Why a Scavenger Hunt?
When you’re looking for creative, inexpensive (free in this instance) ways to engage your child, you can design your own scavenger hunt using your home.
Whether you live in house or an apartment doesn’t matter, you and your child can have fun looking at old thing in new ways.
It’s especially useful during inclement weather when you’re stuck inside.
Examples
This activity is inspired by a 2008 challenge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the book Everyday Mysteries by Jerome Wexler. It involves not looking at an object as a whole but focusing on its details.
Here’s a sample from the Met challenge. For access to more examples and downloadable pdfs click here.
Where to Start?
Anywhere you choose!
This is your scavenger hunt – your home. Use what inspires you. It’s perfectly fine to use Mr. Romero’s concepts as a springboard, then come up with your own themes.
You may not have the artwork of the Met, but you probably have enough pictures hanging on your walls or sitting on tables to get the job done. Don’t limit yourself – you can use the patteren on dinnerware, comforters/bedspreads, tablecloths, and towels.
Do you and your children enjoy reading? One theme can be centered around book cover artwork.
From Everyday Mysteries by Jerome Wexler
You don’t have to stick to art. Like Mr. Wexler, you can use household objects, e.g. crackers, zippers, buttons – whatever you like.
You can photograph details of various types of dried pasta or other nonperishable food items.
The possiblilities are almost limitless!
The Benefits
Aside from being lots of fun, it helps your child (and you) to examine objects in a new way – to focus on the fine details.
Focusing on details helps doctors save lives, businesses save money, the police catch criminals, and people avoid scams.
This is not just a fun excercise, it’s training for how to live life.
Additional At-home Activities
