A treasure hunt for 8 year old boys?

Question

My twin 8 year old sons have their birthday party today and I have barely planned it. They are having a pirate theme and want to do a treasure hunt.Like where theres clues leading to a treasure box or something. Can someone give me ideas. There are about 15-20boys attending ranging from ages 6-9 It will be outside at a park

Answer 1

You could put clues in envelopes, and hide them at the park. Considering the age group, you may want to put pictures as much as words in the clues. A picture of a slide means hunt there, for example. If it's a bit windy, you may want to tape them down on wherever you hide them.

If there's enough kids to do it, you may want to split them up by age and do 2 hunts. A 6 year old won't be able to compete much against a 9 year old.

Oh, and keep a record of what clues you put where. If one doesn't get found, you don't want to spend hours looking for it later. We didn't do this one Easter when we were hiding eggs - big mistake!

Answer 2

I'm going to assume that you live in the north where it is cold in February. How about sleigh riding on a local hill. Everyone brings their sled, has a great time and you bring the hot chocolate and a cake. Hey, you won't even need to refrigerate it. Did I mention the cost. About $25.00. Or, if there are no hills where you are... get a plastic tarp from home depot (Lowes will do also). cut it into lengths 4ft wide and up to 20-30 feet long. Lay it out in the backyard and pour water over it. Let if freeze. Then, let the kids go at it. They'll have an absolute blast slipping and sliding on the ice and all you'll need to do is supply the hot chocolate and cake again. (I'm very partial to hot chocolate in case you didn't notice). If it's warm where you live, take the kids to a park, hire a local soccer coach and have the kids play some soccer, or baseball, or organize a field day with races (sack races, three legged, etc.). There are a million ways to have a great birthday party and not spend a lot of money. Think outside the box. And don't forget the hot chocolate.