Outdoor Adventures

Outdoors changes three things about an adventure, and all three catch people out. Paper gets wet. Children spread out further than you expect. And a hiding place that is obvious indoors becomes invisible in a yard, because there is ten times as much yard.

The fix for all three is the same: fewer, bigger, more visible stops. Six outdoors is worth twelve indoors. Put each clue somewhere a child can see from the previous one, which sounds like it gives the game away and does not, because seeing where to go next is not the same as knowing what to do there.

Take a picture of every hiding place on your phone as you set it up. You will not remember the fourth one, the hunt will stall, and you will be the one walking the yard looking for your own clue. Print on ordinary paper and put each page in a sandwich bag if there is any chance of rain, which there is.