When we go to the library, I will often add one or two books to their pile that I think they might find interesting. Sometimes they ask to read them, and they have led to some fun projects or discussions; other time they sit ignored in the pile. I like to get ideas from various “Living Books” lists, as often the books tend to be very well-written as well as lots of fun.
One of the booklists I was looking at suggested the book Follow That Map! Since Meredith is still pretty interested in maps, and still talks about the treasure hunts we did last May, I thought it would be a fun one to try. Predictably, she loved it, and we read it a couple more times before she asked if we could make a map of our house again and do another treasure hunt.
We decided to make a compass first. The girls had fun using a magnet to rub a needle up and down, in one direction only. Meredith knows a lot about magnets and their poles already just from playing with them and asking questions, and it was neat to watch her experimenting with the magnet and needle. On one side of the magnet, it wouldn’t stick to the end of the needle, but instead jumped aside to the middle. I hadn’t known this would happen either, and we had a neat discussion about what rubbing the magnet was actually doing to the needle and how the poles might be changing. There are some interesting diagrams here with more information on how it works.
When it came time to float the needle, nothing was really working. Paper sank too quickly, cardboard didn’t spin, we didn’t have any light foam. Fiona eventually came up with the idea of putting the needle in a straw and that worked perfectly! The girls were fascinated to see that no matter which way they turned the needle, it always turned back. So we drew out our map of the bottom of the house and then used our compass to mark north, south, east, and west. Then Meredith left while I hid clues around. I made most of the clues like the ones in the book where the children find a treasure map: “Go 8 steps north” type of thing. But I had one that asked her to find and read a particular book, and the clue fell out of the last page, and a few other clues where she had to figure out what the clue was referring to. She had a blast! And after she figured out the clues, she would exclaim “Clever, Mama!” Or “I loved that one. Funny, Mama!” The treasure at the end was a snack and a few coins in her pirate treasure box.
She had a lot of fun doing this, and later when I ran out for a few groceries she had Kris help her make a treasure hunt for me and wrote out all the clues for it herself. I think this is definitely the sort of activity that will come up over and over.
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