Skip to main content

Painted Rock Hunting: A Community Treasure Hunt

One of mine and my daughter's new favorite hobbies is hunting for painted rocks and painting and hiding our own for others to find. This new community treasure hunt started in Washington state a few years ago and has quickly spread and grown in popularity. My daughter found our first rock a few months ago in a planter box outside our church. It had an angel painted on one side and a hashtag that lead us to a facebook group dedicated to painting and hunting for rocks in our area. Basically people just paint rocks and hide them around the community. Some people post pictures and hints to help you find their rocks. When you find one, you post a picture, and then either keep it or rehide it.
We were excited to get started painting our own rocks so I did a quick Google search to see what other people were using that wouldn't wash off in the rain. Acrylic paint with a sealant like Modge Podge seemed to be the most common method. We gathered up some nice smooth stones and got to work.  

We paint a lot of different things on our rocks: flowers, hearts, butterflies, uplifting words and phrases. I've made a couple Minions and some Harry Potter themed rocks. I have found I really enjoy painting rocks, it's a bit therapeutic.

Rock painting, a fun family activity

Now we keep a small basket of finished rocks on a shelf near the front door and anytime we're headed out somewhere that might be good for hiding some, we grab a few. Popular places include parks, playgrounds, walking trails, and shopping plazas. 

Since our first rock, we have found quite a few more. We found a ladybug rock outside Dollar General, and just last week, we found two at the head of a trail we were hiking on at the park. I love seeing all the different rocks and ways people decorate them. We have some fantastic local artists!

Rock painting/hunting


I really love this fun community activity. It's like an Easter egg hunt year round! It gets my kids out, and excited for walks and hikes in the park. It's also given us a really fun hobby when we're stuck at home.

If you want to join in the fun, just do a quick facebook search for groups with your areas name followed by "Rocks". Most likely there are already active groups in your area (we've found 3 different groups around here). If you can't find an already established group, consider starting your own!



For more fun ideas, follow me on:
Facebook
Pinterest
Instagram

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Water Relay Races For Kids

I don't know about your kids, but mine absolutely love games involving water and getting wet in the summer time. In  this post I share 5 of our favorite water relay races to play with friends. These are perfect for birthday parties, homeschool get togethers, and other group events. Sponge Relay: For this relay you will need: - 2 teams of several kids each -2 large sponges -4 small buckets or containers of some sort Divide your participants into 2 teams and have each team line up single file at a predetermined starting place.  Hand out a sponge to the first participant in each line. Set a bucket of water by each team. Set an empty bucket about 20 ft away from each team.  The two empty buckets should be the same size and should have a "fill line" marked half way up. On a count of 3 (or ready set go) the first participant in each line should dip their sponge in the bucket of water, run to the empty bucket, squeeze the water from their spo
2 comments
Read more

STEM Art: 21 STEAM Project Ideas

My kids love STEM projects and we're always looking for ways to add more art to our homeschool days, so I decided I am going to try to dedicate one morning a week this year to STEM art activities. In this post I share some of the ideas we're planning to try, plus a few favorites we've done in the past. What is STEM Education? STEM education is a blended and often hands on approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which are some of today's fastest growing industries. STEM education offers students the opportunity to problem solve and work on real world problems and questions. Sometimes the acronym STEAM is used, to include the arts. Adding art to STEM education encourages creative thinking and problem solving skills. It can also help make the other included subjects more appealing to some students. STEM Art Projects  Penny Spinners-   Learn about centrifugal force and make your own spinning tops with this fun post from Teach Beside Me. Explo
Post a Comment
Read more

Make Your Own Mineral Identification Kit

One of my family's favorite hobbies is rock hounding. We love collecting and trying to identify neat rock and mineral specimens that we come across. You can put together your own simple kit for identifying rocks and minerals with materials you likely already have around your home. In this post I will explain how to put together your own mineral identification kit and how to use it to identify rocks and minerals you find on your adventures. Making a Rock and Mineral ID Kit Grab yourself a printable Rock and Mineral Journal for recording your observations here:  Printable Rock and Mineral Journal ,  and then gather the following supplies: -A pencil -A coin -An iron nail -A piece of glass (an old pocket mirror works well) -A ceramic tile -A small watertight bottle or container -Some vinegar -A magnet  -A magnifying glass -A dropper (optional)  -Rock and mineral guide (optional)  -A small container or bag to keep it all in Fill the small watertight
1 comment
Read more

Learning About Thailand: Activities and Resources

Thailand ended up being a really fun country to study. There are so many amazing Thai recipes to try and lots of neat buildings and monuments to learn about. My family's favorite part of this unit study was learning about Asian elephants, they are such interesting and intelligent animals!  Basic Information  Thailand is a country in southern Asia. It is boarderd by Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and the Andaman Sea. The northern region is mountainous while the southern region is hilly and forested. Capital- Bangkok Population- 69.6 million Size- 198,115 square miles Currency- Baht   Type of Government- Constitutional Monarchy National Anthem-  Phleng Chat Thai National Animal- elephant Flag Famous Places The Grand Palace- The Grand Palace in Bangkok was used as the official royal residence of Thailand from 1782 to 1925. It is still used today for ceremonies and state functions. The palace sits on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. It consists of many buildings and pavilions set around a
Post a Comment
Read more

Learning About The Human Body Part 1: The Skeletal And Muscular Systems

At the end of each school year, I sit down with my daughter to discuss what topics she wants to learn about the next year. One of her science topics she picked to study this year was the human body. Instead of ordering a boxed curriculum set, I decided to put together my own human body unit. In this post I share some of the resources we used for learning about the human skeletal and muscular systems, plus instructions for a couple hands on learning activities. You can find my post about the human respiratory and circulatory systems  here , and my post about the human digestive and nervous systems  here . The Human Skeletal System Our skeletons are the frame of our body. They give us structure, without them our bodies would be limp like noodles. They also provide places for muscles to attach so our bodies can move. Why Does Your Body Need Calcium? Experiment: This is a simple experiment you can do to explore why calcium is important for our bones. You will need: -several clean
5 comments
Read more