As I was doing some research on the computer for my personal investment, my children were running around screaming. They had the day off from school and have run out of constructive things to do. We aren’t able to spend time outside because the weather won’t cooperate with us. So as they are stuck inside and bored, I needed to come up with an idea to keep them busy for at least awhile. Then whatever idea I used shouldn’t be boring or work it should be fun. I can always make them clean their rooms later when they get too wild as a punishment. Cleaning your room or the basement isn’t fun so I thought of a scavenger hunt.
So I wanted to have my kids go on an indoor scavenger hunt. This idea seemed good and in theory they should have fun. Next I needed to find a scavenger hunt list of items for them to hunt down. Most of the scavenger hunt lists I found on-line were more for the high school student or the college age scene. Those lists were much too complicated for my children. One of the more challenging items on one college list was to get a picture of a team member handcuffed by the police. I did find a few lists that were for children’s parties, but mostly had outdoor or birthday party items on those lists. So I had to compile my own scavenger hunt list for my children with common household items. Since I was making my own list I was able to customize it to things I knew we have and items that would be fairly easy to find. I was able to come up with a list of 40 items for the children to find.
Indoor Scavenger Hunt List:
1. A Shopping Bag
2. A Sticker
3. A Photograph
4. Toilet Paper
5. Left Sock
6. Rubber Band
7. Chuck E Cheese Token
8. A Card
9. Webkinz Animal
10. A Coin
11. A Lego
12. A Barbie
13. Right Shoe
14. A Pencil
15. School Yearbook
16. Piece of Candy
17. Captain Underpants Book
18. Paper Airplane
19. A Movie
20. Gamecube Game
21. Bible
22. A Spoon
23. Q Tip
24. A Ball
25. Bar of Soap
26. Ice Pack
27. Tape
28. A House from Monopoly
29. Hot Wheels Car
30. A Crayon
31. Birthday Card
32. Toothbrush
33. Tissue
34. A Pillow
35. Glue
36. Wii Wheel
37. Scissors
38. Necklace
39. A Coupon
40. Measuring Cup
I typed up the scavenger list in a word document, then I printed out a copy for each one of my kids. I handed them the list and told them to read it over once and then set them loose in the house. Now you could time the scavenger hunt so they only have 5 or 10 minutes or whatever time you choose. But I wanted them to be busy for the longest time possible so ours wasn’t timed. I am happy to report that our scavenger hunt took about a half an hour to finish.
If you do decide to time your indoor scavenger hunt, you might also want to attach points to each item. The easy to find things would have a lower point value such as 10 points for toilet paper. Then you could take something that is difficult to find like the Chuck E. Cheese token and make it worth 100 points. When the time limit has been reached, whoever has the most points wins. The prize you pick for the winner can be anything that your children would like.
However you decide to do your scavenger hunt your kids should have a fun time. The only problem I can see is the clean up. Hopefully they will have had a good enough time that they won’t mind cleaning up after.
