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    • word consciousness
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    • tripod grip
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geocaching: what it is & why we’re hooked

home / family life / family fun / outdoor activities / geocaching: what it is & why we’re hooked
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Right now, weโ€™re 2 for 6.

That’s right–2/6. 2:6?

geocaching: what it is and why we're hooked

And today we totally thought we had one, but we didnโ€™t.

Weโ€™ll masters by wintertime, after a fall of not worrying about poison ivy or scratched legs or sunburn.

Weโ€™ll move from โ€˜navigating to geocacheโ€™ to using the map or compass (on the phone, of course), and maybe the kids will even have their own Geomate.jr.

Weโ€™ll know every attribute symbol by heart.

Decrypting hints will become second-nature.ย  ROT13, anyone?

Weโ€™ll look for–and log–trackables or travel bugs and never alert the muggles.

Every logbook will have our initials, and weโ€™ll know exactly how to read d/t (levels of difficulty and terrain, hello) like the back of our hand.

Iโ€™m talking โ€˜geocachingโ€™ here if you havenโ€™t already guessed, and after becoming geocachers this July, weโ€™re hooked.ย  Seriously hooked.

Well, most of us are.

Hereโ€™s the skinny. . .

Geocaching–What it is & Why We’re Hooked:ย 

So ‘geocaching’. What on earth is it, anyway?

Geocaching is a free real-world outdoor treasure hunt. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using a smartphone or GPS and can then share their experiences online (straight from the Geocaching site, yo!).

what is geocaching?

Boys’ Life Series: Let’s Go Geocaching by John Mckinney got us interested in geocaching. . .

what is geocaching

but the search is what got us hooked!

What does ‘geocaching’ mean?

‘Geo’ refers to ‘geography’ and a ‘cache’ is a container (strange, I know, but pronounced ‘cash’), so ‘geocaching’ is simply the act of hiding–or seeking–a little container using geographical coordinates.ย  Or you can look at it as ‘geo’ meaning ‘earth’ and interpret ‘geocaching’ as finding a small container somewhere outdoors.ย  Either way works.

Before we got started, we did a little reading.

We found Boys’ Life Series: Let’s Go Geocaching by John Mckinney at the library.ย  We read it cover to cover and renewed it three times. No joke. ย I found it extremely easy to understand and at a perfect level of difficulty for Maddy and Owen to read independently.

geocaching prep

We poked around on the geocaching site.

geocaching prep

We decoded a hint or two.ย  We were ready!

So what did we do next? How’d we go from reading about geocaching to becoming geocachers?

  • We visited the website: geocaching.com. And we played around, watching the video, reading about the caches close to us, and registering on the site. It’s all free unless you want to upgrade to a premium membership, which (shhhhh!) we did after our first find.
  • ย Then we downloaded the app: geocaching for smartphones.ย  (But you do not necessarily need a smartphone to geocache!! You do need to have a GPS device or a GPS-enabled phone to navigate to the cache, though.)
  • We found the cache closest to where we wanted to begin, we read the logs, decoded the hint, and we clicked ‘navigate to cache’.
  • ย Finally, we jumped in the car and headed out for our first cache!

what is geocaching

Maddy navigates to our first geocache. . .

what is geocaching

. . . and we tried and tried. . .

what is geocaching

. . . and tried some more. . .

geocaching pool - spoiler

And we FOUND IT!!

what is geocaching

This one was a micro, so no treasures–just a teeny, tiny log that we signed.

And then we danced around.

It. Was. Awesome.

We were instantly hooked.

Geocaching is like a treasure hunt outdoors. It’s a secret club that makes us look at our surroundings a little differently.

For some reason, it makes this great, big world seem a little . . .ย  smaller.ย  Like the whole world’s really a big playground.

geocaching park

Near one of our most favorite parks. . .

geocaching park

. . . we geocached up to 7 meters away from the cache but just couldn’t find it!

Every time we get in the car now, Owen asks, Can I see your phone? I want to find a closeby geocache.

So he pokes around, reads a few logs, and gets us on track to find one–when we’re running errands, when we’re at the park, when we’re on our way home, when we just need a fun diversion.

Geocaches. Are. Everywhere.

And like I said, we’re 2 for 6. We’ve found two. We tried for six.

