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.

Orange Flag started in the spring of 2022 with two families, one borrowed compass and a photocopied plan of the park behind a school in Dainiai. The children found every flag in forty minutes and wanted more. The parents realised, with some embarrassment, that they could not reliably tell a hill from a hollow on paper. We have been fixing that ever since, one Sunday a month and more often when the weather is kind.

We are not a club and have no plans to become one. There is no membership, no fee, no ranking and nothing to join: there is a group chat, a box of flags in somebody's garage and a rota for who sets the next course. A couple of us ran at proper events years ago and most of us never have, which turns out to be exactly the right mix for walks with beginners.

The courses are set in the pine forests south and west of the city and, when cars can be shared, among the hills and lakes of Kurtuvėnai Regional Park. We keep to public forest, stay out of the protected reserve areas and collect every flag and scrap of tape the same day. The notes here are what we have learned about teaching map reading to children, and to ourselves, written up by whoever set that month's course.