On day three of spring break we had a dentist appointment, I had some stuff do to at home, and I had to teach some swim lessons later in the afternoon, so we didn’t have time for a full-on adventure.
But it was super nice out, so I decided to do a scavenger hunt at home with a short adventure following the scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt killed a couple birds with one stone. I could get a little work done and the kids would be outside running around and hopefully letting off a little steam.
Once the hunt was over, we would go on a mini adventure, but I didn’t tell the kids what the adventure would be.
We are struggling a little bit with bickering and tattling, so in an effort to facilitate some cooperation and teamwork, I told the kids they’d have to work together to help everyone find all the items on their lists.
Here’s what I used for the items — I “hid” 6 of the following things outside all over the yard. We have a pretty big yard, so there was plenty of space to put all this stuff.
I didn’t go too crazy with the difficulty of the hidden items because I didn’t want to spend five hours searching for that last red Lego.
I typed a quick list out:
I gave each kid a list, a plastic bag, and a pen.
We realized after I gave them the lists that I left red solo cup, blue Lego and a swim cap off of it, but we just wrote those in.
I told the kids they had to find a way to work together, and bring all the items back inside onto the dining room table when they were done.
When there were six of each item back inside on the dining room table, they’d find out what the next part of the adventure was.
The kids who were ten and younger were pretty excited and enthusiastic. The kids over ten were not exactly psyched.
I didn’t require anyone’s participation, but I explained that only kids who participated in the scavenger hunt would be able to come on the adventure.
Everyone participated in the scavenger hunt, and there were definitely some bumps along the way. It wasn’t total smooth sailing, but it did give the kids an opportunity to work on finding ways to cooperate.
This is a great activity for kids who are younger (like under 10 years old), but I really liked this as a cooperation practicing activity for all the kids together.
What was the mini adventure once the kids found everything? I kept it a surprise until we got close enough that Number 4 figured out where we were going, at which point she started screaming and bouncing in the front seat of the car.
We took a trip to Ferris Acres Creamery and we all got ice cream. This is a pretty big treat for us because we very rarely go there.
I’d like to say that getting ice cream and sitting outside on a beautiful and unseasonably warm day in April was the highlight of our mini adventure.
But it wasn’t.
It was watching a high school kid polish off a massive bucket of ice cream, hearing all his friends cheer, and then thirty seconds later, watching him puke his guts out.
We saw my parents yesterday, and they asked the kids what their mini adventure was. Number 7 told them.
“Mom called a kid stupid because he ate too much ice cream and then he puked all over the place.”
(In my defense, I said I thought it was stupid to spend that much money on ice cream only to puke it back up half an hour later).
So our memory of this adventure won’t be, Remember that time on spring break when we had a scavenger hunt and then Mom took us to Ferris Acres for ice cream?
Instead it will be Remember that time on spring break when we had a scavenger hunt and then Mom took us to Ferris Acres and that guy puked his guts out and mom said he was stupid?
But I guess that’s what makes an adventure and adventure.
You never know exactly what to expect.
Onto the next (and hopefully puke-free) adventure!
Every Baseball Mom needs a T-Shirt in the spring!
Free Prime Shipping. Comes in 5 colors!
Leave a Reply