Tip: A Scavenger Hunt For Everything

Scavenger Hunt Examples

Remember how much fun scavenger hunts were as a kid?  Why not bring that fun to your kids, keep them busy, and keep them excited?  It's so easy.  I use scavenger hunts for many different things. Here are some examples:

1. Keeping my kids busy in the car. I create a list of items for my children to look for while we are driving in the car. This can be just about anything including nature, car colors, vehicle types (fire truck, dump truck, etc), signs, shapes, etc.
2. Getting the house clean. When I need the house cleaned quickly and with little to no whining, I create a list of items for each child to look for and pick up.  The key here is making sure that the list contains items from multiple rooms in the house so they actually have to hunt for them. I create separate lists for each child and create a little friendly competition between them.  Creating the list only takes about five minutes but keeps them busy for at least 15 minutes and my house is much cleaner by the end.
3. Keeping them interested in a nature walk. This one works for any park, trail, or nature walk. I include things like birds, rocks, sticks, water, different animals, etc.  You can make this as simple or complicated as you want to.

Creating the scavenger hunt list is so easy.  I simply open a word document, search for pictures of the items I want to add (either clip art or the internet), insert the picture and a word description and hit print. My children like to put stickers on each item they find and then they hang it up in their bedroom and talk about it all week long.

So the next time you are out and about or even hanging at home and need something to keep the children busy, try a scavenger hunt!