Things to do as a family that get your kids outdoors and active! Rock Painting is great fun for all the family. https://lukeosaurusandme.co.uk
Activity/Craft,  Days Out,  Family

Family: Painting Hidden Rocks

Unless you’ve ‘been living under a rock’, you will have noticed painted stones popping up all over your social media feeds and around your local area. These hidden rocks form part of one massive community treasure hunt for kids and adults alike.

Hidden Rock Facebook Groups

The Facebook group Hidden Rocks has over 13,000 members, all decorating their rocks, taking photos of them, hiding them and then uploading photos of any rocks they find on their travels. It’s amazing – a rock that started off in Durham could find itself sitting besides an ice cream shop in Portsmouth’s South Sea.

Once you’ve painted and vanished your rocks, it’s time to hide them! If you search on Facebook, you’ll most likely find loads of hidden rock groups that are around in your area. You’ll see who’s hiding rocks, what the rocks look like and where they’ve been hidden. I have noticed that the rocks in my county are split between very local areas – the park, in town, by the train station and then some are in more rural, ‘outdoorsy’ zones, such as Alice Holt Forest and The Look Out Discovery Centre/Swinley Forest. When you go on Facebook, you’ll probably find groups for both your town and county.

Things to do as a family that get your kids outdoors and active! Rock Painting is great fun for all the family. https://lukeosaurusandme.co.uk

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A fantastic family activity to do together

Painting, hiding and hunting for hidden rocks is a great family activity to do, and actually finding someone else’s rock is extremely satisfying! The process is great, from start to finish: you can express your creativity, get outside in the fresh air and spend quality time as a family. What’s not to love, especially with summer on the way!

Things to do as a family that get your kids outdoors and active! Rock Painting is great fun for all the family. https://lukeosaurusandme.co.uk

It’s also really exciting when you log into Facebook and find that someone else has found one of your rocks! We recently went out and hid a bunch of stones in the woods the next town over from us. The next morning, we woke up to find that someone had found Luke’s bumble bee rock, taken a picture of it and told us they were off to go and hide it again for the next person to find.

Supplies Needed For Rock Painting

Generally speaking, the only thing you need to buy is vanish – it’s recommended to use all purpose waterproof yacht vanish (bonus: this yacht vanish comes as a spray, so it’s much easier to apply!) Some people choose to use normal poster paint, but acrylic paint creates bolder, brighter colours. Additionally, you can experiment with Sharpies, acrylic paint maker pens and metallic marker pens to make some truly striking designs. As mentioned earlier, some people have used glitter and stickers – I wouldn’t encourage the use of these items because of the effects they may have on the environment if/when the vanish wears thin on the rocks.

Hiding Places

It’s up to you weather you want to make your rocks hard or easy to find. If you’re in the park, hiding a rock at the base of a tree is the perfect place – children can spot it without getting themselves into any danger (or standing in dog poop!). Hiding it in a hedge off the beaten track may not be the best place to hide them as very few people are likely to walk that way.

You could try hiding your rocks in some of these places: the base of trees/in tree trunks, outside shops, at National Trust sites, the edges of car parks (make sure you’re careful), low walls, ride-on toys outside shops, at the top of the slide in the playground, at the bus stop or in the library – next to the children’s section!

So what are you waiting for?

Grab some rocks, get creative and head outside for a family adventure!

Things to do as a family that get your kids outdoors and active! Rock Painting is great fun for all the family. https://lukeosaurusandme.co.uk

Rachael is a 31 year old mum to 10 year old Luke and 5 year old Oscar. She lives in England and writes about family life, crafts, recipes, parenting wins(and fails), as well as travel, days out, fashion and living the frugal lifestyle.

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