Today, I’m excited to share more of our Present Family series with you guys! For those of you who are just now tuning in, be sure to click on the link above to take you to our past segments in this series.
I don’t know about you awesome people, but we have issues around here with what I like to call the doldrums of winter. As if they aren’t hard enough feeling a bit trapped indoors, my children were sick almost all winter, the past two winters. The voms. The snots. You name it. A.GO.NY. I’m a homebody, but it can be tough to break the whole cabin fever thing when the natives start growing restless.
So we decided to come up with a little something for them to do, that’s actually pretty easy in the comfort of our own homes. We did this all the time when I was little, with my family and I loved it. We had a treasure hunt around our house.
Treasure hunts never get old, because they change every time. And they can always end with some fresh loot of your choosing. You could take it to any degree you want, from dressing them up as pirates, to simply letting them hunt down the mystery in their pajamas. You can also adjust the difficulty for the age and ability level of the child. I designated the prize, and from there, printed out these little maps for clues.
The first clue tells them where to look for the second, the second where to look for the third, and it works as a chain reaction kind of thing from there. My oldest just started reading, so I tried to keep them simple. {I had to help him through some of it, and my just turned four year old was depending on me to read it-so this is totally doable with younger children who are interested.} I also thought it was good to leave clues, rather than telling them the next place to go. To exercise those sweetly brillz brains of theirs. Malone really could have cared less, but we were running from location to location, and that was fun for him. Their clues ranged anywhere from what mommy drinks every morning {yes, it is coffee, though sometimes she needs something a little stronger…} to where daddy sleeps at night {no, it’s not on the couch.} Where we dry the laundry…what Emerson puts in her hair, etc. The possibilities really are endless!
The best part was when they found their prizes. Punch Ball Balloons. Sometimes, life just doesn’t get much better than the simple joy of repeatedly slamming air filled latex over your siblings’ bodies. And then they wanted another treasure hunt…
Would you like to do this with your kids on a boring, doldrum kind of day? You can print these little maps out, here on our downloads page! You’ll also be able to find this post in our freebies section. {treasure map}
Please let us know if you use these! You know we’d love to see!
Marisa says
Such a great idea! This would have been great last week when we were snowed in with the power out. Flashlight hunt!
Julie says
Cute idea š We’ve done this for special announcements & parties. Love the little map print-outs!
Betsy says
Love this! Thank you for the idea and the printable.
Christine says
Wonderful! I’m planning this for Saturday morning. THANK YOU.
jessica@fourgenerationsoneroof says
Very cute idea! Thank you for the printable š
Melissa An says
Love this! Great idea!
shaunna says
SO fun & sweet!!! I love those maps–you did such a great job on them!
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shaunna
Sonja says
For the past 3 years, I have been surprising my husband, of 32 years, with a surprise each month on the date we were married. I’m thinking he/we could have a lot of fun with this idea some month! Can I make his clues REALLY difficult?!!! š
Linda says
I like this idea very mcuh. Maybe pictures could be used for the children who are not reading yet. Thanks for sharing the idea. Take care.