If you want to hide the treasure or the next clue inside – let’s say – the oven, then naturally you’re going to want to say something about “heat” or “burning”, right?  Maybe.  Instead of just saying “I’m hot” or “I like to bake things”, maybe you could put on the clue: “The first historical record of a _____ being built refers to a _____ built in 1490, in Alsace, France. This _____ was made entirely of brick and tile.”

See?

Make them think, and they’ll love learning.

Another example would be the refrigerator: “Carl von Linde, German engineer whose invention of a continuous process of liquefying gases in large quantities formed a basis for the modern technology of _____. _____ is chiefly used to store foodstuffs at low temperatures, thus inhibiting the destructive action of bacteria, yeast, and mold.”

That one might be a little too easy, but you get the picture.  If we can find ways of adding some historical facts in with the hunt, I think we all win.  These are some standard knowledge facts, but there are plenty of ways to get creative with them too, as you will see in future articles.

So for now, get your Google and your Wiki on, and get started on creating the Ultimate Scavenger Hunt!

Anyway, it was a blast, and I can see why these things are becoming more popular as people are starting to want to get to know their neighbors more.

Fortunately, my clueless (no pun intended) self and I were not the leaders of this party.  A friend of mine – Yasmine is her name – decided to have a “hunt” in the neighborhood for the kids for her daughter’s birthday party.  I’d say there were about 20 or so kids there, so it was a nice turnout.

We all gathered together on her birthday, and Yasmine had already had a list for each kid, each list different.  The lists were loaded (seriously, she took her time with these!) with items from the neighborhood, from the mundane to the obscure.

Well, the kids had such a great time that we’ve decided to make this a regular happening in our group.  In fact, we have another one coming up again this weekend!

I’m glad I now know what to call these games, and look forward to seeing this community being built – exchanging ideas on scavenger hunts sounds like a fantastic idea!

Let’s start off by defining what we mean by “scavenger hunts”: the traditional hunt involving gathering artifacts from the neighborhood as well as made-up, creative, in-home hunts and clues.

For this first example, we’ll discuss the traditional hunt, and there are at least two ways to go about this…there are certainly many, many more, but for now we’ll focus on the obvious. The last hunt we had in our neighborhood, we sent the kids out to find your basic in-the-home products: laundry detergent, cat litter, dog food, etc. That was easy for them.

Then we raised the bar.

For the next hunt, they had to find similar objects as the first, but we were more specific. For example, they needed to find a blue spoon, some all-white detergent, and dog food that wasn’t Purina. Going just on memory, I’m not sure if I’m citing the clues exactly or even giving ourselves enough creativity credit, but that was the gist of it.

Kids these days (yes, I now sound like my parents) have very short attention spans – not that that’s a bad thing – and they’ll get tired of the same game with similar clues. So we switch it up and make it more difficult and more interesting each time! Let’s hear your stories!