From Lauren (USA)

This activity makes a perfect game for babysitters to play with children. It is very similar to Hide-and-Seek but with a twist.

Materials:
Small slips of paper (about 3 or 4 inches squared)
Pencil, pen or marker

Directions:
First, think of a good hiding place - like a coat closet.Then write down on the slips of paper, one letter to a slip, where you will be hiding. Put each slip in different places, all over the house, making sure they are in plain sight, and not too difficult to find. Tell the kids how many pieces of paper (I call them "Clues") they are looking for (in the "Coat Closet" example, it would be 10). Have them close their eyes and count to 20, or how ever many seconds you think it would take to get to your hiding place.

As soon as they are done counting (and you have hopefully gotten to your hiding spot) they look around the house to find all of the "clues". When all of them have been found, the kids must then put them in the right order to find you. (The older kids may find it a lot easier than you might think.) As soon as they have done so, they may then search for you in that place. But, they must have all of the "clues" in the right order before they find you or else they lose the game.

If you are hiding in a place that has two or more words, then using a different colored paper or marker for each word would make it a lot easier. (For example, use red paper for C-O-A-T and blue for C-L-O-S-E-T.) The younger kids who cannot spell still find it fun to collect the clues, while the older ones enjoy putting the words together.

If all of the kids are young and may have trouble with putting together the words, then it might help to write numbers in the corner of each "clue" so that they know what order to put them in. (C would have 1 in the corner, O would have 2 and so on.)

The game really keeps the kids thinking and because they have to work together, it keeps them from fighting, too!

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