Visual Treasure Hunt for Children

The idea for this game came about this spring when I was on vacation with my wife's family.  We were all staying in a big rental house and at one point the seven kids that were there were all bored and looking for something to do. 

The first thing that popped into my head was a treasure hunt.  I recall my sister making these for me when I was younger.  There would be a written clue, which would lead to the next clue, and the next, and so on until you found the 'treasure' at the end.

The only problem with this is that of the group of kids I was dealing with, only one was really old enough to read and understand written clues.  So that wasn't going to work. 

My first solution was to sketch out a floor plan of the main floor of the house.  I hid a bunch of treasure (Pokemon cards) all over and put x's on the map where they could be found.  That was better, but even a map was beyond some of the kids. 

Then I realized I could just take pictures of the treasure locations with my camera and show them to the kids.  That worked perfectly.  The idea is easy to implement and enough fun to keep kids busy for hours.

Step 1 Tools and Materials

You really only need two things for this game.  Treasure you can hide, and something you can use to take a picture of the hiding place.

There's tons of treasure sitting around you right now.  The first time I did this I used a stack of Pokemon cards one of my nephews had sitting around.  Later at my in-laws I used some playing cards.  My son thought it was fun to take some of his small Lego models and break them apart and hide the pieces.  Anything relatively small and easily hidden that you've got a bunch of works great.  Just in case things get lost in the shuffle you might not want to hide anything important like the family diamonds or grandma's anti-seizure medication.

Comments

[Xthinker]

For the older kids, you can use scrabble pieces placed throughout the house, when they find them all the pieces spell could spell something. Maybe where the gift is located Muahahahaha!!!

[soffio]

Great idea, I'll try next sunday :-)

[Mplinnc]

Doese he have pants on?

[gabebillings]

Probably not.  He's a big fan of running around in his underwear.

[bananasplit]

Great idea! I'll try this soon. Thanks for sharing.

[loppy96]

cute kid

[gabebillings]

If only he weren't perpetually running around in just his underwear.

[loppy96]

yeah we all go through that stage