Well, this past week was week one of my Adventure a Week Challenge, and I think we are off to a great start! I made an illustrated free printable, and its available at the end of the post, for anyone else who would like to do this scavenger hunt adventure, so be sure not to miss it:
When I first mentioned to my four year old daughter that we were going to have an adventure a week, she was thrilled. I told her we might do a nature scavenger hunt, and she said, “Ooooh, how about a pirate nature hunt?” A pirate hunt? I wasn’t sure how we could do that, so I told her that it would probably wouldn’t be about pirates, and that was fine with her.
But the idea of a nature scavenger hunt with a pirate theme stuck with me. So I put my pen to work and illustrated this “treasure map” with various items we could find in the woods that look like (and we could pretend are) pirate gear or pirate treasure. She was so excited! The whole time we were getting ready to go, she kept saying “Arrrrrgh!” to everything.
The “pirate gear” items to find are:
– a sword (a stick with a “handle”)
– an eye patch (a round leaf which you attach to ribbon – just make sure its not poison ivy!)
-a pirate’s hook (a curved stick)
And the “pirate treasure” items are:
-jewels (rocks and pebbles)
-gold doubloons (acorn caps)
-pearls (berries – make sure they don’t eat them!)
And then, at the end you keep the pirate gear, but find a good place to “bury” the treasures – in a log, a hollow tree stump, etc. Of course, X marks the spot, so you use two sticks to make an X over the place they are buried.
I’ve attached the printable at the end of the post. For the adventure, I recommend taking the following items…
– A basket or something to carry the things your kids find on the scavenger hunt
– A camera to catch their expressions when they find their treasures
-The treasure map printed out
-A pen or marker so they can check off the “Aye!” boxes next to each item they find – and I would recommend something to write down funny things the kids say. I wish I had done this – I ended up scribbling down some precious quotes afterwards on a napkin, but I know there are some that I missed.
-Pieces of ribbons to tie onto the leaf and make an eye patch
One other option in getting ready to go is a costume. My little one want to be dressed as a pirate to go find her pirate treasures, naturally. :) Simple pirate costume: adult white button up shirt, a scarf around the waist, and a scarf around the head. It was a gorgeous day, and there were quite a few people out and about at the state park we went to, and she definitely got lots of smiles as she went traipsing through the forest paths in her pirate get up.
I wasn’t sure how long it would take to find different items – the hook I thought might be one of the hardest items to find, but it was actually what she found first. (She’s being a “scary pirate” there with her hook on the left). The sword was a little harder to find, but not too difficult. Once she had those, she didn’t want to part with them!
This is the path we started up. And where she found many of the acorn cap “coins” … later she was describing this path and said “Oh, I found lots of gold moneys here!”
Being outside and roaming around through the woods can give lots of opportunities for learning and teaching. From just learning how to handle yourself in the woods, to talking about practical things like recognizing poison ivy (and not using it to the eye patch), to more thoughtful remarks about how well God designed the trees, and plenty more. Kids are sponges, and I love how their eyes widen with amazement when they experience or learn something new.
Finding the eye patch was one of the most difficult things on the list, because since it is February, there aren’t any green leaves left, and most of the leaves and down, crumpled and just not good eye-patch material. But when she found this leaf she was SO excited to get to wear it! It was a fun little “mini-craft” to make it. Poke two little holes in the leaf, not too close to the edge of the leaf, and preferably the cut should be parallel to the edge of the leaf, not perpendicular (these two things will help prevent the ribbon just ripping out through the edge of the leaf). Then simply thread a ribbon through each hole, loop back the doubled ribbon and tie at the back of the head. Simple, but a pretty effective eye patch!
This was one of my favorite quotes of the day – she really got in the spirit of the hunt, and as she stepped on some gravel she exclaimed, “Oh no! I think I stepped on some jewels!” Simple things can be so precious in the eyes of a child.
The one thing from the list we couldn’t really find was berries for pearls, because none were growing this time of year. But she found some of these Sweetgum seed pods, and used those instead. Here she is holding all her treasures right before “burying” them.
