Are the children getting on one another’s nerves? Or are you getting disrupted because of the excess energy the children have? How about getting some scavenger hunt ideas to do at home? Getting children to find various objects is fantastic in encouraging their observation skills, motor skills and also memory.
If you are celebrating a virtual birthday, you can even hide the presents and get the child plus siblings to hunt for the birthday goodies. Best of all, these indoor scavenger hunt ideas are weather proof, simple and does not require any additional tools. Double the fun by playing it virtually with friends and family! Simply give them the same list and start the timer. Fastest team to find all the objects win!
Get ready for some fun indoor scavenger hunt ideas at home!
Scavenger Hunt Ideas At Home
1. Rainbow Hunt
Everyone knows the colours of the rainbow. How about doing a rainbow scavenger hunt? Write name of the colours of the rainbow on separate pieces of paper. Line them on the floor. Set the timer to 5 minutes and get the children to find as many objects as possible for each colour.
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To encourage the use of a second language, you can also make a list of colours in another language or dialect!
2. Alphabet Hunt
Another very inclusive scavenger hunt idea that even the youngest can participate in is the alphabet hunt. You can pick just one alphabet to focus on or selected alphabets. The rule simple – find an object that begins with various alphabets. For the letter T, for instance, they can present a top or a telephone. To raise the challenge, get the children to find objects ending with the particular alphabet instead. For the letter B, they will have to find a tub or bulb.
3. Gratitude Hunt
What is one way to stay positive this season? Count our blessings! Launch the gratitude hunt to stir up thankfulness and focusing on the good. Instead of merely finding, the children can thank people for being “someone they are grateful for” or give a “loved one we missed seeing” a call. We love how this hunt is all about being thankful.
4. Numbers & Maths Scavenger Hunt
A great way to practise those numeracy skills is a hunt based on numbers. The younger children can probably get the easier challenges finding numbers on various household items (except clocks or calculators). You can also use this to practice geometry skills. Older ones can probably find other elements like charts, graphs, decimals in magazines. Get Math scavenger hunt templates.
Related to the Math scavenger hunt is the Shapes hunt. How about take note of various shapes found at home? Get your child to take pictures of all the different shapes you have written or drawn out. You will be surprised how many shapes there are. Next, count the number of shapes and plot a chart or how many of each shape you can find.
5. Hunt “Something that….”
Make your own list with random items that gets the child searching all over the home – something that moves, something that squeaks, something that is smaller than a coin, something that shows a scene from the past. Be creative and think of items that are harder to find and it will keep your child busy searching.
6. “When Dad/Mum’s on a Work Call” Hunt
The next time you are on a Zoom call, give your child a list of words or phrases to listen out for. Rules include staying out of sight, staying further than a 2 metre radius and being silent while hunting. Suggested words are “Zoom”, “Can you hear me?”, “Is your video on?”, “screen is frozen”, “hello”, “discuss” and “government”.
7. Celebratory Scavenger Hunt
How about celebrating with an elaborate scavenger hunt? Do it escape room style with using hints and clues in the home. For instance, using photographs in the room, one question can be based on the number of faces in the room and dates of photographs. Use household objects and toys to help form hints. While slightly harder to plan, the satisfaction of seeing your children’s clueless faces will be well worth it as you play “gamemaster”.
Happy hunting!
