Kid’s Pirate Treasure Hunt

Now that the summer is here, I’m always looking for new ways to keep the kids occupied and active. A couple years back, we put together a fun little pirate treasure hunt for our girls. It was such a hit that we decided to do it again and include the girl’s cousins too. This pirate treasure hunt turned out to be an epic success and fun was had by all.

Arrrrgh…… matie…….. that be MY treasure!!!!

For this treasure hunt, I found most of the items I needed at the dollar store, ebay and a thrift store. I used the following items:

1. interestingly shaped bottle (dollar store) 2. jewellery storage chest (thrift store) 3. fake pirate doubloons (ebay, but any type of old coin will do) 4. gold and silver spray paint (had on hand) 5. faux plastic diamonds (dollar store).

This treasure hunt began with drawing out the treasure map to show the kids where the booty was buried. My husband is a WAY better artist than me, so I let him handle most of the map.

Aging paper is a really easy thing to do, and involves using strong coffee, tea bags and a shallow pan.

The paper first gets soaked in the coffee mixture, and then tea bags are placed randomly on top to create a more worn look on the paper. I don’t bother boiling the water for tea bags; instead I just use hot water from the tap. Another trick I’ve used in the past to make paper look aged is by sprinkling instant coffee on the paper to give it more dark spots.

I laid it on some wax paper and once dry, the paper takes on a crinkly effect. For my map, I printed out the instructions in the bottom corner, as I thought it would look more authentic in a piratey font.

This next step was a tad unpredictable and is totally optional. We took a lighter and burned the edges of the map to give it a more realistic look and feel. Oooops; a bit too much was burned off…. but oh well.

The next day, we rolled up the map and placed it in the bottle.

When all the kids were conveniently distracted, we placed it near the water’s edge close by to where they were playing to make it look like it had washed up on the shore.

The hunt is on…..

With shovels in hand, the kids all carefully walked the required number of paces to get to the next phase of the hunt.

We found a cool piece of driftwood that we made into a “booby trap repellent”, and the kids had to first find it to ward off any looming booby traps set by Captain Ahab.

The youngest cousin had to hold it high above her head for the spell to work.

Once they found the X, it was time to dig for treasure.

Here’s the booty!

The loot consisted of fake gold doubloons purchased off eBay, but any old coin would be fine. I also spray painted some rocks gold and silver and added some faux diamonds I picked up at the dollar store. The kids loved this pirate treasure hunt, and they all got to take home some of the loot as a memory of their time at the beach together.

Happy Summer Everyone. See you next time,

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