Mission: Pirate Treasure

     What child doesn't want to dress like a pirate and then do a pirate treasure hunt? I originally wanted the kids to have to either follow a picture map or solve a puzzle of sorts at each spot on the treasure hunt, but, since the kids can't read yet, I had to go another route. I ended up creating a sort of obstacle course where the kids had to find something at each place before they could go to the next spot. I did end up having to move the treasure hunt inside since the weather turned nasty, but the kids still loved it. The kids were told to dress like a pirate and, not wanting to be left out, James also had a pirate costume.

     At each stop in the treasure hunt, I had a small ball wrapped in pirate fabric that the kids had to find before they could move to the next spot. In the dining, I mean craft, room, I turned the table into a cave of sorts. I put a sheet on top of it to enclose it and then taped streamers underneath the table that the kids had to go through to find the little ball that I had hidden in there. It didn't take long for the kids to find that one, but they did bonk their heads a few times while under there. Thankfully, no tears. The kids then had to go up the stairs through a "spider web" to get through the hallway. There was no ball for them to find this time, but they had a blast doing their ninja moves.

     After the spider web, they had to go into the garden tub which I had transformed into a ball pit. I didn't have enough balls, so I blew up a number of balloons to fill it up. The kids didn't care and the faux ball pit was their favorite part of the whole thing. It didn't take them long to find the ball I had hidden in there, but they decided to stay for a while and even went back after we had finished lunch and the crafts.

     I had created a much better cave out of the hallway using more sheets and a play tunnel that I had borrowed from a coworkers. The cat really liked this one though this was a close second for the kids. At the end of the tunnels I had put some glow in the dark rocks along with the pirate ball for them to find.

     After finding all of the balls, the kids got their pirate booty. One of the other moms did a wonderful job of making little pirate boxes of stuff for the kids. It really doesn't take much to make them excited at this age.
     After the treasure hunt was completed, we did two crafts: one for the kids and one for other children. For themselves, I cheated this month and got the pirate treasure chest craft kits from Oriental Trading. The kids had fun painting and decorating their boxes.
     For the past few years, Bea and I have been packing shoeboxes as part of the Christmas Child Shoebox program. So, for service, the kids decorated notebooks for that we would then pack into shoeboxes come November. We used stickers to make it easier and then kept telling them that these were for kids who couldn't afford notebooks or school supplies to be able to go to school.

     The kids had a blast and, again, James the cat slept well afterwards. All of the kids dragged their parents upstairs to check out the ball pit and the parents helped me find all the balls. Around 2 am, James got his revenge by playing with some balls we had missed under our bed. My husband has since banned any ball pits in our bedroom or bathroom. He didn't say anything about a ball pit in another room though.... :)