Family Scavenger Hunts For Youth, Children and Adults

Scavenger hunts are a wonderful way to spend time with your family. They are not only fun, but they can also be great opportunities for children, youth and adults to learn important life lessons and life-skills. They are great as a stand alone event or as part of the entertainment for a party or holiday celebration. Depending on the rules, they can be highly competitive or encourage cooperation and teamwork toward a common goal. Scavenger hunts can help youth learn or test their common knowledge on subjects, improve navigation skills, enhance their problem solving ability, and provide a great many other benefits and educational opportunities.

Types of Family Scavenger Hunts

When deciding what you want to do for a youth scavenger hunt the first thing you want to decide is what type of scavenger hunt you want. Scavenger hunts can involve looking for items or clues and can contain props and equipment like a compass and maps. There are also photo scavenger hunts, sound scavenger hunts, video hunts, "amazing race" type hunts, and many more variations.

Family Scavenger Hunts For Youth, Children and Adults

Treasure Hunts for the Family

One of the most popular types of scavenger hunts for youth happens to be those which use detailed maps and in which simple clues are used to find special locations. Sometimes the clues will lead you to items at the location that either are clues themselves or have clues stuck to them. Sometimes challenges will be included at some of those locations before they can receive the clue leading to the next location. Prizes can also be awarded in scavenger hunts in order to keep the interest of the participants, and keep them motivated. Prizes can include: Gift Cards, Movie Tickets, and themed gift baskets.

Setting up a "Pirate Treasure Hunt" for your Family

Here's a simplified example of a treasure hunt using a "Pirate's Treasure Hunt" theme. Start with a pirate map letting everyone know the boundaries of the hunt. In this example, the youth's house is the primary location for the scavenger hunt. You will need a compass for each team of youth because compasses are what pirates used. Use descriptive language and a little creativity to bring your maps alive. The bathtub and mirror becomes a "mirrored lake" or "mirrored sea." The hall becomes the "middle passage". A door or window is described as a "portal." Any place with plants becomes a "garden." The closet becomes the "stores." A shoe closet becomes the "foot locker." You can also include the "North room", a "central chamber," "the Den", "Next to the Sleeping Princess" and others.

Clues for a "Pirate Treasure Hunt"

First Clue: Fill your bath tub with a little water, and put a toy boat floating in the water. If you have a shower curtain, pull the shower curtain shut so that the boat is concealed. Place a clue on the wall behind the shower curtain which will be concealed unless someone opens the shower curtain to find the next clue. The hint leading to this ship should be: Find a pirate ship sailing in water or in more descriptive and thematic terms "Find the pirate ship sailing upon the mirrored sea."

Second clue: On the wall behind the shower curtain you will to put something like: "Head west 6 feet then make your way north to the rocky road." (This would lead the youth outside the home) "Then continue to the Green Parrot's waterfall."

Third Clue: The waterfall would be near a rock by a fountain outside, which is also used as a bird bath. The next clue would be something like "travel 6 feet west and through the portal to find the sea." "When you find the sea, walk north until you hit the dead end." This would then lead the hunters back into my home to a picture which has dolphins on my wall. When you head north you will walk directly into a broom closet.

Putting It All Together

Of course there could be many more clues and the clues could be much more difficult. Sometimes riddles are also used to make the scavenger hunt even more difficult. But in this simple example, you can imagine how much fun the youth can have as they are forced to work together and decipher the meaning of the clues.

With a little imagination, creating scavenger hunts for youth can be almost as much fun as playing them. If you are interested in creating one of these scavenger hunts cheek out my website for a variety of ideas, themes and even riddles to help you get started.

Family Scavenger Hunts For Youth, Children and Adults
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Need Ideas?

You can get ideas for specific scavenger hunts from http://www.creativescavengerhunts.com

Ken has been actively involved in youth ministry for almost 20 years and has been writing youth Bible Study materials since 1988. He has written for numerous Youth weekends and summer camps around the world. He also does training workshops for youth leaders and teachers in Asia and is recommended by others for his creativity and for his passion in mentoring youth.

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How to Find Bereavement and Family Emergency Airfares

When an unexpected death or medical emergency befalls a loved one far away, it is often very challenging to find and purchase an emergency airline ticket. It has always been the custom for airlines to charge the highest prices for tickets bought at the last minute, and even more if you don't know exactly when you will be returning.

For many years the airlines have offered bereavement airfares, but unfortunately most airlines have eliminated or dramatically reduced their family medical emergency and bereavement airfares in the past year. The airlines claim that competition has affected the marketplace so much that they just can no longer afford to reduce ticket prices any further. Really? We all know that last minute tickets with a flexible return date can often cost ,000 or more! Thankfully three major US airlines are still committed to assisting folks during family medical emergencies. They are American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and United Airlines.

