Treasure hunt is always exciting for kids – be it a backyard, a park or just a bucket. What can be more fun is adding a theme to it and playing along !

We had a playdate at our place. My friend and her son were due to come late in the afternoon. We planned to catch up and have some tea while the little ones played around. I was free and I guess some creativity was flowing around. So I decided to do something different with the kiddos instead of the regular play. There was some sand in a bucket which had not been played with for a while. And it just clicked.

I collected some stuff lying around – some seashells, junk jewellery, coins, heart shaped stones and I added some toys we had collected from the candies – luckily there were 2 pirate pandas we got from gems!! Here I made sure my little one was busy in his room.

Oh yes, we had a couple of candy box (yellow ones in the pic) which I filled up with 2-3 candies for fun !

Further, we had some painted rocks, which I picked up from his room and added some plastic sea animals alongwith it. Then I got the shovels from his sand toys for digging.

Finally I took the bucket with the sand and put all the stuff that was collected over the sand.

Then with my hands, I mixed it all with the sand and covered all the stuff with sand. I pushed the stuff as deep as possible so that nothing poked out. Alternatively, I would advise that first, one should put all the stuff in the bucket and then pour the sand over it. It is much easier !! Next time we do this, I am doing this. Finally, the bucket was set for the play. Well, setting up the whole thing took me just 10 minutes.

I had some time before my friend dropped in and I decided to make some eye patch and Pirate caps!! It was so easy !!! You can see the tutorial here. Time taken – about 20 minutes.

      

And when they arrived, we set up the whole thing outside – in the backyard – as there was bound to be a lot of mess!! And once both of them sat down, there was no stopping them!! They didn’t even wait to pose for a nice pic!!

The kiddos were given empty boxes to store their treasures separately.

 

They were so engrossed in finding what lied beneath that our words (for their help) fell on empty ears 😀

And then instead of using the shovels, they started using their hands to dig out the stuff. They even explored the sand – its flow, texture and poured it all over !!

     

And then the pooch also joined in to be a part of all the excitement. He sniffed all the toys and kids and the bucket !!

Both kids had their own ways and means to hunt the treasure. Both enjoyed thoroughly – finding treasure, helping each other, sharing the goods – so some learning also happened here !!

Now, there was hardly anything left. Here they are trying to find if they missed out on something !!

All in all, it was extremely fun !! After an hour of play and sand digging and cleaning up, both of them were extremely hungry – so here is their platter of snacks – Popcorns, Juice, chocos and some chips!!

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