Kids Pirate Adventure and Treasure Map

Dread Pirate Bobby!

Kids love pirates! Imagine your child's excitement at the prospect of a "real" pirate treasure hunt complete with a
treasure-map. As with many of our 10 home adventures, there is a little bit of prep involved, but the pay-off is
worth every second spent. Remember to get into character. Spinning a good yarn may be a lost art, but with a
little practice and the fertile imagination of a child, even a fair act will be convincing and delightful. Consider a
back story about your Great, Great, Great Grand-pappy, Scurvy Pete, the Pirate or some such thing and how he
left you a treasure map you've never had the time to follow. Ham it up good, folks!

Making an antique treasure map - There are several methods of making an authentic looking, antique treasure map.
The easiest requires only a torn brown paper bag, some minimal artistic skill and some magic markers.

If you'd like to make antique paper
you can run through your printer,
take one piece of ordinary printer
paper, rub a freshly used tea bag on
both sides until it is well saturated.
Let the stain dry completely. Place
the paper in your printer and print
your map, then tear and burn the
edges of your paper a bit. Some say
that a little bit of cooking oil rubbed
on the paper will lend an even more
authentic look but we recommend you
do this after you've printed on the
paper. Your printer will appreciate it.

Keep the landmarks simple and fairly
obvious or make the clues vague to
engage your child's creative thinking.
A bird bath landmark, for example,
might be "On a wing and with a dash,
here they love to chirp and splash."

The three most important ingredients
to making this a real adventure are
character, costume and pay-off. Eye
patches, plastic swords and
bandanas, lot's of "Argh, ye
scallywag" and a real buried treasure
at the end will make it an adventure
to remember

For the treasure, pick up some plastic gems, jewelry and money and throw in low denomination foreign coins.
Candy necklaces and jewel ring pops are good, too. A source of pirate booty we absolutely love is
www.DeadMenTellNoTales.com. It's a must if you want to make an amazing stash for your child to find. Finally,
consider the treasure chest. The previously mentioned link has some nice, inexpensive plastic solutions or you
could go full tilt for the more authentic chests they offer.

Now enough with the read'n, ye scurvy dog! Hoist the mains and set sail for adventure, arrgh!