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ideas for treasure hunt

Novoiceleft
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ideas for treasure hunt

#517332

Postby Novoiceleft » July 26th, 2022, 1:19 pm

Hi all

Does anyone have any good ideas - I have a family visit soon and Ive been volunteered to set a Treasure Hunt in my garden for my niece and nephew who are about 8 and 12. I plan to hide some little bags of Jelly Beans around the garden - about 10 bags each. Red for my nephew and blue for my niece. I'm trying to think of some puzzle to connect the bags. A little bit of paper in each bag that does what? Any ideas ?

Thanks

NoVoice

Howard
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Re: ideas for treasure hunt

#517500

Postby Howard » July 27th, 2022, 12:18 am

Are you at all artistic? My grandchildren enjoyed a treasure hunt which involved a drawing of part of the garden which led to another drawing etc.

For example, drawing of a hose reel led to a folded paper under the hose with a drawing of the garage side door which had a folded picture tucked into the frame etc. In the end the final picture showed where the treasure was. You can make it complicated by writing a final clue and cutting it up jigsaw style and placing each piece with the picture clues so it has to be assembled at the end to reveal a bonus prize?

Given the age difference there could be some easier clues which the eight year old has to solve without help from older sibling.

Hope this is helpful?

regards

Howard

Howard
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Re: ideas for treasure hunt

#517546

Postby Howard » July 27th, 2022, 9:31 am

Thinking further about your treasure hunt and, given the ages of the children, if you want to stretch them you could set up a much longer exercise. My grandchildren now enjoy being dropped 3 miles away with a map and finding their way back here. Along the way they have to take photos of features and buildings, answer questions, for example about a notice on a church noticeboard and a pub en route. We live in a rural environment so they insisted on doing this on their own. However, when we started, they were accompanied by a responsible adult who was not allowed to help in the navigation!

If it's a town environment there will be lots of interesting things to photo on route. It is essential to walk the route beforehand to check it out and to draw up say 10 questions/photos to record on the way.

One great advantage of doing this during a bbq is that while it's happening, the adults have an hour or so on their own for a quiet drink! (Apart from the chaperone who gets a bit of exercise :) ).

regards

Howard

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Re: ideas for treasure hunt

#517657

Postby UncleEbenezer » July 27th, 2022, 2:39 pm

Howard wrote: (Apart from the chaperone who gets a bit of exercise :) ).

A job for a dog, if one is available?

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Re: ideas for treasure hunt

#517685

Postby vrdiver » July 27th, 2022, 4:04 pm

Clues could be hidden under upturned pots, or a direction given from a magnetised needle that needs to be floated in a bucket of water to give the answer. Secret writing with lemon juice that they can reveal, or chalk arrows on bricks etc.

Could a clue be the name of a plant, or the number of windows, (e.g. find me where the number of windows equal the number of pots)?

Might be worth taking a look around the garden from the height of an 8 year old, just for perspective!

VRD

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Re: ideas for treasure hunt

#520782

Postby chris » August 8th, 2022, 5:16 pm

Treasure hunts I have done have involved either a place to place hiding of clues until you reach the final one and this should be inside and outside the house, upstairs and downstairs to get them moving. The next clue would be in the location set out in the previous clue with the first clue given to them. The other similar method is to have a list of places in a square (or some other form with multiple boxes with locations in) and whilst the clues will be in the location in the boxes, they will give answers in numbers go 3 north, 2 east and 1 south which means that clues mean they have to work out sums to get answers.

For clues from place to place:
convert the instruction into code so they have to decode to get to the next one
Use bible reference to get to a word (the bible is good because you can use Genesis 1:1 word 3) - this is easier with a concordance. You can usually define a place with 3 or 4 words.
Similar to previous poster but with photos from unusual angles rather than pictures
'first is in picture but not in frame' type clues, spelling out a location. You can help them by giving a hint in the 'whole is a...' but don't make this too obvious or they won't solve the previous part
scrabble squares or just square bits of paper that when rearranged spell a location. You may need number of letters in each word if more than one word in the location.

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Re: ideas for treasure hunt

#521138

Postby SteelCamel » August 9th, 2022, 7:23 pm

One thing I'd think about is what happens if they get stuck. Children that age won't be impressed if the clues are too simple, they won't feel like they're solving anything just following instructions. At least that's what I'd have felt like at that age. But with the linked list of clues, if they fail to solve a clue they won't be able to proceed at all. Maybe have an option to go back and solve an extra puzzle to gain a hint for the current clue?


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