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Treasure Hunt!

It’s birthday party month at my house! To my girls, birthdays are the end all, be all. For me, they are another exciting but stressful production that I need to create. I stress about where to have it, what it should consist of, how long it should last (once we did a 3 ½ hour party, everyone thought we were crazy and we were.). Our goal, as it is for any parent, is to make our daughters feel like a star for the day. Hope’s favorite was her make-your-own movie party, where the kids got to star in a mini-mystery movie (they dressed up, sang and acted) and then they ate popcorn and watched the movie they made. For Ella, her favorite was a backyard treasure hunt. I love the treasure hunt parties, it’s like writing another Blue’s Clues episode, but just for the girls. Here, some tips to make your own treasure hunt:

Get any type of box, fill it with a treasure of your choice and either hide it or bury it in the ground. We filled a battered old box with golden chocolate coins, costume jewelry and gold “nuggets” (rocks spraypainted gold) and buried it in the backyard.

Plan out your hiding spots. Remember that kids will be running around so decide if you want the spots to all be outside or inside or both. Good hiding spots for clues: tied to a tree branch, under a rock, in the mailbox or refrigerator, in a shoe, inside a favorite book, in someone’s pocket, etc. Five to ten clues are usually enough. Some examples: picture of letters + picture of box = ? (the next clue was in the mailbox), unscramble this word for your next clue: reoo (the next clue was tied to our dog Oreo’s collar). The clues can also be with a person (Give your grandma a hug to get the next clue.). If you want to get fancy, you can crumple up the paper and then burn the edges so that the clues look like vintage treasure maps.

Decide on teams. Depending on the number and age of the kids, you can either all go on the treasure hunt together or you can set up two teams. For teams, you will need two identical treasure hunts (with red clues for the red team and blue clues for the blue team). Just be sure to mix up the order of the clues so the teams don’t follow each other.

For a dusk treasure hunt make flameless tiki torches by rigging some flashlights on the end of poles.

Be sure to videotape the hunt. The kids love to watch themselves hunt for the treasure.

Greenwich resident and mother of two, Angela Santomero is the creator, writer and producer of children’s uber-hits Blue’s Clues and Super Why! Every month Angela offers her advice and observations on being a mom and an executive in children’s television while balancing and learning from both worlds.