Treasure Hunt

The little guy has been cooped up in the house with no socialization or fun for a while. He didn't go over to friends' houses to play all that often before, but at least he got to see other kids when at school. Now, he's pretty bored.

I'm not one of those people who thinks that is one hundred percent a bad thing. I think a lot of our children don't get bored enough these days. There's always TV, video games, streaming apps, phone games, social media, and hundreds of other things constantly distracting them from the realities of the world. Kids need to be bored sometimes. It gives their mind a chance to stretch its legs and explore a little.

Little is pretty good with being bored. He's always looking for something interesting to do, and he loves to create with his hands. Today, his mind wandered to the boyhood joy of pirate treasure maps. He wanted to make his own, and create a treasure hunt. He asked me to print out some pirate paper for him, but I refused. I insisted that we make our own.

First, I had him crumple up a piece of printer paper, then smooth it back out, then crumple it again, then smooth it back out.

Then, I had him go outside and rub a bunch of dirt onto the paper to make it more yellow. It didn't work quite like I'd hoped however. Instead of yellowing, it got more brown and...well, dirty. Well, it was better than nothing.

Next, I grabbed a lighter, and burned the edges of the paper to give it that classic treasure map look. I hope I didn't give Little any ideas that he might try on his own later.

Before we finished up, Little suggested that we put the paper in the oven. He said that was how his sister yellowed a paper for this kind of a use once. That seemed like a pretty good idea, so we did. It worked well, although the oven rack left stripes of non-yellowed areas where the where the metal touched the paper.

Little grabbed a sharpie, drew his map to his treasure, and he was done creating his own pirate treasure map.

It turned out pretty good, but I think we learned some lessons on how to do it better next time. Use a cookie sheet rather than put it right on the oven rack most importantly. Who knows if we'll remember the lessons by the next time we do this, though?

Little led me on the treasure hunt, which turned out to be pretty short. Making that map turned out to be the proverbial long walk for a short trip. What did we find at the end? A box of tropical Mike & Ikes.

"They're gems," he said.

I've never before seen somebody stuff gems down their throat like Little did, though.