#75 Go On A Treasure Hunt

Go On A Treasure Hunt:

There are all kinds of treasure hunts you can create for spending time with your child, and they range from kindergarten to high school. If you are looking to create time with your 1^st grader, you can create a treasure hunt in your home on a cold winter’s day with ease. At the same time, there are many tools and sites out there that allow you to create elaborate treasure hunts for time with your high schooler and various ways to have treasure hunts at any age.

Regardless of age, the idea is simply for you to create an “adventure” for them that sends either your child or both of you looking for items or one item. You can create clues that all lead to one prize at the end, or you can search for various things with points assigned or something like that.

Maybe the best way to go about this if you have an older child (maybe middle school or high school) is to ask someone to set up the treasure hunt for you so that you and your child are on the hunt together.

The object of this idea is not to give you step-by-step instructions but to give you the plan as well as provide some tools and resources. Use your creativity and make this time unique and meaningful. The more creativity you allow, the more memorable you (and they) will find it.

WMTDS (What Makes This Date Special):

If you create the treasure hunt for them, it shows them that you care enough about them to invest time so that they can have fun. It may be a subtle thing that you might not pick up on, but that “behind the scenes” kind of love goes a long way with them. Think of it like making dinner for them, you may not think of that as telling them you love them, but it conveys that very message. This does the same thing. They see and appreciate the time you put into something creative that shows them you love them regardless if they are seven or 17.

How You Can Use It To Help Others:

I promise there is a child or a ton of kids that would love to play with someone. It may be that there are kids in your neighborhood that would like to play with the two of you or a specific community of kids that would be naturally drawn to a game of soccer. If you need to purchase a ball for your sport, you could always buy two and donate one or both of them to a child which could make their day!

Teachable Moments:

Research

Teamwork

Logistics

Variations:

Everyone likes adventure to some degree. Use your child’s personality and make this the best date for them possible. Think about your child’s interests and passions and use them in the search. If your child loves to read, make the hunt about books. If your child loves animals, involve animals.

A great way to spend time with kids is to create a treasure hunt for them

Expense:

You could do this date for free if you wanted to, no costs are needed. If you have the budget for it, you could have a monetary prize, invest money in the adventure or purchase tickets to something if it makes sense

Planning:

It simply depends. If you are doing this for an elementary-age child, no preparation is essential unless you want to make it super creative. If you are planning the adventure for your (older) child, the more planning and preparation you put into it the better it will be, or you can ask someone to plan the date for you so that you and your child can take part and if that’s the case, you have no planning at all.