My husband and I have 5 children.
When you have this many kids in the house, you've got to be
creative with ways to entertain them. Here's a great idea that
will get the whole family involved!
During the summer, my husband got
our oldest 4 involved in a Pirate Treasure Hunt. The kids loved
this role play activity and we did it about 3 times the first
day. Here's what we did.
First, we drew a rough map of
our house on a piece of paper. Then we labeled each room. We
used names like: Ocean of Lost Souls, Waste Land, Land of
Tomorrow, Land of Nightmares, Dungeon of Doom, Land of Milk and
Honey, Cave of Night, Mountain of Gold.
Then we cut the map into four
randomly shaped pieces. On each there was an arrow showing where
to go next and a clue. These were, for example, "Search for 3
gold coins." Then, we hid three of the map pieces with coins in
the rooms indicated on the map. The fourth map piece was given
to the appointed Captain of our Pirate Crew.
We also invented a series of
scenarios to occur in each room. As we entered we rolled a dice
to determine which scenario we would encounter. Here are some
examples:
Room #1:
1. A trip wire is crossed. Your crew has 5 minutes to finish the
entire mission or you are trapped forever.
2. Nothing happens.
3. A giant snake attacks. Roll 6 or you loose your crew.
4. If anyone spoke when you entered the room, you woke up
spiders. Roll a 6 and you'll be trapped.
5. Nothing happens.
6. Nothing happens.
Room #2:
1. A sea monster takes a crew member captive. Choose which
member.
2. Nothing happens.
3. A wart-faced hog creature sword fights your leader.
4. Nothing happens.
5. A pack of wolves eat a crew members unless you avoid rolling
a 1.
6. A small squid-like creature attaches itself to a crew member.
Roll once in all remaining rooms for a 6.
Room #3:
1. A crew member is attacked by a giant flesh eating vine and is
rescued by your leader.
2. Nothing happens.
3. Big spiders attack your leader. He's rescued by a crew
member.
4. Nothing happens.
5. Walking skeletons attack. Roll a 6 and you never escape.
6. A talking frog shows you the way to your clue.
Each crew member was then given
a weapon (make believe or toy) and a flashlight or lantern. We
each dressed up in some way as a pirate. Then we drew the
blinds, turned off the light and began our adventure. As we
moved into the first room, my husband pulled out a dice and had
the Pirate Captain roll it. We acted out the scenario indicated
by the Captain's roll of the dice, then continued on our
adventure. At the end, we found a treasure chest of gold.
This pretend play idea can be
improvised and adjusted to fit your children's preferences, or
you can use it just as listed above. Either way, I hope your
kids love it as much as ours do.
