Playing Outside!!

Remember when you were growing up?  Playing outside all day until someone called  "DINNER"?  Days spent at the soccer field, climbing trees, camping, playing kick the can or perhaps exploring your hometown parks? Kids and outdoor play are a natural combination, but, they are memories that many of today’s kids will not have without guidance.

"A typical U.S. child spends mere minutes a day on unstructured outdoor play versus more than seven hours in front of an electronic screen, according to the National Wildlife Federation. Research shows that spending time outdoors has a host of mental and physical health benefits, including:

• Decreased stress
• Improved physical fitness
• Better distance vision
• Reduced symptoms of ADHD" 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/minding-the-body/201308/helping-kids-connect-nature

So what can we do? How do we get them outside and off those screens and excited about nature? One idea that has been fun for us is Geocaching. It combines technology and the outdoor in a way kids will LOVE!!

According to the website  Geocaching 101
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

WANT TO START?  YOU CAN! RIGHT HERE IN DAKOTA COUNTY!! 
Go to this link
(www.co.dakota.mn.us/parks/Activities/Geocaching/Pages/default.aspx)

Here you will find coordinates for cache locations throughout Dakota County Parks. Once you have the coordinates for a cache, visit the park and try to find the cache using your GPS.

Do you want to read about great stories first? Here's a story from The Geocaching Blog:

Sometimes history sneaks up on you… while you’re trying to preserve the future. It happened to a group of geocachers clearing garbage from a roadside marshland just west of Calgary, Alberta. The geocaching event is called a CITO (Cache in Trash Out). The group cleans up geocaching friendly locations. They had already found and removed a room-sized carpet, a fractured row boat and a steel rope. The location they chose to help cleanup is a wild space frequented by migratory birds. Jean-Francois Cianci (known in the Geocaching word as Monkeyturtle) was headed back to the meeting area when his team decided to clean up one more patch of land

Go here to finish the story!!

Happy Geocaching and please comment here or send me an email (mgkinship@aol.com) if you do go and send PICTURES too!!

 

 

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