Indoor Scavenger Hunt Ideas for Kids

When the weather is rainy or too cold for outdoor activities, your children can still burn off some energy and indulge their natural curiosity with an indoor scavenger hunt. These indoor scavenger hunt ideas range in complexity, but all are fun and engaging for your child.

The basics of an indoor scavenger hunt

No matter what sort of theme you decide on, here are the basic elements of a scavenger hunt:

  • Some items for children to search for
  • Printed-out clues for the children to find and follow
  • Paper and pencil or crayons for your child to track their findings
  • A bag to collect items
  • A timer
  • Enough time to plan and set up, plus time for the actual scavenger hunt

The complexity of the scavenger hunt will depend on your child’s age, but remember to let your child explore on their own and use their problem-solving skills. Create a list of items or clues to find, and give this to your child to reference. This list can be written out or use images.

For an indoor scavenger hunt, you may want to restrict the activity to a certain area, and ensure that your child knows which spaces are off-limits. If you have more than one child, you may choose to have them work together if that would be more fun for everyone.

Indoor scavenger hunt ideas

Here are some fun ideas for an indoor scavenger hunt for your child:

  • Riddle scavenger hunt: By solving riddles that lead to items in their own home, your child will build their problem-solving skills in a creative way. You can find some household item riddles here.
  • Animal or insect scavenger hunt: Hide small stuffed animals or plastic insect toys around your house.
  • Color-based scavenger hunt: Your child can learn about colors in a fun way with this scavenger hunt where they point out or find as many differently-colored items as they can.
  • Letters-based scavenger hunt: You can either hide letter blocks and magnets for your child to find, or ask them to find examples of each letter around the house.
  • Shapes scavenger hunt: There are a multitude of basic shapes in every home. Help your child learn their shapes by asking them to find or locate items that are squares, circles, triangles, and rectangles.
  • Book scavenger hunt: Use your child’s favorite books as part of this fun scavenger hunt. For clues, use distinctive characters, scenes, or drawings.
  • Photo scavenger hunt: Older children who are proficient in using a simple camera can have fun taking photos of subjects on their list.
  • Seasonal scavenger hunt: Even if you’re stuck indoors, you can still experience the seasons. Ask your child to look for items that can be associated with one or all of the seasons, such as a family vacation photo or a pair of mittens.

These indoor scavenger hunt ideas can give your child a fun and educational experience on a snowy or rainy day. When the weather improves, many of them can be done outdoors as well.