Ideas for a kid’s birthday party

It is your turn to host an event for kids (e.g.: your child’s birthday party, a neighbourhood get together, or a fun fair, just to name a few events) and you don’t know what to do… Well, what do kids like the most? Games and winning prizes, of course! :) With a site like textclues.com, it enables you to cater both to the little and big kids by making a scavenger hunt adventure.  Scavenger hunts can be fun for all age-ranges, but using textclues.com, little kids will feel more important and like a “big kid” by using their parents devices (i.e.: their cell phone) to play a game. And, older kids will feel important to be able to use their cool gadgets to participate in some games.  So, how would this all work? A few things you need to think about:

Do you want one large prize at the end, or a few small prizes in between the hunt?

This fact will more just help you with deciding the type of clues you may want to create in between the scavenger hunt.  If it is a big prize for the winner at the end, the clues can be a build up to the winning prize.  If it is a few prizes in between, you’ll have to think of clever spots to hide these prizes, while incorporating them into the clues!
Example: “You’re getting close to winning the secret treasure! Your pot of gold awaits you where you can find three posts together within an “M”.

Do kids work in teams or individually?
Depending on the number of kids participating, this may be the determining factor.  However, even with 4 or more kids, groups can work in your favour as it allows kids to also work together as a team and co-operate with one another to help get through the hunt.

Do you want the hunt to run like a competition where there is only one (team of) winner(s) or everyone running in the hunt will win a prize?
Personally, because all kids love prizes, I think each kid should win *something*, even if it is a smaller prize than the grand prize winner.

Should kids all be running the hunt at the same time or should one child or team run at a time?
If all kids are running the hunt at the same time, it would be pretty straight forward because the person that reaches the last clue first will be the winner.  If you decide to have the kids run through the scavenger hunt individually, you can easily time each team or child to see who has the fastest time to finish the race.

Another idea that can add a little twist to your scavenger hunt can be as follows: Before beginning the hunt, tell each individual or team that at each clue station, they must pick up an object from the location. This means that you will need to ensure that there are an equal amount of objects at each clue location as the number of people/teams running in the race.  At the end of the race, you can do something silly like “The last requirement before potentially winning the prize is each team or individual must dress up one person as best as possible with all of the items picked up along the race”

Or, even other obstacles and games can be incorporated into the scavenger hunt.  For example, at the end of the race, there can be a puzzle that the kids must put together prior to winning; or, perhaps the first team that can throw 5 bean bags into a basket from a certain area on the field will be the winners! This will allow the teams/individuals that perhaps were running a bit slower in the race to catch up with the rest of the teams, making the possibility of winning for anyone! :)

As you can see, there are so many different ways to spice up a scavenger hunt for kids and make it just that much more exciting.  Go ahead, and try one out today with textclues.com.  Your kids wont be disappointed, and they will be asking you for more in no time ;)

Scavenger Hunt for Kids

Ready to Go!

The textclues service is perfect for creating a scavenger hunt for kids. You can input all your clues online ahead of time and start the hunt whenever the kids are getting restless and bored. You can use it as quality time with the young ones. Since all the clues and answers are taken care of automatically on the phone you can also use it to free up some alone time for yourself.

If they don’t have mobile phones of their own yet you can let them use yours for the hunt. Kids really find it exciting when they are receiving a hunt directly tailored towards them through a phone. If you haven’t had a chance to check out our textclues product take a look at the demo!

Be warned, once you send them on one hunt they’ll be asking for more!

 

 

Setting up the Scavenger Hunt

Setting up a simple scavenger hunt for your kids is easy with textclues. The first step is coming up with the clues and answers for the hunt.

For this step grab a peice of paper and go through each room in your house one by one. In each room come up with as many clues as you can. Keep them relatively simple to make sure the kids will be able to figure it out. Clues like “how many wheels are on the desk chair” and “how many drawers are on the cupboard” seem simple but make great clues. Especially on the first few hunts you want to keep the clues easy. You should be able to come up with 10 – 20 clues for each room in no time.

Where to Next!

Next head to your computer and open up textclues. You’re going to want to make at least two scavenger hunts because your kids will be asking for more! Simply write down a clue and answer for one room then pick a clue from a room across the house next. Picking rooms far from each other will help the hunt last a little longer. You’ll have a few hunts set up before you know it.

Now when your kids are getting restless and bored you’ll be ready with a ready made scavenger hunt. Simply type in your child’s mobile phone number or your own and start the hunt. You should explain the concept to the children the first time they’re doing the hunt. It really couldn’t be easier! I always like to end the scavenger hunt by giving them a prize.

If you have any questions for us or any experiences you would like to share do so below!

