Ah -- the videos are gone, so I can't comment on them, except reading the tones of others!
We take our kids in the cave. Airman's cave is fun. Telling everyone where it is will probably make it not fun. When we go to the cave with the little ones, we take our time talking about cave safety before we go in, our cave equipment, what it is for, why we have it, we talk about the cave itself, we talk about respecting the cave, we talk about the damage caused by others and how sad it is (and show evidence when we see it), and we study a map with a compass. We take our time looking for cave critters, which would otherwise be missed if you were just going through the cave "just to do it". We talk politely to others we meet (usually near the entrance) who don't have helmets, who don't all have lights (glowsticks maybe), who might drop candy wrappers, etc. We especially ask them (politely) to remove the glowsticks when then are finished, to not smoke in the cave, to not bring in candles, and certainly not to disrurb any bats (that they may have missed anyways). Getting the kids to find critters, if we are lucky, and having them help with lighting when taking pictures, gives them a great show-and-tell at school. Standing in front of their class, pictures in hand, they talk about the cave experience, how they found small interesting things, and what they have learned about how caves are special and how we should protect them. There are good oohs and ahhs when they show pictures of scorpions and spiders. It's clear that this special hands-on experience (or 'hands-and-knees-on' experience) is more memorable that just looking at pictures in books, or walking past the entrance of the cave and not being able to go in, should it become gated. That would be sad, and some good education would suffer! Piers Hendrie Crime Scene Tools www.UVflashlights.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
