Today we had a treasure hunt to go along with our lessons.  Many people in the early 1800's decided on becoming pioneers.  The Pioneers would use maps and guides that people were making and selling (didn't matter if they had tried them or not!).  This caused confusion at times and weren't always accurate.   

We made teams.  dd8 and myself vs. dd14 and ds12.  This was a lot of fun.  I gave them their first clue which was to follow a bunch of steps going N/S/E/W.  Then they had to figure out what the US flower is.  Once they figured it out (dd14 had to go and use the Encyclopedia) they found their first egg with another clue. 

The second clue was something like, "In the book by Beatrix Potter the character got into trouble for going here."  ds12 insisted he never read that book!  lol  Until he realized and dd14 went back into the house to use the internet to find out it was Peter Cottontail!  They dug and dug through the garden to find the egg with the next clue.  ahhhh.... It's one way to get the garden dug up for planting! 

The next clue was Mark 9:50.  So... back into the house they went to find a Bible to see what it said & right away it triggered where to find the next clue.  "Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another."

Another clue was "One has said it is a place of death, but another claims its a place of life."  (This is my butterfly garden, that my family calls the cemetery plot!)  It took them a little while to figure this out... I think they were thinking too hard.  lol

Another was, "When things come to me they are claimed to be spoiled, but give it time and I'll become usable"  This was our compost bins.  & yes, the egg was inside! 

Another was, "Up at the North Pole some claim there is snow... but as for me, I don't believe.  Hidden below you'll find the 7th egg."  (This was our property marker at the North side.)

There were 10 eggs in all... & through time and persistence they found them all. 

They did one for dd8 and I too.  Dh helped us because he was home when we did ours.  They did a great job coming up with clues.  They didn't take any pictures because we had to hurry and eat and run off to our evening activities.  I liked the one they did, that said that it looks like a peninsula, but yet not... you're higher than ground and can see the driveway.  Where am I?  We have a bank that in a way is shaped like a peninsula... It took a little bit to find considering it was a big area to look, but we found it.  They had ones that had math problems that needed to be figured out and then we had to take that many steps.  They were creative! 

Imagine that they learned AND we had fun.  Can we really claim this as school???  lol  Got to love homeschooling!