Pandemic Easter
With time on our hands, the Easter egg hunt went longer than ever!
Every year our Easter hunts include a Scavenger hunt. From before the kids could read, it would be pictures of places like the mailbox. As their skills increased, so did the clues around town. Often they’ll include home made crossword puzzles or word jumbles. This year the focus has been on map reading and GPS skills so the clues included maps or pictures and GPS locations. In the end we biked about 11 miles around town. By about mile 8 my ten year old said “wait, we’re doing all this work for an Easter basket? Not sure that’s worth it.” Lucky for him he got the bike helmet he’s been dreaming of in his basket. My kids also expect these now so they were just waiting for the first clue to come. I said, you’ll know when the time comes. Then I said I was going to fold laundry and they all ran up to help, thinking the clue might be in the laundry. Have I ever figured out a way to get my kids to do chores!
The scavenger hunt is definitely one of my favorite traditions and it’s really simple to put together. Think of the general area you want to explore in and walk around and take some pictures. All my pictures were taken throughout the two weeks before on different walks. You can make it as simple or complicated as you’re up for. Get the pictures and clues into envelopes and hide them.
For groups that don’t know each other well yet, consider online crossword generators. This is a great way for groups of kids to interact. Each clue is a fun fact about someone in the group so it spurs conversation.
If you have varying ages or abilities, consider having spin off clues where one has to solve a harder soduku puzzle (the numbers then tie to letters for a word scramble at the end) and the other has riddles. They each have to find puzzle pieces from their clues and then together they’re off again when they can complete the puzzle that makes their clue. I got a multi pack of puzzles here.
If you don’t want to get up wicked early to set out clues, consider a texting scavenger hunt where they find locations, have to do funny poses and take a picture. Once they send it to you, you send the next clue. I’m getting this one together for my kids in the next week when I just need some time to get work done.
