Random

Today my sister and I put on a little treasure hunt as a Sunday School lesson prior to our church's annual Service in the Park. This was designed for a mixed-age group of kids, and the kids who participated were from 5 to 12 years old. I think it worked out well because there were some easy clues that they all got, and some harder ones that the "big" kids helped the younger ones with.

Here is an older child helping her younger brother read a clue.

I printed the clues on my printer and then attached random keys I found laying around my house. Only 1 key would open the treasure box. (One child wanted to keep his key and I had to say no because one of the keys was to my back door!)

We started by handing them a clue, which led to the hiding place of another clue and so on and so forth. The kids had to figure things out like, "Head toward the rising sun" which would be east, or "Find the twelfth word in Mathew 14:13 and locate that object." (This could work for a birthday party too, but since we needed it to be a Sunday school lesson we tied biblical passages into it.)Here the clue said, "Face North. Pretend you are looking at number 12 on a clock. Now point to where 10 would be..." Its was easier for some than for others!

Reading more clues.

After all the clues were found they lined up to see if their key was the special one that would unlock the treasure! (Also, we had 14 kids doing this and only 9 clues and it worked out fine... there were no hard feelings if someone did not have a clue card and key, and lots of swapping and sharing going on.)

Once opened, there were final instructions and a treat. Inside the box they found a small treasure box for each child to decorate and take home. In each small treasure box were Smarties, because they were so smart to have figured out all the clues, a compass necklace to decorate and wear to remind them to always be on the right path, and some small gold coins. One small box had a treasure chest shaped trinket. The lucky finder of the trinket got to keep the big treasure box!

My sister and I set up a table for painting and decorating the boxes and the necklaces. We really didn't offer much, just paint, glue, glitter and beads, but the kids loved it! It all worked out really well and we were super pleased with the lesson and the resulting creativity.

Here are a couple of the necklaces. I got the idea from Jean at The Artful Parent to use Sculpey to create them. I stamped an actual stamp (that you would normally use with ink) into each one before I baked them.And this is my son Hudson's finished box. I wish I had taken pictures of the other kids' too.

Ok... moving on.... here is a bag I made for my daughter's friend's birthday. I guided Alex in the fabric choices, but she made the final decision. We also made a freezer paper stenciled shirt for the birthday girl, but I forgot to get a picture of it :( Also in the bag was a cool lip balm, a little notebook with the b-day girl's initial on it and a bag of potato chips. (I know...strange selection of items, but Alex picked it all out.)

Now, just for fun... you've seen this picture before... it is of my neice Gabby with one of our chickens, McNugget, on May 27th.
And here is Gabby holding McNugget just the other day! Let's just say chickens grow fast! (And poor Gabby broke her elbow the other day, but it doesn't slow her down one bit!)