Treasure hunt ideas for kids

I'm trying to set up a treasure hunt for my grandson. He's five and absolutely loves to find treasures and follow maps and the whole pirate idea. I ordered 3 pounds of circulated world coins and I am in the process of drawing a map of our property outside of Sumpter, OR. I am rather lost on the scope and detail I should use. The map area I have in mind covers at least 10 acres. I need ideas on how to utilize the map and make up clues to find parts of the treasure before finding the bulk of it. We'll have Memorial weekend to do this and possibly all Summer. I realize that there is a lot of ground to cover, but he likes to go on his adventures with me up and down the creek and up to the top of the hill. I really want this to be something he will remember all of his life and look back on with happiness and the knowledge that his papa loves him to the ends of the earth.
Any helpful ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like an awesome idea, definitely cool for your grandson. 10 acres is a pretty good spread to wonder about on. I would try to come up with some obstacles and challenges, not sure if you have any dead bodies lying around but maybe a couple of play skeletons buried in some random spots with clues. You mentioned a creek, any chance of building a rope bridge, fallen tree bridge, or rope swing across it (just something to add to that sense of danger and accomplishment). Or maybe a few tree houses along the way that he would have to climb up and look for clues with a telescope to see where to go to next? I'd say maybe a zip line somewhere but that's a little much for a five year old, unless you have adults around and a secure harness/swing. then at the finish have some kind of an old paper that states that the finders of the treasure are now members of some secret pirate society or something (I heard soaking paper in tea will give it the aged look, practice your best fancy English writing).

A great idea, hopefully everything works out well for you both.

Sounds awesome! One time a group of adults got to do something similar on this guys property for a caving get-together. Tons of fun for everyone. If I had the chance to do this as a kid I would not have grown up feeling lonely and depressed. (That's a joke, but it would still have been more fun).

I think some physical obstacles for someone his size and physical ability would be great as Brewkowski mentions. And maybe some puzzles to figure out. Letter to number swap cipher, GPS coords, and of course the requisite cool and obviously old pirate style map!

I like the idea of a rope swing. There is a section on the creek right by the cabin that might work really well. And challenges and obstacles too. I want him to start building his confidence and that could really help. I've got the aged paper worked out. The map is 23 x 35. I am considering cutting it into smaller pieces and then he can find each part and that will lead to the next. Kind of like National Treasure. Clue leads to clue leads to clue leads to treasure.
Thanks for the reply(s).

Have you tried Geocaching? My kids love it.

shoman89 said:

Have you tried Geocaching? My kids love it.

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I haven't. I'll have to look into that. Could be a good way to go.

That is SO cool!
Maybe keys hidden that will open a box with the next clue. Or simple math problems that will decipher a combination lock. At age five, pictures of people, places, or things will help with clues.
I hope you post your adventures, so we can all have fun.

I like the picture idea. He is just starting to read so pictures would be the "fastest" way for him to figure things out. But maybe some easy sight words to go along with.

I think I might regret asking for ideas. I'll get so many going, I'll never make a decision on what to do.

shoman89 said:

Have you tried Geocaching? My kids love it.

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After a little research, that sounds really fun. Something we can do anywhere. But...since I don't have smartphone and I'm not inclined to buy a gps system, I guess I'll have to commandeer grandma's phone for our purposes.

You can do some invisible ink idea with lemon juice also. You squeeze the lemon juice on a dish and paint on the paper once it dries it is kind of invisible. When ready to read hold up to a light or some other heat source and it will darken the acid in the lemon juice so it is then readable.

You might try hex paper (hexagonal graph paper), you can download & print it for free here: http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/
Try a scale of each hex is 10ft, or 5ft.

If your grandson doesn't already know how to interpret map images, you'll have to explain them, but you can make it easy by drawing in things like bushes, trees, driveways, sidewalks, etc...

On the other hand, part of the fun/challenge is to figure it out with all the ambiguities that a pirate treasure map comes with. 10 paces (kid's paces) from the bushes by the mailbox due east (great time to teach simple compass use), then 20 paces north for the next clue. Maybe a simple riddle or 2 for a clue: "When the sun shines on the red flowers, the next clue is at your back." And the clue is in the shed behind him when he stands in front of the red tulips... You get the idea. Ever watch the TV show Blues Clues? or Dora the Explorer? They use simple maps & clues in every show, might be a couple of good ideas there.

You can place the clue under a rock, or taped to the branch of a tree; kids love that sort of thing, each clue helps to build excitment, especially if there is some small reward (like a chocolate coin, plastic pirate sword, etc...) for finding major/tough to find clues.

Geocaching is a fun thing to do, much like a treasure hunt. When he's older, maybe a "fox hunt" (Xmitter hunt) with a ham radio club would be a fun thing for you both to do. Hope you both have fun.
Regards, GF.

Edible clues might be a good thing also. If you take a snack along he might find a clue on a hard boiled egg. Take a raw egg, write the clue on the shell with vinegar before hard boiling the egg. The writing will be visible on the egg when he cracks the shell. Makes for magic clues.

TCHDNSD said:

After a little research, that sounds really fun. Something we can do anywhere. But...since I don't have smartphone and I'm not inclined to buy a gps system, I guess I'll have to commandeer grandma's phone for our purposes.

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When I started we had a crappy Car gps that I modified and hacked to get it to do what I wanted. I then bought a Garmin Oregon 450 and that works really well and it has replaceable batteries. My blackberry works ok as long as I have a cell signal. My kids like to trade little trinkets and do the track-able travel bug when we go on vacation. It is neat to find a travel bug in a cache in Hilton Head and bring it to Ohio. Then you can watch to see where is travels to as other people move it. I think one we moved is now in Canada.

We always have a treasure hunt at home.

- go find the TV remote.
- where are daddy's keys.

etc...

Some great ideas so far. Keep 'em coming if you have more. Just about a month to go before I need to have this done.