Making a treasure hunt for two nine year old girls in the local park in January. Working out how to make it challenging and learning some lessons for next time.
Saturday 18 January. Cloudy. 7°C.
It’s time for another big effort. B has a playdate today so I hand over to her and ‘K’ to decide what they want to do. “Anything – so long as it’s outside somewhere in nature”. Two days later I check in and find there is no doubt.
“Treasure Hunt!”
That’s a lot of work for me then! Scavenger hunts are so much easier! It’s probably my own fault. In the covid lockdown, when B was 5 & 6, I got a bit obsessed with treasure hunts. It felt like a great way of getting her outside walking and I went to some lengths to get out ahead and hide clues along established routes. One Christmas eve I managed to walk her all round Penarth, leaving her with my mum and rushing on ahead to plant clues. She’d spot that a mile off now at the advanced age of 9.
I ponder options. I think they think we’ll do it in the garden but I strongly veto that. The big issue with treasure hunts now is that I spend hours setting it up, only for B to find all the clues in about five minutes. If we’re going to counter that happening we’re going to need a lot of space and variety of options for where to hide things. I’m determined to make them work for it and that’s going to mean hiding stuff, making them climb and putting things which they need some ingenuity to get down. It’s going to have to be Victoria Square again. We’re over visiting it at the moment but it’s so well resourced and easy to get too that I roll with it.
On Friday I do a bit of a rekey and come up with a rough plan. I started out wondering if I could get them to do some sort of task to win a clue (make a den, do a challenge etc) but I can’t think of a way to do that which means they can find the clues themselves (which must be the most fun). Instead I opt for hiding the clues well and putting some high up so they have to climb to get them. Plan to get them occupied somewhere first where they can’t see me and go armed with string and poles to get it set up as quickly as possible.
Treasure hunt day arrives and the big issue, as I suspected, is getting it set up. It’s only me with the two girls so I need to leave them somewhere where they can reach me but not see me. I settle for finding a little copse of trees in the park where they can play quietly and set them the task of making the days ‘348’ sign. I’ve pre-prepared the clues in little cardboard advent calendar boxes we had in the attic from years ago. All I need to do is put them up.
I rush around the park, using the notes I made the day before to hide them quickly. I aim to get it done in 10 minutes but it takes me about 15-20 and I get back to find them watching youtube videos on my phone and playing with a tubey thing they brought with them. They have done the numbers though and they’re ready to go.
In order to stop them racing away with it I’ve put a lot of the clues high up in the branches. They either have to climb to get them or find a stick and use it to either pick them off or hit them down. They get into that and are clearly finding it fun. There are also clues I’ve hidden and, in a couple of places, I’ve given them drawings of key features and they have to find them.
They spend ages looking for a door that fits the pattern I’ve drawn and I’m really impressed when they work it out. They struggle more later with those as they get tired. They get used to clues not being obvious always and having to dig or look hard for them. The ones they find most difficult are the most hidden ones. They’re not as good as I expected at searching in piles of branches or ivy. Only one fails them completely and I’ve probably hidden it a bit too well in the deadwood hedge.
I’m surprised how quickly they get into climbing for things. Neither of them is particularly sporty but they really enjoy it. It’s like they’ve been given permission. Both moan a bit as it goes on. They want to get back to their tween games, but they stick it out without any major rants and are buzzing when they get home and filled with energy.
The hunt itself takes about 45 minutes after the set up. On the way they’ve stopped to admire the squirrels (one doing some amazing acrobatic tree jumping) and are interacting with the environment, searching for different features and getting side tracked by cool things they notice. I think it was the best treasure hunt we’ve ever done and would do one again, though next time I’ll factor in the set up time a bit better!
Playing by the river: making boats and spotting monsters (347) >
