Kids Games -- Hide Some Treasure

And find it later

ADDED August 03, 2008

This is a way to add some fun to walks outside and visits to the park. The trick: hide some treasure along the way.

The treasure we use in our family is a penny or a nickel. (That way, if the treasure gets found by someone else or disappears forever, it's not too great a loss.)

First, you'll need to choose a public place that is fun for your kids. A park is perfect, or a grassy area near the library.

Then, find a place to hide the treasure, any off-the-beaten-track nook or cranny will do. Statues are especially good: our family has stuck a penny into the folds of historical personage's coat. We have placed a penny onto another statue's palm.

Another time, my boys wanted to hide a penny in a statue that, as it turned out, had absolutely no nooks, crannies, or crevices of any kind. We decided to hide the penny at the base of the statue, on the side farthest from where most people walk. Miraculously (we were all pretty thrilled) the penny was still there a few days later.

With this activity, we get the kids outside, learning about pennies and nickels, and looking at statues they'd probably otherwise ignore. Another way to squeeze some fun out of this is to have the kids come home, after having hidden the treasure, and draw up a map. They start the treasure map by drawing everything they can remember: the grass, the bushes, the parking lot, the sidewalk, the trees, and so forth. We don't really worry about correct scale, or even correct placement of things; if a tree winds up in the middle of the sidewalk, it's fine by me.) Then we draw a big red X to show where the treasure is hidden. We also talk about the phrase "X marks the spot," and how you can "spot" something.

On the way to go to find out if the treasure is still there, I make sure to warn everybody that it might no longer be there. There is a chance somebody else found it. That way, they are prepped and not overly disappointed by the penny's absence. I also bring along another handful of pennies, because if the first batch is missing, well at least we can all have fun hiding new ones and trying it all over again.

If you'd like to email us, and tell us the location of the money you're hiding outside, we'd be happy to know. fun@todayisfun.com

ages 3-12, educational, summer activity,