AGES:
4 to 8

MATERIALS:

• White construction paper
• Pencil, eraser, ruler (optional)
• Cardboard drawing board
• Colored pencils, tape, tacks
• Treasure chest (filled with beads, chocolate coins, and candies)
• Shovel (if applicable), matches, ribbon
• Pirate hats, eye patches, face paint
• Someplace to hide or bury treasure
• Two to seven treasure-hunting friends

HOW TO PLAY:

STEP 1
Begin by inventing a scenario to excite your kids' imagination. For example, tell them that there's buried treasure in the backyard of a friend's house. (You can imagine it stashed under the floorboards of a friend's apartment if you're a city dweller.) Then ask them to draw a map from memory showing the way from home to the site of the loot. As they work, discuss the idea that for a map to be useful, it has to be readable by others who may never have been to the destination.

STEP 2
Try to follow the map to the spot your child marked with an "X," this is your final destination. Discuss both the map's great detail and its shortcomings. Talk about the places where a person unfamiliar with the area might get lost before heading home.

STEP 3
Fasten the paper to the cardboard drawing boards, take the colored pencils, erasers and the ruler, and head out the door for a second round. Stop outside to draw the house and the immediate surroundings. You may want to talk about where the street runs in relation to your home, where it intersects with other streets and note special landmarks and friends' houses. Since there'll most likely be corrections to make, use the pencil at this stage and draw only the basic outlines of the map. Later on, walk around the neighborhood again with your colored pencils, deciding what warrants inclusion on the map.

STEP 4
Now your kids will be ready for the payoff--the hunt! Have your kids invite friends over and dress them up in pirate hats, bandannas, eye patches, and greasepaint mustaches. Gather everybody in front of the house, explain the hunt, and present the first map. Have the the kids set off, taking turns holding the map, picking out landmarks, and deciding which direction to turn. They'll soon find out if they have the right stuff when it comes to making maps. More importantly, they'll realize why theirs worked or didn't work and they'll be better next time.