Hello there, lovely people!
I’m excited to share with you another post from our Present Family series!
My sweet friend, Ashley, wrote her take on it yesterday–be sure to go visit her!
As we were talking about our post this month, we both felt like one of the hardest obstacles to creating fun with your kids is the rainy/cold season. Everyone’s inside for waayy too long & in the teeny-tiny moments when the sun comes out, someone’s probably too sick to bundle up and head outside.
We thought a treasure/scavenger hunt might be the perfect solution for our little ones suffering from the wintertime blues.
And the talented Ashley just whipped these bad boys up for us to use. You can download the treasure maps on her site for free!
I so wish you could have seen the look on Mr. Grayson’s face when I told him we were going on a treasure hunt.
Ava pretty much got pumped because her big brother appeared quite thrilled, and after they read the first clue–they were off.
My babies are 5 and 2, so I kept our clues pretty simple. I wanted Ava to semi-help, but you can make your clues as advanced as you’d like.
Grayson sprinted through the house, gathering clue after clue, while Ava officially became the “clue collector”….
After finding “the big round thing in the living room,” it was time for the last spot….”a seat that does more than sit.”
X marked the spot for a batch of cookies–our kiddos don’t get much free sugar in this house, so they were pretty excited to find homemade cookies waiting on them.
Grayson was a little confused–“we get to eat them before dinner tonight??”
Gotta keep them on their toes, you know.
This was such a fun activity for us to do together–and so simple for me. I think many times we don’t pull out the fun stuff because it’s so time consuming, and because we think about all the other stuff we have to do.
But 30 minutes and a lot of squeals are definitely worth a little effort.
We hope you’ll find ways to use these treasure maps with your little ones, too! Be sure to share with us if you do!
LOVE this idea and your kiddos looked like they had a ball! I am totally going to do this with my 2 youngest ( 8 and 7 ). I also love the homemade cookies as the treasure! Thanks for sharing Shaunna.
What a great idea! I love how you keep them on their toes. Too funny!
I love this idea! It’s fun and it gets them thinking. Thanks for sharing, my boys will love it.
Shauna, my kids are adults now, but this brought a smile to my face. We used to have birthday present treasure hunts (adults too!) in our house, a tradition I learned from my late father when I was young. I never thought to do one when time was long and ideas were running out. Such fun. My “kids” still talk about those and sometimes when it comes around to my or my husband’s birthday, we go back in time and they have prepared a treasure hunt for us! Ann
Awe how fun! so sweet. LOVE the big x at the end! ;} Cheers, friend!
Such a sweet idea and the looks on on their faces had to have made it so worthwhile!
My kids are 22, 20,18, & 15 and I too do this for them but I do it at Christmas time. When they wake up Christmas moring, there isn’t a present under the tree, just the first clue. As they find the clues, they find a present for someone. They have to bring the present to the tree and go onto the next clue. This year, my 20 year old recruited her boyfriend to help. The clues aren’t just in the house though, I have them all over the property and they even take them to our neighbors house. They love it and we create some great memories.
I’m sure you’re kids are going to be asking daily for another hunt. Be prepared. lol
Very cute! Thanks for sharing! The printables are adorable {better get over to HMH to thank her!}
And do you seriously have a trampoline INSIDE your beautiful home?? My kids would pretty much go bananas over that! how fun 🙂
(Colleen)@PaRtY of 5!
This is so sweet..and I don’t just mean the cookies at the end of the hunt. Wish I would have done this… 45 years ago.. But can do it now for the grand kids….and my one great grand-daughter….Fun idea
I want to know about the trampoline too!! Not that I have kids or anything but you have got to be the most awesome mom ever!!
This is such a neat idea I will be making maps for my grand-kids. Thanks
This is such a cute idea!! I have bestowed a little award for you! Come visit my blog for more info on it!
-Anna
shinelikeglitter.blogspot.com
Fantastic idea!! We have always done this for our “Easter Hunt” but to just do it because….that really is FUN!!
These cards are adorable! My daughter always asks if we can play the “treasure hunt game”. Because she can’t read yet, I draw pictures for the clues. She loves it!
OMG! My son’s 5th bday party is this weekend, my husband is out of town, it won’t stop snowing and I have NOTHING prepared. I’m so thankful for people like you who share their “treasures”.
I hope I have time to laminate these cards so we can use them again!
Cheers,
Tiffany