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This article is the second installment in our series on Indoor Activities for Kids. Read the first installment on how to take your child on an indoor camping trip here!
These days, parents are looking for more and more educational and fun activities to occupy their kids indoors. We at Wondrfly want to help by making it easy for you to access all the online resources you need to make these activities a reality! Today we’ve gathered our favorite inspiration from across the web on how to create a super scavenger hunt for your child.
You may be asking yourself—why scavenger hunts? Scavenger hunts are a terrific indoor activity for kids, and have a variety of educational, physical, and social benefits! In addition, they’re incredibly adaptable to your circumstances and learning goals. There are hundreds of different ways to do a scavenger hunt, as you’ll see.
Scavenger Hunting is Hands-On Learning!
When you set up a scavenger hunt for your child, you guarantee them a multifaceted and fun learning experience! There’s a massive variety of ways your child can benefit from scavenger hunting.
For one, scavenger hunting is a hands-on learning experience. Research has shown that hands-on learning allows kids to retain information better. You can tailor your scavenger hunt to your personal learning goals for your child, and let those lessons really sink in.
Whether you give your scavenger hunt an explicitly educational twist or not, there’s a lot your child can learn from the experience. For example, scavenger hunts challenge kids to problem-solve in a practical way. This improves their overall cognitive functioning by giving their brain a workout!
Scavenger Hunting is Good Exercise!
It can be a huge challenge to get kids up and moving when they’re stuck indoors. All too often we rely on screen-time and electronic devices to keep them entertained and neglect their physical fitness. This is perfectly understandable but can have unfortunate consequences.
The CDC recommends kids get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. It has been shown that just 60 minutes a day can prevent heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic conditions, by improving overall cardiovascular health.
Participating in physical activity every day can also lower your child’s risk of injury by strengthening their muscles and bones! Finally, kids who get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day have been shown to do better in school. All that said, it can still be difficult to ensure your child gets the benefits of physical activity when you’re spending more time indoors. That’s why scavenger hunts can be such a valuable resource!
To bring a burst of energy into your day, set up and execute a scavenger hunt with your kids! There are two major ways to up the urgency of your scavenger hunt to get kids moving faster and with more energy and enthusiasm.
One way to power-up your scavenger hunt is by making it a timed event. Challenge your kids to collect as many items as they can within a given time limit. They’ll fight against the clock to succeed!
Or, if you have more kids at your disposal, you can break them into teams and see who can find the list of items first! A little healthy competition gets kids motivated to move, just make sure they don’t take it too seriously.
Did We Mention It’s Free?
Scavenger hunting is one of the most naturally frugal activities for kids. It takes advantage of what’s already around, which means no additional purchases are required for hours of potential fun!
You can always customize your scavenger hunt to utilize objects and environmental features of your surroundings. This can also make your child more aware and mindful of the things they pass by and use every day. Mindfulness is important to good physical and mental health. See? Just another benefit of scavenger hunting that can be yours for free!
Wondrfly’s Favorite Scavenger Hunt Ideas
This list of spectacular scavenger hunt ideas will provide you with just what you need to keep your child entertained and active indoors. They combine learning and fun in a way that benefits your child on a multitude of levels. Why not take advantage of one of these awesome scavenger hunt starters today?
General Kids’ Scavenger Hunts
This indoor scavenger hunt by Destination Imagination has 25 items that are just tricky enough to find. It’s a little easier, since there aren’t “clues” so much as requirements each item must meet. You may find your child has surprisingly creative interpretations of these requirements. Play Party Plan also has a similar hunt, with more, broader categories for more creative interpretation!
You can also check out this indoor scavenger hunt by Mommy Poppins for a less challenging option. There aren’t clues, just specific items to find! This makes it a good, less complicated choice for kids of all ages.
Scavenger Hunts to Improve Literacy
The Spruce’s indoor scavenger hunt challenges kids to solve riddles in order to identify various common household objects. This little dose of wordplay will strengthen your child’s language skills as they gleefully try to solve the poetic clues.
For a scavenger hunt to teach letter skills, check out this adorable alphabet bug hunt from No Time for Flash Cards.
This scavenger hunt might take a little longer to complete than some others on this list, but that’s okay! It comes as a printable treasure map, with categories your child has to read a book in to check off. Not only will it keep them occupied for a while, it will incentivize reading tremendously for them! Check it out at Modern Parents Messy Kids.
To find out more on the best indoor activities to keep your kids learning and growing, stay tuned to the Wondrfly blog!
Looking for ways to get your child learning out in the community? Search Wondrfly’s network of children’s activity providers today for the best local kids’ activities!
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