After scouting out some options, she finally found a place she wanted to hide her treasures. It was in a concrete drainage pipe – you can see it a little bit behind her in the photo. She has her two sticks which she made into an X and placed on top – she loved having this secret hiding place for her treasures with the secret symbol on top.
I had a “bad mama” moment, though. I was taking some pictures afterwards and accidentally snapped off one of the handle pieces from her sword. She tried to be tough and keep a stiff upper lip, but I could tell she was broken hearted. (Which goes to show how precious something little like a stick can be!) So I fixed it up after we got home, with washi tape, and it looked so neat, we ended up decorating the handles of both her sword and hook with washi tape. This can be an easy way to dress up the finds a little bit after you home, and is a fun and easy craft to do with kids.
The whole afternoon was a ton of fun, and my little girl had a blast. She told me she loved the adventure “one hundred”. As we have some warmer days approaching soon, I thought this might be a fun activity for other families of small kids, so here is the printable to print out and go on a swashbuckling nature adventure of your own. Just click the image below to open the PDF file, and you can print it from there:
So what do you think of our first week’s adventure? Did anyone else go on an adventure?
Any ideas for what next week’s adventure should be?
Leave you thoughts in the comments below, I really love to hear from you!
(For a list of all the Adventure-a-Week Challenge posts so far, just click here.)
Wow! What a fun Pirate Treasure Hunt. You did a great job explaining it for someone else to do with their kids as well. Thanks for stopping by my blog, too.
Thanks, Suanna! We definitely had a lot of fun doing it. I appreciate you visiting my blog! :)
I enjoyed reading this. So glad you are able to have such fun and memorable times with your daughter.
Aw, thanks, Angela! I like documenting times like these … it will be fun to look back at later. :)
OHHHH i loooove this!! i always tell people that my children will have no gadgets. I want my kids to run around outside and play with real toys and ride real bikes not virtual ones. This is great april! such beautiful photos too!!
Sooooooo agreed, Danielle!!! There’s nothing like being a kid and having imagination and playing outside. :) We end up with the TV on more than I want, and part of this whole challenge is to have less of that – more imagination and family time. There’s nothing like it. :)
And thanks, Danielle, your comment made me smile super big. :D
Best idea ever. Can I be your daughter? Or that creepy neighbor kid who you love anyways?
Something else you guys might enjoy: geocaching. I’ve never done it, but now that I have a working hip I’m planning on it!
Awww, thanks! Haha, you crack me up. :)
Oh, yeah, we love geocaching!! We haven’t done it much recently, but we used to do it a good bit. In fact, my husband thought about proposing by having my ring be a “geocache”! :) He ended up choosing a different way, but yes, we do like to geocache, haha :) But I’m glad you reminded me of it because we haven’t done it in a while!
That is so cool – your cleverness never ceases to amaze me April! I might have to do this with my niece and nephew – always looking for ways to entertain them!!!
Hugs – Brandi
Aw, thanks Brandi! Hope your niece and nephew enjoy it! :D
I love love nature hunts! I like to go on them with our homeschool co-op. It’s fun and free! I’ll have to look up what a geocache is….I am clueless as to what that is! Thanks for your kind comments on my daughter’s “Spa Party”.
Oh….just googled geocache! O.k. I have heard of it, but just didn’t know the name of it, ha! Might be fun to do sometime!
Yeah, nature hunts are great homeschool activities! I was homeschooled for part of the time growing up … loved it. :) And geocaching is a lot of fun too … although I prefer caching in the city – the micro caches are my favorite. :)
Oh man April this is amazing! We are totally doing this! Thanks for sharing and for the amazing printable :)
Aw, thanks Hilda! I’m so glad you liked it! :D Hope the kiddos enjoy the hunt!
Lovely and lovable:) I am going to print the printable and see about doing it with Zach and Luke. Even though they are older, I think they still might get in to it. I like to let kids be kids as long as they will:) We haven’t done our first adventure yet. If we don’t do this for our first one, we’ll do it when we have enough nice weather! thanks!
