Lockdown is challenging for all of us, but it can be especially difficult if you have you children. The Shan clan are fortunate -- since we live in the countryside, we're able to do quite a lot outside, even within a five kilometre radius, so we can go on walks and play outdoors a lot, which helps the endless days pass a little more smoothly.

But every now and then, it's nice to throw something a little different into the mix, so we've had a few treasure hunts over the last year. Mrs Shan draws up a map (she's much more artistic than me) and plants clues around our 14 acres of land. I then set off with the little ones, while Dante makes sense of the map and collects the clues, to figure out where the treasure lies buried. It's lots of fun, and merrily kills a good hour or so.

Here are a few photos from our latest hunt, where each clue was a letter. When you assembled them correctly, they spelled out the treasure's hiding place. Dante's reading has improved tremendously over the last year, so he was able to read the word WIGWAM when I helped him put the letters in the right order -- but there was a little confusion, as unbeknownst to me, Mrs Shan normally refers to the wigwam in our hallway (we put it up a while back, on a rainy afternoon, and it's proven a hit, so we've left it in place) as a TENT, so Dante was let scratching his head, asking what the hell's a wigwam?!? :-) :-) :-)