Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

Although the weather has been a bit on the wintry side lately, we have been trying to get outside as much as possible. K and B are usually quite enthusiastic about the prospect, but N is sometimes harder to coax out the door. One day, I suggested we make our simple walk around the neighborhood into a scavenger hunt. Bingo!

"Can I make the list?" N asked, suddenly excited. (Um . . . well . . . of course!) I was pleasantly surprised at just how relevant his list was. I'm pretty sure it was better than what I would have come up with in that amount of time. He even drew little checkboxes next to each item! Here it is:

• An open garage
• An orange leaf
• A bare tree
• Some grass on the sidewalk
• A two-story house next to a one-story house
• A fallen-down sign
• A rocky area
• A rock bigger than your hand
• A cloud formation [meaning a cloud in the shape of something]
• A flock of birds
• A farmhouse
• A red leaf
• A basketball hoop

So, we rounded up some clipboards to make it official and off we went! The wind was pretty brisk, which made keeping the paper flat on the clipboard a bit frustrating, but it was a fun adventure overall. N and K checked off everything except "a flock of birds", and we were deciding that we'd have to find that another day. Then, as we were turning into our own driveway again, we disturbed a flock of house finches who had been snacking at our feeders! The kids were ecstatic at completing the list, and N even handed out prizes (homemade cookies) when we got back inside.

I knew the activity was a success when they asked, "Can we do this again sometime, Mom?" (Um . . . well . . . of course!)