Thanks! :D Yeah, I bet they could still get into it, even if its for kinda younger kids. :)
We happened to have a particularly lovely and warm day last week to be able to do it, but I’m looking forward to warmer weather being more common!
Love Love Love this ! My boys will have a terrific time with this. Thank you.
Oh, I’m so glad! Hope they enjoy it! :)
This is so wonderful, more please! I’m looking forward to trying this adventure with my little ones! Keep ’em coming. You are a blessing to people like me that don’t have very much imagination! I love that your adventure takes nothing more than time, a piece of ribbon and a sense of adventure. It makes it possible for all people even those on a super tight budget : )
Thanks, Sandy! :) Yes, I have a $15 limit on the adventures, but usually it won’t even come near that. I’m going to be trying to go on an adventure per week with our little one for 8 weeks … another post is coming up soon! :) If you didn’t see it yet, here is the first post on the whole “adventure challenge” series: https://www.theflourishingabode.com/2012/02/challenge-an-adventure-a-week.html
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting on my blog :) I was wondering if I could snag your weekly challenge post header on either week one or week two so I can use it for my own weekly challenge posts?? Credit back to you though of course :)
Jess
Hey Jess! Sure, as long as it is clearly credited/linked back to my blog, help yourself! :) Can’t wait to see your adventures! :)
Sounds exciting! Going to try this weekend (and pinning your post in case I forget!)
Sounds great – I hope you enjoy it! :)
Love this idea! My little pirates and I will try it this week!
WooT! Hope you and your pirates will have fun! :D
What a great printable, I hope to scrapbook it on a page of my son’s ARGGG b-day party many moons ago. Thanks
Thanks for stopping by my blog, Bridget! And I hope you enjoy the printable! :)
I printed this off for my nephew who is 2 1/2. He LOVES everything Pirate (his mom will love your blog post)!!! He’s going to be so excited!! This is soooo cool! Thankyou!! :)
Aw, thanks Tabitha – I hope he’ll have a ton of fun with it! :D
April, I wanted to send a big Thank You for the great printables, specifically, the Pirate Nature Scavenger Hunt and Stargazing. We had a Cub Scout weekend camping trip to Big Bear, CA and I printed these back to back for the boys to use and they all loved it. I’ll need a Stargazing one for the summer and fall skies next, heeheee ;-)
Aw, fun, I’m so glad you were able to put it to use!! :)
You are amazingly talented. Not only do I love your printables, everything on your blog oozes with creativity. I love, love, love coming here!
Well, you’re too sweet! Thanks so much, I’ll look forward to seeing you around! :D
I just found your blog and I love it. I’m looking forward to a Pirate/Nature Scavenger Hunt with some of my grandkids. Thanks.
Oh my goodness my boys would love this! I pinned it a while back and am just now going through and looking for things to do. Thanks for this cute, clever idea! And your pictures are awesome! Lisa~
My friend and I took our six kids to do this… great fun! Thanks for sharing!
We are heading out to do this for Talk Like A Pirate Day. Thanks for such a fun printable!!
Oh yes, this is perfect for Talk Like A Pirate Day!! Thanks!
Wish I would of stumbled upon this a few months ago. My grandson is into pirates and had a pirate themed party. Grandma and Grandpa got into the spirit of the party and dressed up as pirates. If I would of had time I wanted to do a treasure map to find his present. If I hustle we could still do a treasure map just like yours though and look for things in nature for our treasure! I love doing things like this with my grandkids!
good share.
Thank you so much for your ideas. We went on an adventure in search of treasure yesterday and had a super fun time. The printable was brilliant. Thank you…from Ireland!
Cute, Cute, Cute! I love this simple little game. The children will have a blast doing this. Thanks for sharing.
I am a Forest School Leader in Devon England and came across your post whilst looking for a pirate treasure map for a School pirate day.
Lovely blog and fantastic nature hunt sheet… shame I cant seem to download it.