One of the things that my sons have a tendancy to NOT like about homeschooling, is the fact that they never really get a “vacation”. Although this year they have had more of a vacation from school than any other year. Mostly because they’ve been spending a lot of time at my mom’s house, getting spoiled rotten, and not having to do anything educational.

I know that the summer is often times when everyone else takes a vacation, and goes places. Certainly us homeschoolers aren’t much different. Although we are able to take our vacations when ever we want to… sometimes that can mean summer time too!

Whether you take vacation or not, summer is the best time to get out and about in the world, and do things outside. One of our family’s favorite things to do is Geocaching. If you don’t know what it is, this is like a treasure hunt, with a GPS unit as your map. Basically what you do, is go to their website, membership is free, and find the caches in the area where you want to go (or nearest you), put the waypoints into your gps unit, and then go hunting.

Most of the caches are small, such as 35mm film canisters or altoid mint tins. They don’t have anything in them other than a paper that you’re supposed to fill out saying you were there. Some of the caches are large enough to hold things, like little toys or survival items. These you can take, as long as you put something else in the cache for trade. Of course, this is the things my sons like the best, but I’ve gotten some pretty nice trinkets as well.

The main educational thing about Geocaching is the exploring you get to do. Whether it’s around your neighborhood, or mountains, or the new city you’re traveling in, these caches give you a reason to explore the area. Some of the places we’ve gone to over the years have been beautiful and interesting. You will certainly get to see the area in a completely new way, even if you’ve lived there your entire life.

We went to the mountains today, mostly to get out of the heat. It’s been getting over 110 here in Las Vegas, so anyplace where it’s a little bit cooler is welcomed. Mount Charleston is the nearest mountain to us. We didn’t go all the way up to the city itself, but we got up high enough to get out of the heat. And after we had lunch we went Geocaching.

Certainly is a good work out, to go trapsing through the wilderness. Freash air, cool breezes, and fun. I recommend this activity to anyone, not just homeschoolers, but everyone!

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