Fall Scavenger Hunt

Thanksgiving morning I woke up thinking about how to keep 8 kids occupied for the afternoon with only one Wii in the house  :)

The kids coming for Thanksgiving all get along really well, but I wanted to make sure there was something for them to do together other than just watching a movie.

So, I divised a Scavenger Hunt with David's suggestions and shared it with the parents when everyone arrived.  We all thought it sounded like a fun idea, so we sprung it on the kids after lunch.  They were game (phew) so we sent them off!

I did a lot of googling Thursday morning for good scavenger hunt ideas. 

I found some decent lists, but ended up creating one myself.

We split the 8 kids into two teams and had the 2 oldest kids as Team Leaders.

Team Turkeys and Team Pilgrims.

They drew names from a Pilgrim hat to determine the rest of their teams.

We armed the teams with a camera, their list, a pencil, their cell phones, and a Wal-Mart bag and sent them on their way for 45 minutes. 

We had some rules - teams had to stick together since they were going to be off in the neighborhood without adult supervision, and they couldn't go anywhere near the busy road at the entrance to our neighborhood.

Shockingly the teams were done in 45 minutes and had found all! the items!

(The only item they couldn't find in nature was an acorn, so they drew it on the driveway in chalk and took a photo - smart kids!)

The adults were still sitting at the dining table when they returned to show us their findings and photos.

We rewarded both teams with sweets to share.

It worked out even better than I imagined!

It was safe, fun, and gave the kids something to do together on Thanksgiving.

Double click the photo below to print out the Scavenger Hunt list.

My boys are hoping this becomes a new holiday tradition.

Since we get together at Easter with the same crew, I'm already thinking ahead :)