Scavenger Hunt!

When the big kids were little, I made a point of coming up with all sorts of activities to keep them busy and focused. A house with four loose and wild little kids, each a year in age apart from the next one, is no fun for anyone. We did crafts and games and plays, all without the help of Pinterest, seeing as how the world wide web had yet to be invented.

One day I took a bunch of close-up photos of objects around the house. Things like a button on a coat, the pattern on a curtain, and a leaf of a plant. I had the photos developed (It was pre-digital photography, too!) in duplicate and used them to do a scavenger hunt with the kids. Each team got a stack of photos and had to find the objects. Apparently, they liked that activity enough to remember it, because this afternoon, I came downstairs to find each of the big kids in an area off to himself, coming up with clues for a scavenger hunt. Buttercup made two; one of close-up photos for the little boys and one with written clues for all of us.

We spent an hour today doing all of the hunts. Not surprisingly, the clues each teen came up with very much resembles his/her personality.

First up was Giant. He is methodical. He is detail oriented. He likes to make things a bit of a challenge. He made a set of drawings for each person/team. We were each given the first clue at the start, and each location had the tiny pieces of paper stuck somewhere. Once someone found it, that person could head off to the next location.

He made us run all over the property!

Star is much more about getting work done quickly instead of neatly. He likes to make things challenging for others, so each clue was different, and each was designed to make us use our noggins. He only made one of each clue, so everyone at the same location had to share.

Only 2 of the 5 clues. 

The third clue was a complicated cryptogram that held us all up. Buttercup got it first. I never did.

Buttercup's hunt was next up. That girl is organized. She thinks things through. She has a heck of a memory, and she uses it. When we gathered at the start, she had the first clues ready for us.

She had thought ahead. Knowing she didn't want us to be able to simply follow each other from clue to clue, she labeled each one. We each went to the same places, but at different times. But only if we used our brains and figured out what the clues meant.

Twins, 9 years apart. 

For example, "they're coming to get me" refers to a kids' song we've heard on the radio. It goes "The leftovers are coming to get me", and the clues were in the fridge, on top of the container holding leftover chicken and noodles.

Phoenix was next. He is too bright and clever for his own good. He knew it would take us forever, so he took his hunt off the table. I later saw his clues, and I am glad he came to that conclusion. :)

Once we were done, Cuckoo asked if he could come up with one. But of course! He went with the same clue tactic as Giant. While Cuckoo is also detail oriented, he's only 5. His details aren't quite so clear all the time. 

Phoenix is the only one who managed to figure out that the first clue was the dog house.

In case you're wondering, the other drawings are the van, a chicken, and a tree. 

Summer.

It's the best.

(My next post will be all about how I organize our summer days, including how I get all of the kids to do big daily chores without huffing and puffing.)

Have you ever done scavenger hunts? How did you do it?

Have a lovely day!