Little man’s Omi and Opi made a treasure box (with a few gold coins inside) and they had the great idea to make a treasure hunt. I buried the box in the garden and made a treasure map for E to find.
The map was fun to do, I drew some ‘landmarks’ from our garden onto a plain piece of paper with crayon. The little blue cubby house, the fish pond, the bird bath, the lemon tree and the white ladder. I rubbed the paper with a cold, wet teabag and then scrunched it up. Then I burnt the edges with a lighter. It does have that old, worn, pirates treasure map look about it.
It was a fun little activity, he followed the dotted lines on the map until he found the X, where there was a spade in the dirt. He dug up the box and when he opened it I think he was a little disappointed to find real money in there, he can’t play with that, or eat it. He would have been way more excited if there was some chocolate! Despite that, it was really fun and we’ll do it again. Maybe even in the house since we have a lot more rainy days ahead.
I LOVE this so much!! I always wanted to go on a real treasure hunt as a child and even, would you believe, made up my own maps to ‘discover’ when my little friend came round, leading us on a merry dance around the garden and house, trying to keep said friend distracted whilst I begged mum to put some drinks and biscuits in my room to make it look like that was the treasure!! Am so inspired that you did this for E and also, that my little A is perhaps not too young for such adventures after all