Easiest Treasure Hunt... Ever!

Looking for a super simple way to amuse the kids that has zero set-up time (and also helps uncover toys they haven't played with in ages so you then get the bonus of new-toy-that's-actually-an-old-toy distraction)? Then read on...

As with most activities we do, there was a mandatory "putting shoes on" break

Steps:

1. Assemble your children

2. Give each of them some kind of container (eg Tupperware, roasting dish, tray)

3. Let each choose a favourite colour (D chose blue and I chose red for Iz - she is not that good at colours as she says everything is yellow. Obviously she looks very clever if you happen to pick a yellow object and ask her what colour it is...)

4. Then ask them to find 10 objects* of that colour that will fit in their box

5. Sit back and put your feet up as they potter round trying to find the requisite items

* I made an additional rule after D tried to put 10 blue paper money notes in his box... Each object has to be different :)

Rifling for blue stuff

Yay she chose the red one (after much deliberation!)

Rediscovering lost toys during the search :)

It was actually really interesting seeing which objects D picked (Iz needed too much help from me to claim she chose any herself!) - I was impressed at his attention to detailing noticing the blue button on the remote control!

D's selection of blue objects

This is a great way to occupy the kids for an afternoon - you can change the number of items they need to find depending on how much time you want to fill, and you can tweak the difficulty (eg for young toddlers give them a single colour, for older toddlers get them to find all the colours of the rainbow and for older children get them to find striped/spotty objects etc). Then sit back and relax with your stilll-hot cup of tea :)

Iz with her haul