Puzzlehunts are Everywhere, even my Parents' House
Yeah, I should really work on a write-up about BANG XX. But today I hung out with family. My cousin Nancy, her husband, and her son came over to my parents' place for a visit, staying last night & today. Conversation last night revealed that her son likes treasure hunt games. My parents helpfully pointed out that I could make a treasure hunt game. So this morning, while I waited on some errands at home before heading back to my parents' place to continue the family frolic, I wrote a little treasure hunt, jotting down puzzles and riddles on seven index cards, ready to tape up at various spots in the house.
I tried to aim it at a five-year-old, didn't know if I could. I didn't know how good he was at reading--I knew he could read "cat" but maybe not "valentine". But he'd almost certainly have a grown-up along providing help. Could I get away with using good word-puzzly words like "gubernatorial"? What if he didn't need to understand those words? Hmm, my thoughts waffled. I needn't have worried, though. When I mentioned this morning that I'd brought over a treasure hunt, it turned out that he wanted to run the hunt, not play in it. So... we had a puzzlehunt that was probably too hard for a five-year-old, but probably too easy for four clever grown-ups. Then again, the kid seemed to enjoy watching them going through the puzzlehunt anyhow, so... Success, I guess.
You can see how you would have done. I dunno how easy this is if you aren't familiar with my parents' house, and you probably aren't.
First puzzle:
In the Garden:
Yellow on the outside
White inside the outside
Yellow inside the inside the outside
Second puzzle:
In front of the house:
I clean shoes,
But I'm dirtier than feet
Look under me
Third puzzle:
In the first floor hallway:
My first is in CHEETAH , but not in COMPLICATED
My second is in PUMA , but not in MISPRONOUNCED
My third is in LION, but not in COPYCATTING
My fourth is in LYNX, but not in OXYMORON
...OCELOT , ...GUBERNATORIAL
...FELINE , ...CONFISCATE
...COUGAR , ...CATERWAULING
...SERVAL , ...VERNACULAR
...TIGER , ...CARICATURING
...PANTHER , ...LEPRECHAUN
Look on the floor
Fourth puzzle:
In the living room:
[Here, there was a long strip cut out of the index card. Underneath were taped pieces of index card. The pieces said
- DIO
- DOL
- DRA
- HIN
- KBE
- LOO
]
the fifth puzzle:
In the ground floor hallway:
"House" has five letters
I don't know how they got there
A house can have letters, too.
How do they get in?
the sixth puzzle:
In the kitchen:
The coldest door in the house!
...and the seventh puzzle showed a simple pigpen cipher and a message encoded in that cipher.
So I still don't know whether or not this puzzle would have worked OK for a five-year-old. But now I know that grown-ups are good sports about tromping around the house solving clues.
Labels: kids, puzzlehunts