Our record’s not great.ย  But we’re still hooked, and that should tell you something.

geocaching butterfly

Owen unrolls our second find–

geocaching butterfly

which was hidden near our bank, grocery, gas station–right in the center of town!

We’re lucky with micros (super, small, teeny-tiny geocaches) but not so lucky with the bigger ones.ย ย  But since most of the bigger ones are in the woods–or a little deeper out of sight, we’re going for those this fall.

I’m sure I’m missing some big geocaching pieces here, but for the recreational geocacher–especially for the family with young children–we’re enjoying it.ย 

And this mama believes geocaching is the ultimate sneaky-fun learning:

  • we’re looking at distances as we navigate to caches and giving the kids a sense of how far x-amount of feet or meters is from us;
  • we’re figuring out our position in relation to the cache;
  • we’re using direction–north, south, east, west–as we decide which way to walk;
  • we’re employing our critical thinking skills as we decode the hint and interpret what it means;
  • we’re reading past logs and synthesizing responses;
  • we’re getting out in nature, exploring our parks, routes, walks, and world in a way we haven’t experienced;
  • we’re looking at our surroundings with closer eyes and careful steps;
  • we’re practicing the difficult skills of patience, endurance, and handling disappointment;
  • we’re learning–each time!–and are excited to become better at our geocaching skills.

And that’s it–we’ve been geocachin’ fools for a good two months now, so we’ll just catchya in the logbooks, okay? And any advice, ideas, suggestions, or resources YOU have, I’d love to see!ย  We’re newbies–and we want to learn!

Some geocaching resources for the newbies:

    • Geocaching site (check out the Geocaching in 2 minutes video!)
    • Geocaching 101
    • request a Geocaching Premium membership for your family for the holidays–or give one to a friend!

fyi: Affiliate links are included in this unsponsored post, written by totally new geocacher (me) and influenced only by my three little geocachers and my geocaching dog.

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About amy mascott

teacher, mother, dreamer. lover of literacy, fun learning, good food, and three crazy-cool kids. finder of four-leaf clovers | dc metro ยท http://about.me/amymascott
tweet with me: @teachmama

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Find it at your favorite bookstore or order here: https://amzn.to/3Pu3tWs

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What questions do you have about dyslexia? 

For the next few weeks leading up to my own start to the school year I am sharing a new series called โ€œDe-Mystifying Dyslexiaโ€ and I would love for you to join me! 

Follow in my stories or on the highlight above!

#dyslexia #teading  #readingteacher #raiseareader #demystifyingdyslexia
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(Part 2) 

The series will be shared on IG stories, on tiktok, on the teachmama facebook page, and in the Take 5 newsletter. 

Look for the logo on social, and if you want to receive the whole thing via email, then sign up for Take5 on the link below. 

Iโ€™m really excited about this. Itโ€™s taken a long, long time to create, and the only thing I ask is that you, once viewing it all, could take 2 minutes to give me some feedback. There will be a google form on the last of the slides, at the end of the series. I thank you, I appreciate you, and I look forward to learning along with you.

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Hi and thank you for your interest in watching my โ€˜de-mystifying dyslexiaโ€™ series. 

My name is Amy Mascott, and Iโ€™m a reading specialist and former high school English teacher. Iโ€™m also the creator of teachmama.com  where since 2008, Iโ€™ve helped families make meaningful connections with their kids and build bridges between home and school. 

As an educator, Iโ€™m always trying to share important informationโ€”bc I really think that when we know better, we do better. This series is part of my final project for a course Iโ€™m taking through Advancement Courses called โ€˜understanding dyslexiaโ€™. 

And as a reading teacher, I need to know all I can about this condition. What I realized is that I had a lot to learnโ€”maybe you, as a parent or teacher yourself, can also stand to learn a little bit. 

Maybe, like me, youโ€™ve grown up thinking that dyslexia was a condition where people read letters backwardsโ€”b for d or p for g? Maybe you thought, like I did, that if a person was dyslexic, they saw all of the letters jumbled together on the page? Iโ€™m here to tell you that both of those things are untrue. 

So if you would like to learn a little about dyslexiaโ€”if you would like for me to โ€˜de-mystify dyslexiaโ€™ for you, then follow along! 

