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I buried a wooden ship in the sand at the beach when my little boy was 5 years old. We were digging sand castles when "he found it". Back at the house when hi
by andrewstuart 6y ago
I buried a wooden ship in the sand at the beach when my little boy was 5 years old.
We were digging sand castles when "he found it".
Back at the house when his grandfather was having a closer look at the ship, grandad "discovered" an old map and little key inside the ship - strange we hadn't noticed it earlier.
The map had a big X marked on it - also down at the beach near a big cave. I happened to know just that area....
So we went down there and dug in the sand and found a wooden treasure box wrapped in a metal chain and padlocked. When my little boy tried the key in the lock.... it fit!
Inside the box was overflowing with jewellery and coins and weird little trinkets. He had discovered buried treasure!
In fact I had bought the wooden ship, and the wooden jewellery box from the local opportunity shop and also bought $5 worth of shiny junk jewellery and old overseas coins and trinkets and filled it up. I then bought a chain and padlock and wrapped it up and buried it.
He's 11 years old now and still doesn't know the true story. Credit is due to my friend who did this first - he buried a pouch in the sand for his kids to find - I just expanded on the idea with the ship and the map and the treasure box, chains and padlock etc.
- flyGuyOnTheSly 6y agoYou're a great parent. Keep doing what you're doing and the world will be a better place.
- ttamslam 6y agoThis is such a lovely story. Do you intend to tell your son or let him reason it out eventually?
- andrewstuart 6y agoDon't know. I figure one day it will come out, no hurry to dispel the magic till then. If you like that sort of thing: Last year for his birthday I spent several months preparing an alien treasure hunt in the park for his birthday. The idea was an alien spacecraft had crashed in the park and eight 10 year old boys were needed to go hunting for the clues to help the aliens get home. As we drove down there listening to the radio I had an IOT device that transmitted its own AM radio station to the car radio with an urgent announcement about a crashed alien spacecraft nearby. I prepared all sorts of gadgets and electronic devices - sound effects and lights - gave the kids bluetooth buttons to search for things and had little IOT devices that played sounds when the buttons came in range. I made audio mission cards which played audible missions to the kids (made from audio greeting card mechanisms). I bought tiny little glow in the dark aliens and little led lights that I scattered around the park. The kids found a nest of alien eggs that they had to eat (chocolate eggs). The finale was they had to tie the tiny aliens to helium balloons and send them into the sky to "send them home". I spent months writing code and preparing it all. Only about half worked on the night!! I think I had more fun making it all than the kids did doing it.
- beamatronic 6y agoOk, so not only are you a 10x programmer you are a 10x dad! Awesome job!
- andrewstuart 6y agoKind words but certainly 1X on the programming front but I do enjoy it.
- ComodoHacker 6y ago>alien eggs that they had to eat This has ruined it all for me.
- mywacaday 6y agoI'd buy that kit!
- andrewstuart 6y agoYou know I actually thought about that - I thought "I wonder if anyone would buy an Alien Adventure birthday treasure hunt kit?"
- runnr_az 6y agoI might. Certainly, I’d love to see what you did... sounds fun!
- dTal 6y ago>The finale was they had to tie the tiny aliens to helium balloons and send them into the sky to "send them home". I'm going to be "that guy" - don't do this. What goes up must come down, so it essentially amounts to littering bits of rubber and plastic ribbon everywhere which pose a choking threat to wildlife - particularly marine wildlife, if they make it that far.
- ghostbrainalpha 6y agoDid you do a blog post or Instructuble for all this? I would love to read more!
- em-bee 6y agowhen the son has kids on his own, grandpa will helpfully suggest to do this for the grandkids, and only then it will dawn on him :-)
- sigacts 6y agoSomeday he will realize this situation was staged, but he will forever appreciate the sense of exploration and adventure that you instilled in him.
- natmaka 6y agoThis sort of thing seems also useful to teach to the youngster, upon the time he understands/learns that he was tricked, that even folks may lie to him (deliberately or not). In a society truth is less important than relationships, communication, shared "knowledge" (myths). It may be one of the reason why the Santa Claus character (among other ones) stays "alive" in the culture.
- msie 6y ago:-/
- rclayton 6y agoDid this happen to you?
- natmaka 6y agoI think so (not sure about this). There is an hypothesis about the origin of the "hacker" state of mind (as a strong urge to understand how things work) stating that many of them think/thought that, as youngsters, they were lied to (cannot find the reference, though).
- fileeditview 6y agoEvery other night I am reading a children's book to my 3 year old son where a very similar story takes place, plus pirates :) I hope that we can "replicate" this adventure some day.
- mads 6y agoThank you for this idea. I will do this when my daughter is old enough to appreciate the adventure.
- throwaway_pdp09 6y agoI don't think my father was capable of that level of imagination. I think he would have trouble conceiving that such obvious childish could actually enchant a child, and it would mean so much to them. You're a good father, I'm glad they exist.
- charlesdm 6y agoThis is amazing. I'm writing this down for when I have kids!!
- layoutIfNeeded 6y agoWhen I was 4 or 5 my grandma took the leftover chicken bones from lunch and buried them in the garden. Then me and grandma went on an "archeological" dig, looking for Neanderthal bones. (for some reason as a kid I was more fascinated by prehistoric hominids than dinosaurs)
- TopHand 6y agoIan Tyson did a song along these line titled "Smugglers Cove". It can be found on his "Lost Herd" album from 1999.