Family Activities

My friend Tara gave a link to this new weblog, Simply A Mom. It sounds like it will have a bunch of activities that you can do with your kids and other helpful things.

Which got me thinking...I should write about what we do with our kids!

We definitely like to do fun activities with our children. But due to schedules, naptimes, budgets, etc., our activities can't be big complicated all day events. The things we tend to do are simple yet at the same time fun for both parents and kids. So here you go...our favorite activities:

1) Orienteering - If you enjoy hiking, then I think you'll love orienteering. It's like hiking...but with a purpose! Orienteering events usually take place in large parks, although they can also take place in urban settings. You start with a map and a compass. The map tells you the location of several 'controls'. You have to use the map to figure out the best way to get to each control.
There are usually several courses with differing levels of difficulty. When we go as a family, we usually do the easiest course. The easier courses are pretty much all on trails, so you don't have to go off road at all.
Here's why we think orienteering is a great family activity:

• We get to take a nice hike in a park - The shorter courses can range anywhere from 1 to 3 miles. For our kids, the 1 mile one was too short and the 3 mile one really tuckered them out. If the shortest course seems too long, there's nothing keeping you from just cutting it short and stopping midway.
• Finding the controls makes it interesting for the kids - On the easier courses, each control is not too far apart. So they get to do something fun at regularly spaced intervals. In addition, you don't really know the exact location of the control from the map. So you are given a clue sheet that tells you what to look for when you get in the general vicinity. So finding each control can be like a little game (although on the easiest courses, the controls for the most part are quite easy to find).
• Kids have fun using the map - Now, our kids are too young to actually be able to read the map. But they seem to love holding it and trying to navigate with it.
• Not too expensive - At our events, the cost is usually $9 for the family ($7 for the 1st adult, $2 for any additional adults, kids are free).
• Scores - At the events that we go to, they post the results on the internet. So when you're done, a few days later, you can go to the website and show your kids how well you guys did.
• Local - There are several nice parks in our area. So most of the orienteering events are not very far away.

How do you start? Well, first of all, you need to find an orienteering club in your area. Try going here and see if you can find one. Then just find out when they're having an event. Orienteering events are kind of a big deal to set up, so there usually aren't too many a year. We probably only get to do this 3 or 4 times a year.

2) Letterboxing - Think your kids would like trying to find a hidden treasure? Then maybe you should take them letterboxing. In letterboxing, you're given a clue to the location of a 'letterbox'. It will be hidden in a public area. Some clues are pretty direct ('follow the path 100 meters, look at the base of the large oak tree') while some require you to use your brain a little bit.

When you go letterboxing, you need to bring a couple of things with you. You'll need your own personal rubber stamp and a notebook to use a letterboxing journal (and a stamp pad would be helpful as well). Why? Because each letterbox contains its own rubber stamp and journal. The journal in the letterbox contains a history of everyone who has ever found the box. The idea is that when you find a letterbox, you take your rubber stamp and mark a page in the journal, adding yourself to the letterbox's history. Then you take the stamp from the box and mark your own journal, so that you can keep track of all the boxes that you've found.

How do you get started? First go someplace like this to read up on the basics of letterboxing. Then go to a letterboxing website and look for clues in your area. When you find one that sounds interesting, get your supplies together and go find it! Pretty simple. Keep in mind that sometimes, you won't be able to find a letterbox. Since they're in public places, they can go missing every once in a while. Because of this, it might be a good idea to start with ones that have been recently placed (the clue lists should also have the placement dates).

Our kids really enjoy this. They call it 'treasure hunting'. There's something that's just plain fun about following a clue and actually finding a hidden box nestled under some twigs behind a bush, or underneath a park bench, exactly where the clue said it would be.

This is actually also a great activity for long car trips. When you're planning a trip, take a look and see if there are any letterboxes along the way. Maybe there's one at one of the rest stops or at a small park that's not too far from the highway. Fun activities like this can really break up a long road trip.

So yeah, I highly recommend letterboxing. One of the nice things is that you can really do it anytime. You don't need to wait for a special event, just pack up and go. And if your family gets really into it, maybe another activity that you could do would be to create your own letterbox!

There are other activities that we like to do, I'll save those for another post. But these are 2 of our favorites.

Letterboxing

Last weekend, we took a family trip down to Grants Pass to see my dad. On Saturday, we went to the farmer's market at 11am and then went to lunch. We were going to meet up with my dad and his wife for ice cream at 1, so we had a little free time. I wanted to do something fun with the kids, so I thought we'd give letterboxing a try.

We had a great time! The idea is that you are given clues to find a hidden box. Some of the clues are pretty straightforward, and some require you to do a little bit of detective work. The hidden box contains a stamp and a notebook, and sometimes a stamp pad. When you go looking for the letterboxes, you bring a stamp and notebook of your own so that when you find the letterbox, you put your stamp in the letterbox notebook and the letterbox stamp in your notebook. That way, you can keep a journal of all of the letterboxes that you've found. And the person that letterbox itself will contain a journal of everyone that has found it.

The night before, I looked up a few letterboxes in Grants Pass. One of them was not far from the place where we had lunch. I told the kids that we were going Treasure Hunting. They got them interested. In the morning, we stopped at the store and purchased a couple of stamps for them (note: most letterbox hunters make their own custom stamps. Might be a fun project to do with the kids sometime). We drove down one of the downtown streets until it went into a residential area. A little ways in, there was a trailhead on the right. We parked and headed up towards it. The clue said to walk up the trail about 300 yards. 300 yards is not very far, but it is all uphill, so we had to listen to about 200 yards of Are-we-there-yet's. At one point, LilKat1 decided he was tired and wanted to sit. I told him that I thought the treasure was pretty close and he could sit and wait for Mrs. BigKat to catch up (she was lagging behind because a) she had worn flip-flops instead of shoes and b) she was carrying PrincessKat around in the backpack). LilKat2 wanted to keep up with me so we walked ahead. I only had to go up about 15 more yards before I saw the tree that we were looking for. I called down the hill, 'I think I found it!' and LilKat1 came running up at top speed.

The clue said that the box was hidden at the base of the tree. I carefully moved the pile of twigs and leaves that was mounded up there and sure enough, underneath everything was a small rectangular tupperware-like box. I brought it out to show the boys and they were so excited! We took out the contents of the box. There was a small homemade stamp made from an eraser, some old loose journal pages that had been written on by past letterboxers, and a half-filled journal. The boys stamped the handmade stamp into their notebooks and then put their stamps into the letterbox journal. It was interesting reading some of the past entries in the journal. People going back to 2003 had found the box and wrote about what a nice time they had hunting for it. A lot of them were doing it as a family, just as we were. Unfortunately, there was no pen in the letterbox and I had neglected to bring one of our own, so we weren't able to write our names in the journal page.

We started to head back, but LilKat2 wanted to keep going up the hill. He wanted to find more treasure. I told him that that was the only treasure there and that even if we kept going up the hill, we wouldn't find any more. He was a bit disappointed, but the thought of catching up with my dad to get ice cream made him happier.

This was a great family activity for us. The whole idea of following some directions to a secret location and actually finding a box where it says a box will be was really fun. We actually went out the next day and found 3 more letterboxes (and we brought a pencil with us this time!). I told the boys that there are a bunch of boxes around where we live, so they are very excited to do some treasure hunting in our town.