Here are the steps you need to take to secure a bereavement or family medical emergency reduced rate airline ticket:

How to Find Bereavement and Family Emergency Airfares

1) You must phone the airline's reservation department. Contact American Airlines at 800-433-7300, Northwest Airlines at 800-225-2525, or United at 800-241-6522. Information for this type of ticket does not exist online. Airlines don't even admit they have such fares on their websites! Tell the reservation agent that you need a medical emergency or bereavement reduced rate airline ticket and what the circumstances are.

2) You must be an immediate family member - sister, brother, parent, child, grandchild etc. If you have extenuating circumstances, by all means explain them to the agent, they have been known to bend the rules from time to time.

3) The airline agent will verify the information you are telling them, so have the following information at hand for verification: Your relative's full name, Name and phone number of the funeral home
or Name and phone number of the hospital or medical facility, Name and phone number of the attending physician.

Flights should be able to be booked in the course of one phone call, so be prepared with your desired dates and times of travel before placing the phone call. If the first agent you speak with does not seem able or willing to deal with your request, end the call and dial in again. Finally, you may want to check on Priceline.com, Kayak.com and with low cost carriers that serve your area to see what a standard ticket would cost. You may find that there is a less expensive option available online than with a reduced rate bereavement ticket.

How to Find Bereavement and Family Emergency Airfares
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Susan, who has worked in the travel industry for many years, writes a daily blog http://www.WickedGoodTravelTips.com

Wicked Good Travel Tips is a community of avid travelers sharing insider tips about traveling the world. Come visit us for the best travel tips on the web.

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Home Phone Service Discount for Low Income Families

Most people are aware of government assistance programs like Food Stamps or Medicaid but did you know that there is an assistance program for your phone service? Lifeline is part of a program administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) that provides a subsidy in the form of a discount on your phone service. Lifeline will save you at least per month but typically reduces your phone bill by over .50. In addition to the monthly savings, there is also a benefit called Link-up that will pay half of your activation fees, up to .

With sustained U.S. unemployment rates above 9% for over a year now, it's not surprising that the number of Americans receiving food stamps is over 40 million and is expected to keep rising. Medicaid recipients total over 50 million. If you're one of these people, you are qualified to receive the Lifeline discount on your phone service.

Food Stamps and Medicaid aren't the only programs that qualify you for Lifeline assistance. Some states follow federal guidelines while others have their own rules. The Federal guidelines require that your total household income does not exceed 135% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, or that you're enrolled in at least one of these programs:

Home Phone Service Discount for Low Income Families

* Medicaid
* Food Stamps
* Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
* Federal Public Housing Assistance (Section 8 housing)
* Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
* Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
* The National School Lunch Program's Free Lunch Program

Now that you know you qualify, how do you get it? It's easier than you might think. You don't have to go to a special government office and meet with a caseworker. You don't have to change phone service providers if you currently have service. If you currently have home phone service, call your phone company and ask to be put on the Lifeline program. They'll typically ask you to fill out and sign a simple form which you'll need to fax or send to them. The form typically asks for your name and address, and which of the qualifying programs you're enrolled in. Your signature is stating that you are telling the truth. Some states also require some form of proof of the qualifying program like your award letter.

If you don't have working home phone service, check your yellow pages for a local phone company and ask them about their Lifeline home phone service. All of your major carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and Quest offer it as do most of the Competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs). Don't worry about your credit history. If you're eligible for Lifeline, you aren't required to pay a deposit if you're willing to let the provider block any toll calls from your phone. You'll still be able to make long distance calls using a calling card or some other prepaid service.

The Lifeline discount is applicable to just one phone line per household. And, the Link-up subsidy is a one-time benefit. So, it's not a good idea to keep changing providers since you'll only get the discount once. You may get away with receiving Link-up more than once by going to a different carrier but it's not legal for you to do so and the form that you sign to get started is your statement that you've never received Link-up before.

The Lifeline benefit can be applied to cellular service instead of home phone. There are a few cellular service providers that offer a "free government cell phone" which is actually the Lifeline program. It typically gives you between 60 and 200 minutes of service per month and a free handset which is your Link-up benefit. But, you can't get the Lifeline benefit for your cell phone if you're receiving it on your home phone, and vice-versa.

So if you're one of the over 50 million Americans receiving government assistance, call your phone service provider now and ask them about Lifeline home phone service.

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State Lifeline Guidelines

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