Explore Your New Location With A Scavenger Hunt

Transitioning to the next base is always exciting. New city, new house, new school for the kids, new playground and library, and new places to get shopping done or eat… Simply put—everything is new and different. Finding your way to the plethora of unknown places can be overwhelming at first but exploring can be a lot of fun if you make it so. It’s time to turn your whole family into a team of detectives and learn the area. 

Decide when the best day for a family scavenger hunt would be. Plan the route ahead of time—ask neighbors for tips on some fun locations, use Google and Facebook travel and spouse groups to research the hot spots in the area. The scavenger hunt can begin right there in your new home, continue around the base, and lastly you can venture outside of the base to explore the area that surrounds it. Make a list of places you want to visit and keep the clues age appropriate. 

If your children are younger, have them look for certain colors, shapes, etc. along the way as you walk or drive around and explore. If they are a little bit older, you can put more effort into creating clever clues and riddles that are fun to solve. In either case, have some rewarding treats prepared for them along the way and a “treasure” waiting at the end of the hunt. It could be as simple as finishing the hunt at the local ice-cream store or having a family dinner in a place where you never ate before. 

Before the scavenger hunt starts, print it out a list of clues to solve and places to see, and have a crayon for each person. Need some ideas? How about the following:

• Take a picture with a street sign where your new house is 
• Find your postal box
• Identify places where you can safely cross the street
• Locate the nearest convenience store
• Find your closest gas station
• Locate a fire station
• Explore a nearby park 
• Pick out a book at your new library
• Visit a popular local landmark 
• Eat at a local popular restaurant 

Discover everything from birdhouses to the museums. Toddlers or high-schoolers, children will appreciate a fun way to explore your new location with a scavenger hunt. If there are many things you want to explore but are worried about time, you can break up the hunt into different days and create a new weekend tradition that will entertain your family for the first few weeks at the new place.

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