(Continued on next VIDEO)

#readingteacher #teachersofIG #demystifyingdyslexia

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Oh HEEEEEYYY, @luvvie โ€” did you see that @littletroublemaker made our hallway bulletin board? ๐Ÿ˜‰โ™ฅ๏ธ

(Itโ€™s what Rusty the ๐ŸฆŠ is currently reading.) 

Find it at your favorite bookstore or order here: https://amzn.to/3Pu3tWs

(This is my affiliate link, so when you use it, I will earn a small percentage of the sale, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for using my link and supporting my small business!)

#readingteacher #raiseareader #kidlit #bestbooks #linkinbio
View
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How can people with dyslexia learn to read? ๐Ÿค”

Here are the 3๏ธโƒฃ elements that reading instruction should contain in order to be most effective for students with dyslexiaโ€”

#demystifyingdyslexia #raiseareader #readingteacher #teachreading #dyslexiaawareness
View
Open
Lately when I find four leaf clovers, Iโ€™ve been leaving them. ๐Ÿ€๐Ÿคท๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ

So if youโ€™re in Maryland, and you happen upon a lonely, little 4-leafer with very little grass, weeds, or leaves around it, I donโ€™t know WHO tried to set you up for success.

#yougotthis #keepyoureyesopen #itsthelittlethings #kilpattyluck
View
Open
Okayโ€”how do we know if someone has dyslexia? 

Which professionas are able to make that important determination? 

โ–ถ๏ธ Watch to find out. 

Hit me with the questions you still have about dyslexiaโ€”and know we have a few more posts to go!

#demystifyingdyslexia #raiseareader #teachreading #readingteachersofig
View
Open
What are some of the common signs of dyslexia?

Watch to learn and find out!

#demystifyingdyslexia #readingteacher #raiseareader #teachreading #dyslexia
View
Open
True โœ… or false โŒ?

#demystifyingdyslexia #dyslexiaeducation #readingteacher #raiseareader #teachreading
View
Open
What do you know about dyslexia? 

What questions do you have about dyslexia? 

For the next few weeks leading up to my own start to the school year I am sharing a new series called โ€œDe-Mystifying Dyslexiaโ€ and I would love for you to join me! 

Follow in my stories or on the highlight above!

#dyslexia #teading  #readingteacher #raiseareader #demystifyingdyslexia
View
Open
(Part 2) 

The series will be shared on IG stories, on tiktok, on the teachmama facebook page, and in the Take 5 newsletter. 

Look for the logo on social, and if you want to receive the whole thing via email, then sign up for Take5 on the link below. 

Iโ€™m really excited about this. Itโ€™s taken a long, long time to create, and the only thing I ask is that you, once viewing it all, could take 2 minutes to give me some feedback. There will be a google form on the last of the slides, at the end of the series. I thank you, I appreciate you, and I look forward to learning along with you.

Join the Take 5 list if you want this series to land in your inbox: 
https://take5.teachmama.com/

#raiseareader #demystifyingdyslexia #readingteacher teachersofIG dyslexia teachreading
View
Open
Hi and thank you for your interest in watching my โ€˜de-mystifying dyslexiaโ€™ series. 

My name is Amy Mascott, and Iโ€™m a reading specialist and former high school English teacher. Iโ€™m also the creator of teachmama.com  where since 2008, Iโ€™ve helped families make meaningful connections with their kids and build bridges between home and school. 

As an educator, Iโ€™m always trying to share important informationโ€”bc I really think that when we know better, we do better. This series is part of my final project for a course Iโ€™m taking through Advancement Courses called โ€˜understanding dyslexiaโ€™. 

And as a reading teacher, I need to know all I can about this condition. What I realized is that I had a lot to learnโ€”maybe you, as a parent or teacher yourself, can also stand to learn a little bit. 

Maybe, like me, youโ€™ve grown up thinking that dyslexia was a condition where people read letters backwardsโ€”b for d or p for g? Maybe you thought, like I did, that if a person was dyslexic, they saw all of the letters jumbled together on the page? Iโ€™m here to tell you that both of those things are untrue. 

So if you would like to learn a little about dyslexiaโ€”if you would like for me to โ€˜de-mystify dyslexiaโ€™ for you, then follow along! 

(Continued on next VIDEO)

#readingteacher #teachersofIG #demystifyingdyslexia

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