying to keep up with excited teens racing each other to find the cache, I found myself always arriving late to the party just in time, so it seemed for them to find the cache and move onto the next, with me short of breath and following up the rear. Picture Anneka Rice’s Treasure Hunt, but far less style and finesse! In this fast-paced Crystal maze-style re-enactment a competitive buzz thrived, at least until the calls for unfair surfaced as one sibling’s score reached 4 to 1!
A new location and teams yielded a different dynamic but the same determination and energy-fuelled fun, and I’m ready to hold my hands up to the value of a challenge or hunt. Yes, it’s a way of incentivising children to get out and about when personally this should be in their DNA, but if the alternative is a nation of couch potatoes, then we need all the help we can get to wean children off their technological devices or at the very least transmodify these into more social experiences. By getting children (and as importantly adults) outdoors with the promise of a treasure hunt of sorts, hopefully we are opening
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fiona@thewireweb.co.uk
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