Do a Scavenger Hunt with your Child!!!

    While we are on lock down in our homes; it does not mean we cannot be active.  A fun, safe way to be active with your children is with a scavenger hunt.  Scavenger hunts can be indoor or outdoor.  There are so many ways to have a scavenger hunt.  You can go on a color hunt or a five senses hunt.  It doesn't matter if you have children that are young or teens.  You can create or find scavenger hunts that address different age levels or interest levels.  There are also free printables of scavenger hunts and ideas at BuggyandBuddy

Benefits of Scavenger Hunts

1. Hands-on Learning: It's all hands-on because, your child will be actively engaged in problem-solving.  They must figure out where to look and think about what is associated with the items on the page. Make it challenging but practical as well. You know what your child has or has not been exposed to. Start with what is familiar to them.

2. Movement: This the way to do playful learning that requires your child to get out and move. Whether your inside or outside a good scavenger hunt will always get your children searching, looking and moving. They're exercising unconsciously and so are you.  You will be moving all over as well especially if you have little ones. So mom and dad put on your sneakers.

3. Social Skills:  I don't know about you but my son and daughter have a huge age gap.  Sometimes they do interact but not always. My son may not play dolly or have teatime with her and she may not go on a 5k run with my son. This activity works because, he can be the one out there with her while she's searching. They can work together to locate the things on the list. So it will cultivate much communication between the two of them.

4. Individualized:  I hear this word constantly in education because, I'm constantly figuring out ways to reach all of my children's level of ability with the same concept.  So scavenger hunts have the flexibility to be individualized specifically by age, interest, and level of complexity.  You don't want to give a kindergartener a hunt that's too hard because, they will hate it and want to give up. You don't want to give your preteen something too easy because, it will bore them.

        

     My daughter and I went on a Nature Scavenger Hunt. I decided to go with her interest because, one of her favorite cartoons is Nature Cat. Also, science is one of her favorite subject areas in school. We even had to take a walk in our neighborhood to find some of the things on the list. She was so excited of course because, it was little change in our normal schedule.  The best thing is that we spent some genuine quality time together.