Help me make a fun treasure hunt for ds1, please!

[wilbur]

Ds1 (almost 5) has asked Santa for a treasure map for Xmas - very into pirates at the moment. So I am going to draw him a map of MIL's garden (we're there for Xmas) and hide some "treasure" for him to find, plus two smaller bits of treasure for dd and for their cousin. Now, can anyone help me with the following:

1. Where can I find a "treasure chest"? I don't want to spend a lot but want to find a little box that I can lock somehow so that finding the key can be part of the hunt.

2. What other things can I have him find along the way?

3. How can I make the map look fab? I am going to buy an A3 sheet of beige paper to be like parchment, any ideas about jazzing it up?

Any help gratefully received.

normal paper .. draw or print on map .. run over it with a used tea-bag to get sepia stain (you might have to check how to do it best .. might work better with cotton wool in tea)

make little rhymes up for the clues

would have thought any hardware store would have a good little tin box and padlock

chocolate coins would be great .. and fake jewels (check out bakerross.com)

actually I like this idea and think I might nick it

treasure map

Oooh, rhymes for clues, that's good. Will put my poetry hat on!

Thta's a great map to start with Twiglet - forgot about putting a compass in the corner for authentic pirateness. Can't wait till he sees this sticking out of his stocking.

bumping this up for the night time arty folk.

Yes let us know the location of he clues & we can think up rhymes !