Scavenger Hunt

I wanted the year-end choir party to be different. I get tired of musical chairs.

I thought and thought and thought... and studied pinterest until I was going cross-eyed, but I finally came up with a scavenger hunt that wasn't your typical "find a feather, collect a pinecone, and pick a red flower" type of treasure hunt. About the time that we were planning all this Brianna's friend on the other side of the country texted her and said, "I have to plan a scavenger hunt for the kids at campmeeting. Do you know anything about planning a hunt?"

Well, maybe just a little. Therefore, you will get the whole nine yards here, so if you ever decide to plan a scavenger hunt for your brood it shouldn't be too hard to execute. :-)

We started off with clues that had Bible verses and scrambled letters that led the kids to the potting barn where in an earthen vessel (clay pot) were the maps that Brianna had helped me make.   The Bible verses were:

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, 

that the excellency of the power may be of God, 

and not of us. 

2 Cor 4:7

 I will instruct thee and 

teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: 

I will guide thee . . . 

Ps 32:8

Our hunt had a hiking theme.  Each of the things they would find would be something they would need on a hike or camping trip; a backpack, walking stick, light, trail mix, water bottles, maps, mountain money :-), matches, etc...

We had one crossword puzzle. You can easily make crossword puzzles online. Just type: Make your own crossword puzzle into Google. Ta- da! So, so easy!! free, too.

We had a word search: Word search puzzles are just as easy to make online. Type: Make your own Word Search puzzle into Google and it's as simple as figuring out what words you want to use.

I use Bible Gateway for finding the verses in the Bible that make good clues. Then I copy and paste and print.

We folded some of our clues into shapes... There are a ton of origami tutorials online. One of ours we folded into a flower which was really the fortune cookie fold and stuck them on wire stems in a flower pot.

We made some rhymes and used this site to help find the right words:  http://www.rhymer.com/

We also wrote Bible texts that had to be looked up in "invisible ink" which was only white crayon on white paper. We provided dark markers for them to rub over the words to reveal the texts to look up. You could write with lemon juice and such, but then they need a way to warm the paper and for our crowd that was too much.

I was suppose to take photos which was nigh impossible.  You see the sum total of my pictures! Bri was to take video and she then made this little 3 minute clip for the kids when she was done.

Obviously, we are blessed. Such wonderful kids and such a beautiful country to live in!

What I learned:  that our kids need to play more TEAM BUILDING games. *smile* and that instructions need to be super duper clear! But the kids had fun, I think, and it would be worth doing again.