GROWING MINDS: Treasure Hunts

I have such fond memories of treasure hunts in my child hood. One summer my brother and I woke up to find that my dad had devised a humongous treasure hunt for us to do while he was at work. It was amazing! It was all over the house and outside over four acres of land. We had to use a compass for some clues and I think one of the clues was frozen into a block of ice that we had to figure out how to melt. We even had to dig for the treasure which was a note from my dad saying that the real treasure was the experience we had working together and discovering new things. The joy is in the journey and the material things in life aren’t important. And there was a silver dollar for each of us, which was totally awesome at the time.

The picture below is my parents’ back yard. Wouldn’t you love to go on a treasure hunt through a wild willow grove like that?

I remember my uncle Damon creating a treasure map for me and my cousins and making up this story behind the treasure and the map. I can’t quite remember the story, but I remember totally believing every word. I thought it was real treasure and a real map! He took us out to some big rocks that were perfect for climbing around on out in the middle of nowhere and we had to figure out where the treasure was. It was a big bag full of arcade tokens and he then took us to the arcade to play games with him. It was awesome!

This is a picture of a map my grandma made of her house and land. Don’t you just love the creative names she uses? She holds a cousin camp every year with loads of activities and crafts and games for all her younger grandchildren. She is amazing. You can make a map look old and worn by crumpling up paper so much that it becomes kind of soft and leathery. You can also burn the edges for an even older look. Or just draw the map onto some other kind of material like leather, a paper bag, or wood. My grandma made this map with out of a paper bag. She cut it into the shape she wanted and drew on it with markers. Then she crumpled it and got it wet. Then She smoothed it out, let it dry, stained it with instant coffee (you could also use strong tea or light brown paint brushed or rubbed on and off.) Then she got an old rag and oiled the finished map very lightly and put it between paper towls to soak up the excess. Voila…a very cool treasure map!

Not only did my grandma make this cool treasure map, but she had a whole quest planned out. The cousins had to follow the clues in a little book and find treasures that were all around the property in order to save grandma, who was taken captive by the “Evil Witchypoo.” As part of the quest they had to fight a dragon (a stuffed dragon hanging from a tree), fight off horned devils ( the goats they had at the time), find the skeleton of the ancient kind (made from cut out pieces of foam core board), and find the flag of the king ( a pillow case on a broom handle). They also had to fight off a giant (my cousin Brick who is close to my age and very tall and buff). They found painted rocks in the sand box and edible treasures along the way to sustain them. At the end, grandma crowned them all and gave them badges of honor (cardboard circles with their names on string). I wasn’t able to get any pictures of that day, but next time I visit my grandma I will take a picture of the dragon. It is pretty cool.

I recently made a quick, easy treasure hunt for my little cousins. I just wrote out clues and hid them in the correct order around the house. If you decide to make a treasure hunt, try to challenge the kids. Don’t make the clues too hard, but give them a little challenge. Make it simple if they are little and more difficult with for older kids. The treasure doesn’t need to be anything expensive or fancy. Most kids will be happy with whatever it is. The bigger the treasure it is, the more it says, “ treasure is what it is all about.” You want the experience to be what they cherish and remember.