Hello wise ones!

I want to begin teaching basic navigation to my son and nephew, who are 5 and almost 5. I'm looking for your ideas on how best to do that.

Right now they play with compasses searching for pirates and bad guys. They also enjoy using a compass and basic map to find our general direction when we're hiking. One of their favourite games is when I ask them to find something using the compass and the four basic compass points. (i.e. bring me the ball from the North corner of the backyard.)

I want them to have fun and learn but I don't want to overload them or go beyond their comprehension. My main goal is to get them thinking about where they are so that they are more aware of their location and surroundings.

Do you have any other ideas?
Thank you!

Good question. I didn't start my kids that young (my bad), but I would guess that a scavenger hunt type thing might work. Give them a heading in the back yard/where ever, when they get there and find the thingy you have previously placed there, it will give them a heading to the next one. I wouldn't get too tricky with the headings, keep it simple, and have a prize at the end...

My sentiments exactly....KISS it for them.....If they like the 'North corner' of the yard....try giving them NW SE type of directions too....

Don't overload them.....always 'leave' them wanting more so that they WANT to 'come back' and learn more.

Take them out for lunch or dinner, let the one with the best time pick the restaurant. Or what to have for dinner at home.

This way the exercise is fun for all of them and they all get to enjoy the reward.

"...let the one with the best time pick the restaurant..."

In that case, you'd better like Chuck E Cheese...

In that case, you'd better like Chuck E Cheese...

My son’s 18 so I haven’t been there in a few years, I remember the pizza being good, but it was noisy with all those kids.

Geocaching???

Yup...

I see some truly great ideas posted here.

Someplace between what you're doing now and geocaching. I would suggest they draw a map of the back yard using compass bearings from the back door stoop, to locate everything within the backyard.

Good luck with an outstanding endeavor!!

Maybe starting a geocache series for kids could be fun. Regular size conatiner (or bigger), kid friendly swag, D1/T2 max (or whatever you may find suitable) and no hides above 3 feet (within the reach so the kids can retrieve it alone) could be fine. That way other parents could contribute and participate in the process of teaching navigation to children. In our region a thing like this was done for a bicycle tour. It worked pretty well.
There are portable sundials. They fit into a shirt pocket and can be adjusted to your latitude. I own a brass one with a diameter of about 2 1/2". They show the time and north at the same time (teaching different ideas of "north" can be done here). That can help to get a concept of telling the time by the position of the sun. Later it may help to teach about the seasons and even start on celestial navigation. Celestial navigation would be strictly optional and beyond their comprehension now. The sundial is also available as a carton model set ( sundial ). Building it and using it may be some fun. I own that one too. It´s pretty accurate but the kids will need some supervision and maybe help for building it. The series has some other educational items to build from carton. They really work and building them helps to understand how they work.

I'm astonished that no one else sees this!

BURIED TREASURE MAP!

Give them one to find the treasure. This should be good for many variations.

Then have them make their own map when they re-bury it.

Then have one make a map and see if the other can follow it.



Arrrrr! Yer'll have 'er sunk to the gunnels with tons 'a fun!

It finally came to me... Orienteering ???

Thanks for the great suggestions and links everyone. As always, there's a wealth of awesome ideas around here! Scavenger Hunts, sundials, geocaching, orienteering, cartography, burried treasure.... Thanks for helping me take it to the next level!

Geocaching is something that I want to find out more about. Am I right in my assumption that it's GPS driven? I don't own and have never used a GPS. Any suggestions on how best to get started?

When my son & daughter were younger in Cub/Girl Scouts I did a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey using a compass.

Put the "donkey" on a wall - I just used a post-it. That is the target.

Teach the child to point the compass at the target and turn the dial until the needle is boxed.

Put a sheet over the child.

Turn the child around telling some cool story about them getting stuck in a fog or snow storm and such.

With the sheet still on and leaving the compass dial alone, have them rotate their body until the needle is once-again boxed.

Then have them follow the direction of arrow while holding another post-in out in front of them ... until they hit the wall with the target (the donkey).

They seemed to enjoy it.

I also have a 5 YO and have been doing these things for two years, since he was 3 years old.

He has lots of toy compasses and I use those and my own when we play together. Just watching the needle move and teaching him to box North. This gets them comfortable with them. Kids use toys for such a short period of time until the next great toy unless the parent reintroduces to them all the time and shows interest in it.

I personally enjoy maps and have lots around the house for my area. I put them out on the table and on the map I show where we live and where grandmas and school and Toy R Us and the movie theater and his favorite park. We plan errands on maps using stickers and when we reach a destination we draw a line like connect the dots.

At 5 its hard to just get Left and Right down for directions let along N,S,E,W. So its best to continuously tell them in the morning, "The sun rises in the east." At twilight, The sun sets in the west. Then when walking around at those times of the day ask, "Where is east or Where is west."

In a few weeks I'm thinking about playing a trick on the Scouts in my son's troop. They are biking to a local park for a weekend campout. We'll be driving the majority of their gear there since most don't have what it takes to haul it on their bikes.

Anyway, I was thinking of grabbing some of their Saturday evening desert fixin's, boxing them up to be safe from racoons (no bear here), hiding each patrol's desert ingredients in a different location withing the park, handing them a topo map with the location marked (big red X), and then tell them to go find it ... while suggesting that they can use a compass to help find their way there. Most of them don't know the park well at all.

Most of the boys think GPS's are cool (which they are), find geocaching fun (which it is), but want little to do with maps or compasses (sigh).

"...Any suggestions on how best to get started?..."

You can look here and here for some info...

These are great! Thanks OBG!

We should add a page to the Survival for Kids section on ETS, and include all these ideas and all the others we have for kids!

One children's(*) game is to get two maps at different scales. Pick a random location on one, write down its grid reference, then find the same grid reference on the other. Hours of fun. (In the UK we have marvellous Ordnance Survey maps with a standard grid; I presume the US has an equivalent.)

http://xkcd.com/201/ describes another game.

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(*) - OK, I've not actually seen children playing this. Or anyone other than me.