We are heading into our third week of social distancing, school closures and “shelter at home” mandates. Not only here in the USA, but also in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Germany, where our close family members live.

In a previous post, I shared how we started to play games in order to connect with each other and pass the time at home. We have played Mystery Person, Scattegories, Yatzee (or as we call it in Argentina: Generala), and Battleship.

Our little family is separated in 5 different countries, and we are on three continents. As many countries’ borders are closed and traveling is restricted, we are all feeling the need to continue to connect, stay in touch, feel a certain closeness, support each other in our well being and mental health…

I decided to create a virtual scavenger hunt with challenges to complete. Each completed challenge earns the participant a predetermined amount of points. The app allows access to an in real time updated leadership board.

Here were some of the criteria I used to design the challenges:

• Age – all of our participants, from our youngest (7 year old) to oldest (79 year old), should be able to complete.
• Documenting – let’s capture what we are thinking, living and feeling during these “unusual times”. Let’s also capture the “every day thing”, the routine, the not-so-exciting things happening in our lives.
• Create – what can we create, not just consume, during our time of “confinement”?
• Empathy– how can we be mindful of and understand how other members of our family are feeling? How can we make each other feel better?
• Social Emotional Well Being – let’s not forget about physical activities during the time we are “stuck” at home. How do we feel? How do we let others know we love them? How do we spent time together as we are apart?
• STEAM – how can we do research, practice scientific reasoning, wonder about how our world is working, express ourselves with Art, etc.
• Humor – how can we make each other laugh and be positive in times of worries and anxiety?
• Family Stories/Anecdotes/Wisdom – let’s use this time to tell, capture and share memories and stories of our family.

The scavenger hunt stayed open for 12 days. I continued to add missions as I created them and as fast as I could as some of the participants completed them as soon as they were uploaded.
Not surprisingly, the two youngest players and the two oldest players won 1st through 4th place of our remote family scavenger hunt!

Imagine creating a remote scavenger hunt for your class. The missions are completely customizable and include the possibilities for text, images or video responses. Uploaded evidence of completion of a mission can also be given through a URL link to another app or website (ex. Flipgrid, YouTube, blog post, etc.)

Below are the missions as examples and for your own inspiration!