Why Orienteering is Awesome

Orienteering is a map navigation sport, so of course it's a mental challenge as well as a physical one. It takes you places outside where you would not otherwise go.

Orienteering is a great activity to do with children and families. Aside from the benefits of being active and outdoors, orienteering also provides and excellent context for parent-child or sibling bonding. It is also accessible to all ages and abilities, from those who are just learning to walk all the way through seniors in their 90s and beyond!

The nature of orienteering encourages participants to identify upcoming challenges and work out possible solutions in order to solve problems. This results in an open line of communication for groups participating together, and gives everyone a chance to learn something new while they're at it! On top of this, participants can spend some quality time travelling through nature, and often times will discover new sights or places, even in parks and forests they frequently visit.

Research on child development shows that sequencing and spatial reasoning skills can support better academic and life outcomes. For more on this, check out the summaries of research that we have prepared here.