Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Orienteering? Spiral Scouts?

Anyone out there tried orienteering with their kids? My son is addicted to maps and the assessor that did his SBV stated that she could clearly see a passion for maps/directions because he pretty much ceilinged out on that subtest....he loves hiking and camping and he is starting up his own nature family hiking group in our area...and then I found out about orienteering. There is a group about an hour away that sets up monthly meets at state parks where anyone can participate. Would love to hear anyone's opinions if they have tried it? We have also been looking into something called Spiral Scouts (DS6 is too young for cubscouts and he said he would really like to join some kind of group like scouts) Anyone with an opinion on Spiral SCouts?

I completely forgot what it is called but you use a GPS and find treasures around the states..... I think it's called "_______ cache?"

There are a few spots online in our neighborhood for other families to find. In the cache, there are local maps, a reward, and a gift certificate to a local resteraunt. Darn, I just can't remember the site or name of the program.

It's Geo-cache, isn't it? (Not sure about the spelling...)

Oh have you touched on a subject near and dear to our hearts. We just drove half way across the country so my husband could participate in an orienteering meet. He's been orienteering for over 20 years. All of us have done it as a family and DS8 is getting close to being able to participate on his own. It's a great family activity and it's such a "geeky" crowd (in a good way! We fit right in). I highly recommend giving it a try. You need a compass and a whistle. I would start by letting him lead and you follow on an easy course. Courses are rated by color - white is the easiest, I believe.

Campfire is another option to scouts - I know their programs can start at kindergarten age. Both our kids will be participating in a new chapter soon.

Orienteering is a blast and its good exercise!!! Go for it!!

thanks guys for the comments - it just looked SO cool and there is a group less than an hour from us that does monthly meets....my son loves geocaching but it really doesn't use mapping skills...with geocaching you use you GPS and some hunting skills and look for hidden items in or around the GPS location. Orienteering is more like learning how to read a topographical map and you have a number of "way points" that you have to locate by using a compass and a topo map of the area. You have to think of the best route to get to each way point (which I think is marked with a special box flag with a special hole punch) and then you punch a special card you get at each way point in order on the course. You can be competitive and see how fast you complete a whole course by finding all the way points or you can just enjoy trudging around in the woods - for those that do it - I hope I explained it correctly? I think we will just head out next month and check it out!

I saw info on Campfire but the closest group is on the other side of Florida :-( Someone is locally looking at starting up a Spiral Scouts group and I just don't know a whole lot about it. With DS6's interest in nature, hiking and camping and the fact that he really has a hard time meeting others with his same interests, we had hoped to try to find more things/groups that would allow him to meet others.