Pirate Treasure Hunt

As I said at the end of my last post, this activity is a variation of the obstacle course and uses some of the same principles.

At pre-school, my oldest learned about pirates and came home with a pirate hat and a telescope (a colored paper towel roll). I was a little surprised that she, being a girl, was so excited about being a pirate. Since then, she has been talking about pirate treasure and making treasure maps. We happen to have a box that we sometimes use as a treasure box. So, I told the girls I would make them a treasure map and hide the treasure box. Because this was a semi-spur-of-the-moment idea. I didn't put anything special in the treasure box, it is just filled with different games and activities because that is where I store them. But, in the future, I could include fun treasures in the box: some of their favorite toys, a special treat, or even something new for them to discover.

Anyway, I've included the map I drew for this certain occasion. Don't laugh at it! The reason I'm posting my map is to show you that you don't have to be an artist to do something fun for your kids. As you can plainly see, I can't draw. My kids don't read yet, so I have to draw pictures of what I want them to do. I am (just barely) capable of drawing things that are recognizable to my kids. I did have to explain a couple of things to them, but once they saw what I was trying to draw, they immediately knew where they needed to go and what they needed to do.

Here is an explanation of my map:

Step 1: Start in the brown bathroom, which is my bathroom because the seat cover happens to be brown. (I know it sounds gross, but that is how my kids differentiate between our bathrooms.

Step 2: Go to mommy's room. My favorite color is yellow, and at our house, when my kids draw pictures of us it is always in our favorite color. So anytime that a person is drawn in yellow, it represents me. Then I drew a bed with a blue blanket, which is what color my quilt is on my bed.

Step 3: Go down the hall. This is a simple drawing of the way our hallway looks with an arrow to show which way to go.

Step 4: Go to the piano room and play 5 notes on the piano. I've drawn piano keys and five music notes. They had to count how many notes were drawn in the picture so they could play the right amount.

Step 5: Go around the kitchen table 5 times. Pretty simple, once they knew that picture was of a table.

Step 6: Go down the stairs, and X marks the spot.