Easter Scavenger Hunt

Alright, so we have about a month away until Easter is here…  Why not make your Easter egg hunt just a little bit more fun and interactive for the huntee (and perhaps make them work a little to get the well deserved Easter treats)? ;) Use a text message scavenger hunt to hide your Easter treats. The huntee will have more fun going on the hunt so they aren’t just searching blindly AND because you will know exactly where all of the treats are hidden around the house/location, there won’t be any chocolate that is sitting unfound for many years to come :P

SO, how should an Easter hunt work? Really, it should work just like any other scavenger hunt, only you would more likely have various treats along the way of the hunt or you can just have one nice big prize at the very end of the hunt (your choice!) The good thing with textclues.com is that we provide you the means of providing all the clues and answers quite easily for the participant, without you needing to be there necessarily to supervise to see what is going on with the hunt :) All you need to do is find where you want to hide the treats, make up clues to get to these locations and you are done!

So, just to re-cap some components of this hunt:
– Determine if you want to hide treats/prizes throughout the hunt, or just one larger item for the very end of the hunt
– Think of clues to lead to the specific locations to arrive at the treats

With textclues.com, one even better feature is that you can setup the same (or different) scavenger hunt for different people and schedule the hunt to occur at a certain time. E.g.: If you have two kids, and are setting up this hunt for your kids, you can set up one scavenger hunt for each of your kids using the tool :)

Let’s end this blog post off with an example hunt:

Clue: Ready to have some fun on the hunt for some Easter treats? Reply with answer: “Yes” or “No”
Answer: Yes

Clue: Great! Start by going to the fridge. What has mom left in the fridge for dinner tonight?
Answer: Chicken

Clue: Yes! Now, what do chickens lay?
Answer: Eggs, Egg

Clue: Yes, they do. Go to where you can find the eggs in the house for your next clue.

(clue hidden in egg carton: No chocolate eggs here! But what is hidden under the kitchen sink?)
Answer: Cadbury egg, egg, chocolate egg

Clue: Woohoo! You got your first egg on the hunt :) Where is dad’s favorite room in the house?

Answer: Family room

Clue: That’s right.  Go there and look under dad’s favorite seat for the next clue.
(clue hidden under seat, along with treat: Yes, more treats :) Just to add an educational twist: What is 9 X 9?)
Answer: 81

Clue: Good job. You are learning well :) Go to where you do your homework for your next clue.

(clue: Thought you were off the hook after the first math question? Here’s another: 10 / 2 = ?)

Answer: 5

Clue: Excellent. Now, go to page 5 of your homework for the next clue.
(clue: We went on vacation last year to California. What is the capital of this city?)
Answer: Sacremento

Clue: Perfect.  Now, go to where we have our family photo from this trip and respond with the answer located at this spot.
(chocolate hidden by picture frame, with a note saying: “More Chocolate”)
Answer: More chocolate

Clue: You want more chocolate? That’s not enough for you? :) Alright, maybe a couple more… Go to your bedroom. What is hidden behind your favorite stuffed animal?
Answer: Toothbrush

Clue: Did we put that there? Oops. Must have put it in the wrong spot. Go to where you would place your toothbrush and text back to me what is hidden there.
Answer: Marshmallow bunny

Clue: We didn’t forget those were your favorite ;) Finally, what does the paper under the bathroom sink say?

(clue: Go to the family room)
Answer: Go to the family room

Winning message: Yes, go to the family room!! You’ll need that new toothbrush for a reason :) Happy Easter! (chocolate basket or bunny found in the family room)

Have some fun with your hunt. You can make it as easy or intricate as you would like the challenge to be for the huntee. If you want to add some educational touches to it for kids, go for it to make them earn the chocolate even more :P Or, if you have more space to work with for your hunt, or are working with an older crowd, make the clues a bit more complex and a challenge to find. You as the scavenger hunt maker should also have some fun making the hunt for others. Happy Easter everyone!

Try our text message scavenger hunt demo.

Scavenger Hunt Ideas Part Two

As promised, I’m continuing my discussion on some brief ideas for making use of a scavenger hunt :)

On-Campus Hunts:
Text message scavenger hunts can be used in so many different ways on-campus (or really, at any university, college, school or general club/organisation :)
Student councils are always trying to think of fun and different ways of engaging students in activities.  Why not use a scavenger hunt to:
– Put together a pub crawl: use the hunt to lead students from one pub to the next, using different clues to help point students in the right direction
– Campus tour: Why not make a campus tour a bit more exciting? They don’t always have to be long and boring ;) Have the students follow along the hunt – this way, they will learn more about the campus and remember their surroundings better for the future

Teenage or Adult Parties:
I went to a birthday party once where it was setup like a city race.  We had to log all of our answers into a website (that was built specifically for this hunt) and the next clue would then show up once the correct answer was inputted.  Clues were setup to bring the teams to different locations across the city using public transportation.  Why not just use an easy-to-use and already-made tool like textclues.com to bring your party to life?

Educational purposes:
Do you want to try to make learning fun for your kids? Try making some practice homework assignments, such as the multiplication table, a bit more fun (and surprising) for your kids!  Make it into a game by creating a text scavenger hunt that can occur at any time of day.  This way – the kids will have fun at the same time as doing something educational.

I know, this was all somewhat brief however the next few posts will provide specific examples on how to make use of a scavenger hunt for any of these ideas.  We’ll start off with kid’s birthday parties and how you can make it fun and enjoyable for all participating kids.  Stay tuned ;)