Treasure Hunting

It seems that whenever children want to get things out they have no trouble finding it.
Putting them away however . . .
The things tend to wander to imaginary homes that cultivate cobwebs and capture friends in their webs.
Yes, it has a tendency to overwhelm me.

 

And then I tell them to clean it up.
But honestly, they look at me like I am a blur in their fog.
Put them away? Put what away? And where? And what do I start with?

And this is where I decided that my children needed to learn the art of observation.

So, we created the Treasure Hunt Game.

I went into a very messy room . . .
and hid coins. Buried treasure if you will. Many pennies and a few nickels and dimes. These little joys were put under things that needed to go home. And the key to keeping them was that those things that needed to be put away were.
There were some obvious ones.

And some that had to be carefully eyed and captured.

So I lined up the cadets.

Said ready, set, HUNT!

And they were off.

They learned they had to look beyond the here and find the there.
They had to find the art of observation.

And it is an art.
This is more than just learning to clean up. It is learning to see. See more than what's on the table. See more than the title of the story.
It is looking beyond horizon skies and into galaxies.
It is seeing the large in the small,
And the small in the large.

And getting my play room cleaned up doesn't hurt either.

 

And taking home their treasure made the lesson that much sweeter.

All in all I would say it was a  happy homeschooling success.

How do you teach your children to tackle the obvious and the invisible? How do you teach the art of observation?