Upon my decree, children should live a life of adventure. As a parent, I hold two things in very high regard: childhood adventure and authenticity.
My son, Nikhil, is an extremely bright and highly tactile little man. When he isn’t accounting (lining up numbers and letters all over my house) and hiding items inside of things just to see if he can jimmy them out, he enjoys watching Little Einsteins. Here is a refreshingly intelligent kids’ show I actually praise because of its culture, music theory and sense of adventure. The latter is what sparked my idea to create a handmade treasure hunt for Nik’s third birthday.
I personalized this little treasure chest for him. For the map, I absconded to research an actual locale (Missouri Botanical Gardens‘ Temperate House) to produce this hand drawn treasure map, more or less accurate to a real location he’s never seen before.
He’s so excited all the time!
This experience was just as enriching for me as it was for him. Plotting and designing a treasure hunt was as exciting to me as finding the treasures! I will say that this is quickly becoming a new hobby of mine: creating personal adventures. And photographing them. And loving the authenticity of an experience created specially for someone with that genuine, personalized touch.
If you’d like to create an adventure for your child or adventurous adult, I’d love to be a part of it in some way, adventure-planning or photographing! Next time I need an amazing map though, I might just go to my sister at Paper Truly for something like this Goonies map. And this would be the part where graphic designers and photographers join forces to create something really epic. Love it up!
