Setting up a treasure hunt is always a great way to engage homeschool students in a physical and mental activity. The clues give their brain just as intense a workout as the actually running around to find the treasure does to their bodies. If your children love going on treasure hunts they are going to love geocaching.
What is Geocaching?
As per their website 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. These hunts are taking place all the time and all over the world. Just punch in the coordinates you are at to locate the closest treasure and get hunting!
Benefits of Geocaching for Homeschool Students
There are a number of concepts that a homeschool student can learn as they hunt for a geocashe in the real world. The first would be mastering how to use a GPS. This will make them familiar with the shape of the Earth, longitudes and latitudes, and how exactly satellites help make GPS work. Besides all this theoretical knowledge they would also get a chance to actually implement what they learn by way of hunting for a geocache.
Most geocaches are located in areas away from cities and usually involve a hike. This can also be made into a combined group outing with friends and family. Also when you take a geocache you have to leave behind a replacement of greater value. This can be a good brain storming exercise when you find the container. Writing about the whole experience in the cashe log is also helpful in getting the homeschool students to express themselves.
After finding a few geocaches they can even plan to set up one of their own. Going through the process of deciding what the container will be and where it will be hidden is also a good exercise in logistics and planning. Submitting it to the website and finding out that another person has traced what you had hidden generates its own excitement. That is why geocashing is a great teaching tool for homeschool students.
