A great gift makes for a great backyard treasure hunt

By Rob Cockerham | September 18, 2014

After tremendous success setting up treasure hunts for my kids this summer, I had one more idea up my sleeve.

I tried it out last week.

On previous hunts, my kids had followed a series of clues to a hidden treasure. This time I took the final clue "Hammock" and cut it into individual letters. They'd need to find all seven letters and descramble them to figure out that the treasure was under the hammock.

To aid the descrambling, I didn't cut the letters squarely. If they noticed that the letters had an angle to them, aligning the cuts would help them reassemble the final location clue.

In hopes of dividing the tasks evenly between the two of them, I made two lists for the clue locations. I figured they'd each pick up some easy clues and then help each other on the tough ones.

Here's the H at the bottom of the chalk box.

Here's one of the Ms under the fort.

Here's an O on the door to Kaela's yard.

Another M in the fort.

You get the idea.

I started the hunt on Tuesday after school, hiding the first clue envelope where a kid was sure to notice it.

The re-assembled letters led the kids here, to the treasure envelope under the hammock.

The treasure was really good this time! Tickets to Disneyland!

Having already expended their maximum level of excitement on the Lego Star Wars game in the previous treasure hunt, they treated this one with a sedate celebration. My daughter was even worried about missing a Friday event day at school!

The treasure hunt was a success! They found all the letters and were able to descramble the final clue with just a bit of effort.

All that remained was to plan the trip with our handy 1/100th scale model of Disneyland!