Map walks for families · Šiauliai · since 2022
Turn the map to fit the ground, then walk.
An informal family orienteering circle in Šiauliai: map walks in pine forest and the Kurtuvėnai hills, contours, homemade flags and a first night course.
We are a loose circle of families in Šiauliai who draw simple orienteering maps, hang homemade flags in the forest and walk the courses together, so that children and parents learn to read the ground side by side.
This month's course: the notes as controls
Oldest note first, the way a course is walked. Each circle is one write-up by whoever set that course.
- Start at the car park, map set to the ground
- Code 31 · Map readingReading contours in the Kurtuvėnai hills: knolls, hollows and spursWhy the flat pine forest near Šiauliai teaches paths and the Kurtuvėnai hills teach contours, and the exercises that finally made the brown lines make sense.
- Code 38 · CoursesHomemade control flags and clue sheets that children can actually readHow we sew orange and white flags, write codes and simple clues, hang controls where they can be found, and collect every single one before we drive home.
- Code 45 · ChildrenDrills for children: star courses, line walks and a thumb on the mapThe short exercises that turned our children into map readers: setting the map, thumbing along, star courses from a single base and following a drawn line.
- Code 52 · NightOur first night course: head torches, reflective tape and very short legsHow we set a first night course in the pine forest near Šiauliai in November: short legs, reflective flags, big handrails, children in pairs, a warm car park.
- Finish when every flag is back in the box
Seven colours, taught one at a time
Every orienteering map uses the same colours for the same things. We teach them in this order, over about a year.
- BlackPaths, tracks, fences, boulders and anything built. Children learn black first, because they can see it.
- BrownContours and landforms: knolls, hollows, banks. Five metres of height between one line and the next.
- BlueLakes, ditches and marshes. Around Kurtuvėnai a blue line is often the best handrail on the map.
- YellowOpen land, fields and clearings: the places where you can see a long way in every direction.
- WhiteOrdinary forest that is easy to walk through. White on the map is good news for short legs.
- GreenThicket and undergrowth. The darker the green, the slower the going, so we route round it.
- PurpleThe course itself, printed over the map: a start triangle, numbered circles and a double-ringed finish.
What lives in the flag box
- Twenty homemade flags, orange and white, with reflective strips
- Clue sheets in plastic sleeves, one per child
- Crayons for summer, rubber letter stamps for frost
- A whistle for every child, and three blasts means come to me
- Tick remover, plasters and a small first-aid kit
- The list of who is out on the course, ticked back in at the base
- Head torches and spare batteries from November
- A bag of spare hats and gloves, and a flask
Our year
- Apr – Jun
- Star courses and line walks in the school park and the pine forest
- Jul – Sep
- Contour courses in the Kurtuvėnai hills, bracken permitting
- Oct
- Longer courses in the first frosts, and the last tick checks
- Nov – Feb
- Two night courses a winter, and map walks in the snow