A great neighbourhood activity from our wonderful writer, Nova:

One of my colleagues was saying how difficult it was to think of new safe family activities to keep her kids engaged on weekends as the pandemic isolation continued.  On my walks around the neighbourhood (which I usually do after sunset when it is quieter on the street, as you will see from some of the pictures!) I had noticed that there were lots of fun items appearing around the neighbourhood.  I am usually doing the rounds of the local little free libraries, which I have found make planning my regular solo walks more interesting.  It really helps to have a destination!  But there were also lots of items with appeal for pre-schoolers.

I planned out a walk starting and finishing from the local park that is attached to Tupper Elementary School, at Sophia and East 21st Avenue in my Vancouver neighbourhood, thinking about ease of parking, comfortable walking distance for a young child, and the playground as a fun spot to end up.

The City of Vancouver suggest Google MyMaps as a free, accessible and shareable mapping tool. Other mapping platforms include UMap and ArcGIS Online.

The treasure hunt photo sheet has pictures of the 12 treasures. A parent or older sibling can help with the map reading (once children have learned basic grid-plotting at school, around 8 years, they can begin to practice their orienteering skills comparing a 2-dimensional map representation to a 3-D reality).

The pictures of the treasures on the photo sheets are not in order! The child has to help their “pirate pal” figure out what order they should be in.  One important consideration was to choose items that are within a child’s eye view when walking.

My friend’s little girl enjoyed the activity so much she wanted to do it for her birthday party.  Her friends were sent the map and photo sheet in order to do the activity with their family.  They had to write the number from the map under the corresponding picture on the photo sheet. For example, if they think the Tire Swing is Treasure #1, write "1" in the box by the Tire Swing. They then would take a selfie at each treasure and send all 12 photos to their friend’s mum by email.  She made a slide show using the selfies for everyone to enjoy at the Zoom party.  Once the children had submitted their photos, she sent them a clue to locate a party pack that included an eye patch and instructions for how to make a pirate hat out of newspaper.  They all wore those at the Zoom party, and she took a screen shot to send to them as a memento.

My friend very wisely added the following note to the instructions: “All the sights and swings are for the public to enjoy but we kindly ask that you be respectful of private property and when taking selfies. Now get on out there and have fun, stay safe, and enjoy the sunshine!”

Fifteen families participated in the birthday experience, and several more of my friends have now done the treasure hunt with their children or grandchildren.  My husband was out for a walk this past week and overheard two parents in the park talking about it:  “Did you know that someone has created a neighbourhood treasure map for kids?”

I took the pictures when I was out on my regular walks, and creating the map and picture sheet took about an hour.  You can make fancier versions of the map and photo sheet layout for older kids, but for younger children I think the simple version works better.

If several families were to make maps of adjoining neighbourhoods and then share them, it could be a way of creating a resource bank of cost-free family outings and a starting point for getting kids comfortable with exploring their neighbourhood on foot.