Giveaway: Enter to #win a Geomate Jr. geocaching unit!

My family loves spending time outside....hiking biking, playing at the park, or swimming at the pool.  It is important to me that they learn to appreciate nature and it forces them to turn off their video games for a while! I recently started getting into geocaching, which is like an outdoor treasure hunt with a handheld GPS and 'caches' that you hunt for. We have been using an app on my iphone for hunting but haven't had too much luck with the 'finding' portion of the adventure!  I started doing some research on kids and geocaching and came across a company called Apisphere that makes a hand held geocaching GPS unit specifically designed for KIDS.  I was thrilled when I was given the opportunity to review the Geomate Jr and show you just how easy it is to use!  If you have never heard of Apisphere or the Geomate Jr., here is some information about them from their website:

The easiest and quickest way to get in on the geocaching fun; just switch it on and be directed to your closest geocache! With over 250,000 pre-loaded cache locations covering all 50 U.S. states, you and your family could be out enjoying your own adventure before the packaging even hits the floor. Geomate.jr; the anytime, anywhere, work out-of-the-box family-friendly geocacher.

The Geomate Jr. is very easy to use. It uses 2 AAA batteries and fits very comfortably in the palm of your child's hand.  There is a convenient neck strap which I love...no dropping the unit on the ground or getting tired of carrying it and handing it off for mom to carry.  Geocaching is a very popular pastime and there is a great website HERE where you can put in your address or zipcode and find all the caches near you.  What I love about the Geomate Jr. is that the 250,000 preloaded caches include only those kid friendly ones that have been found recently.  That way, you know when you start off on your search that you won't be hiking through rivers or looking for a cache that isn't actually there.  This is a simple look at what geocaching with your kids can be like:

The Geomate Jr. offers an update kit that is sold separately so that if you want MORE geocache options (ones that are harder or located outside the US) you can upgrade.  Each geocache is given a 'code' and if you are looking for a specific cache and not the CLOSEST one, just scroll through till you find the right code.  The second on the screen is the next closest, the third is a little farther away, etc.  You can set a 'home' location so that you can always find your way back to your starting spot!  This is a very handy function!

So, how do you go about treasure hunting with this unit?  First, go outside where you have a clear view of the sky and turn the power button on.  (obviously, make sure you put the batteries in first!).  There is a 'signal' icon that will show you when the GPS has found a signal and how strong it is.  The number in the center of the screen is how many feet away your closest cache is located and the arrow on the circle is what direction you need to walk in to get there.  Once you find your cache, you can mark it as 'found' and move on to the next one. 

Remember, geocaching is a treasure hunt!  Your cache isn't just going to be sitting there on the ground in front of you!  It could be hidden under a park bench, in a cave, behind a rock, etc.  You are going to have to work for it a little bit! They will NOT be buried...one of those quirky rules of geocachers!

The screen on your Geomate Jr. contains lots of other useful info too.  It will tell you the 'find difficulty' (on a scale of 1 to 5), the size of the find (from thumbnail sized microcaches to those the size of a bucket!), terrain difficulty, satellite strength, etc.  All of this info can be found in the handy User Guide that Apisphere includes on their website! 

Remember, this is a treasure hunt...inside the cache you find will be a log book to sign and/or treasure trinkets to trade!  You can buy cute little 'geocoins' to trade or just put a tiny trinket of your choosing into the cache. Remember when you head out to bring your pencil and a little something to add to your cache when you find it!

Our geocaching experience was wildly successful!  First, we headed to Geocaching.com to figure out which direction to go.  Just put in your zip code and it will pull up all the closest caches.  Once we got to the park we headed out. 

There was a battle between the kids as to who got to hold it but my son won the first round!  My daughter used my iphone app to compare the two.

The first cache was hidden at the base of the tree.  It might look obvious in the photo but that was pretty hard to spot in the woods! 

Once the Geomate Jr. got us to 10 feet away, we just searched around until we found it! We signed the log book and left a little trinket for the next adventurers!

Our next journey was to a different park and my daughter got dibs on the Geomate Jr. this time! This one was harder to find.  We ended up using a 'hint' from my iphone ap that said to look for 2 fallen trees and it was under the tree.  These 'hints' can be found on the Geocaching.com website.

 

Overall, I loved this unit!  The GPS accuracy was much better than the one on my iphone app and it is very kid friendly!  The arrow that tells you which direction to go in was easy for my kids to follow. This is the first time we have every actually FOUND a cache and we have tried several times!  Throughout the geocaching process, my kids also learned about longitude, latitude, reading directions, converting feet to miles, etc.  See, learning CAN be fun!

A couple of improvements I might suggest would be to make it rechargeable and include some sort of 'hint' screen so if you are really having a hard time, you can cheat just a little!

The Giveaway: Apisphere has given me permission to give one of my readers a Geomate Jr. for themselves. Follow the entry methods listed below, one entry per method chosen unless otherwise stated.  Leave a separate comment for each entry. You must be 18 and older and a US resident to win.  Please make sure your email address is in your profile or in your comment so I can find you. I reserve the right to delete any comment that I deem inappropriate. Contest is open until midnight EST on July 29th, 2011  and the winner will be chosen using Random.org.

                        

Mandatory Entry:

Visit the Geomate Jr. website and tell me something you learned!

Bonus Entries:

1. Follow the sponsor on Facebook (Facebook in no way sponsors this giveaway, this method of entry is completely optional)

2. Follow Turning the Clock Back on Twitter and tweet this giveaway! Please mention @turningclockbac (You may tweet one time each day)

3. Follow Turning the Clock Back on Facebook.

4. Enter another one of my current giveaways. Leave a comment as to which one! (1 entry for each contest entered…leave separate comments for each entry!)

5. Subscribe to Turning the Clock Back via email

6. Put my button on your blog (2 entries) Tell me where to find it!

7. Blog about this giveaway on your blog AND leave a link back to my site. (5 entries!)

Disclaimer: As per FTC guidelines, I received one Geomate Jr unit in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation. All opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone.