“Never-Eat-Soggy-Wanton” was printed on our trainer’s Tshirt.
It sure left an impact on Boon Wee, Daddy hopes Boon Wee will remember his North-East-South-West topo (orienteering) skills.
We were invited to one of People’s Association (PA) parent-child course last Saturday. Named “Amazing Duo”, participants get to learn about navigation with compass and map.
As the course was designed with family in mind, it provides an opportunity for Daddy to bond with Boon Wee.
Whenever Daddy drives, Boon Wee is the one keying in the GPS destinations. Boon Wee understands that if we follow the GPS turn-left turn-right instructions, we will get to our destination. But what if our GPS breaks down or there is no GPS signal?
Daddy thought PA’s orienteering workshop will help Boon Wee to understand more about navigation, and pick up a life skill.
Orientation is easy for adults (well, for most guys :p ) as we can understand the concept and have a better sense of direction. Daddy purposely kept quiet when Boon Wee is navigating. We are curious to find out about his confidence in navigating.
More importantly, Boon Wee knows it is ok to make mistakes, we want our kids to be brave enough to take the first step (out of their comfort zone).
“Amazing Duo” was a fruitful event to help Boon Wee learn the fundamentals of navigation.
Let us share more about the fun activities.
Our trainer Sebastian (from Build N Grow), started the day with some ice breaking activities.
We played Dragon, Elves and Wizard (improvised from scissors-paper-stone), tring to decimate the opposite camp.
After we have warm up, we started our navigation course with cones and a map.
Kids need to study the “map”, identify the location of “coloured” cones.
Working as a pair, parent and child need to go to different checkpoints (cones) in sequence. The kids were dashing to snare the fastest timing, leaving the poor parents struggling behind to catch up haha.
Video : Running circles around the Cones
As we progress, the cones become more challenging too. One person has to shout the instructions “BLUE one, BROWN one” while the other dash to check-in at the cones.
By now, everyone knows the importance of “holding” the map in the correct orientation.
If orientation is wrong, cones position will be wrong.
Next, throw in a compass and North-East-South-West (NESW), and kids will get a little bit disoriented (pardon the pun).
Navigation’s first tip is always to know our North (Hands point towards North).
The compass’ bearing allow us to identify the direction of our checkpoints.
If we are still reading the map upside down, it means we are still confused about orientation, and will definitely lose our way.
Kids get to practice their new skills at Bishan Park, reading their map, identifying the route to the next checkpoint, all in a safe environment. Through a few tasks and encouragement, kids build up their confidence.
Daddy took the opportunity to remind Boon Wee to pay attention during briefing sessions.
He has a short attention span and could miss out some crucial details during briefing.
In fact, we hit our first obstacle pretty quick.
In his eagerness to complete the navigation task, Boon Wee miss one step, and all the subsequent checkpoints became “inaccurate”.
Lesson learned, it is always better to be careful than to be the fastest.
The final test for us would be to navigate and find a few checkpoints in Bishan Park under 50mins.
The navigation skills which Boon Wee picked up will be useful when he is traveling overseas. It was very fulfilling to witness Boon Wee’s confidence grows, as he hunt down the checkpoints.
We would like to thanks People’s Association for providing an opportunity for father and son to learn a new skill together. For more fun holiday activities, do pop by PA’s website.
We have been declared the Most Calm Duo! Daddy thought maybe we look too idle relaxed?
Click on link if you wish to find our more about Bishan Park (longkang fish) or basic GPS tips. Checkout Jbabies‘s experience too.
Pop by our Fanpage album for more Fun photos on Orienteering day itself.
** disclaimer. A fee was received for this blog post.