I wanted to do something fun for my kids while Jay and I were away in Rome. It was the first time we had left the kids with a relative for an extended amount of time and I wanted it to be fun, an adventure of sorts.
I went to cheap stores like Dollar General and 5 Below and bought 8 cheap gifts for my kids to share. Have I mentioned how much I love my 5 Below store? It's new to us here and I love it! I had to go cheap with these gifts/prizes because we went away just 2 days after Christmas! I bought things like theater candy for movie night, spiral art kits, cheap magic sets, dog toys so they could teach the puppy new tricks, moon sand stuff, etc. Nothing over $5. I wrapped them up and attached a note card to the outside of the gift wrap with the number which corresponded to the # of days we had been gone, and the date, just in case snooping kids found a gift labeled for a different day.
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| Sorry, the puppy wouldn't get out of the way and insisted on being in the picture. |
I created a treasure hunt and typed typed up one clue per day we were gone. The clues gave them a task of the day, totally unrelated to the prize because that would have put me over the edge to coordinate the two! Fun tasks included things like building a fort in loft, going to the park to play, baking brownies with Grandma (which never happened because apparently Grandma thought we had too many Christmas cookies in the house).
But I digress.
I even included some practical tasks like helping grandma vacuum before we came home, sorting laundry in the laundry room, making sure the house looked clean. I hid these prizes in places where I know the kids wouldn't generally look or see them out and about. I used places like my t-shirt drawer, the garage shelf by the fuse box, the linen closet underneath the stack of washcloths, the bottom drawer of Jay's nightstand, etc. Some of the clue examples are:
Day #1
Saturday
Good morning! I know
we left EARLY today. Thanks for being
such good sports. Make sure your sister
gets a nap today. She’ll need it! We’ll be travelling for 13 hours and might
not get to call you for a long while.
Know that we’ll miss you and we’ll call you as soon as we can. Today, make an obstacle course in the
loft! Let your sister play along when you have it
built. Don’t forget to clean it up
before bedtime. Look in my t-shirt
drawer for a special surprise that all 3 of you must share!
Day #4
Tuesday
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve!
Today, plan your party. Think
about any special foods you might want to eat.
Think about decorations. I have
balloons, streamers and stuff in the box in the guest room closet where I keep
gift bags and wrapping supplies. Maybe
make some decorations using the roll paper on the easel in the kitchen. You could make a huge banner and hang it on the wall with
blue tape. Look in the linen closet
under the stack of washcloths for today’s surprise.
Day #8
Saturday
We come home at 8:44pm tonight! I can’t wait to see you! Take some time today to show Grandma how
responsible you are. Show her how you
vacuum. Stack your dirty laundry into
darks and lights in the laundry room. Make
the house look nice. Your room can be a
mess, but go room to room and see if you can work together to make them look
really nice, especially if you’ve been sleeping in our room! Look in the desk in the office and you’ll
find your final prize.
Lastly, I hid the typed clues inside a construction paper chain. I numbered and dated the chain on the outside so there was no confusion as to which link to open on a given day. I hung the chain from the garage access door in my living room, high enough so the toddler girl could not destroy it at all.
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| It wasn't a big paper chain by any means. We were only gone for 8 days. |
The kids had great fun with it even if Grandma didn't allow some of my fun activities. Seriously? Each day they tore open a link to the chain, read the clue and then found their prize. Every day when we FaceTimed, I asked if they found their treasure and if they liked it. They certainly did.
Again, I'm not crafty at all, but this was great fun for my kids.
What do you do for your kids when you go away?
