I painted some wooden circles last week to hide in Sophie’s sand pit but it has poured with rain today so I decided to set up a treasure hunt inside instead. I turned an empty box inside out and taped it back together so that Sophie could decorate it.

Here she is making pirate noises as she coloured in.

We used felt tips as they showed up better than crayons. The crayola washable ones are great and most of the marks came off her hands with a baby wipe. The rest will have to be soaked off in the bath later!

We dressed up as pirates ready for a treasure hunt. Sophie made me take it in turns to wear the pirate hat… Arrrr!

I told Sophie to close her eyes while I hid the coins so she went and sat in her teepee and closed her eyes.

Then off she went in search of gold!

She collected the coins and put them into her bag.

Once she had found them all we posted them into the treasure chest.

She loved this activity and it kept us busy on a wet Monday morning.

This activity is good for:

•  Mathematics – knowing that things exist even when out of sight
• Introducing counting – how many coins have you found?
• Posting objects
• Speaking – imitating words and sounds (talking like a pirate!)
• The World – watching toys being hidden and trying to find them