Conduct a Scavenger Hunt in Social Deletion
Children, they are bored. They are stuck inside, they miss their friends, and their parents often insist on working all day. And the fact is, it will become increasingly difficult to make one day slightly different from the previous one. As more and more days go by without these daily interactions with coworkers, classmates, friends and strangers – all of which we now understand that we took for granted – we must find ways to continue to connect and interact as a community. From afar.
Gillian Quint writes for PureWow that one of the ways her community has come together in a fun (but physically detached) manner was by hunting the neighborhood shamrock scavengers on St. Patrick’s Day. One parent, through a neighborhood mailing list, suggested that all the children in the neighborhood make a shamrock to display on the front door or window of their house. During the day, 80 families signed up and shared a Google doc to publish their intersections:
Under the guidance of my husband, the children carved the shamrocks and decorated them and then glued them to the window. This, we note, ate as much as 40 minutes in the morning. Then, after lunch, we all hit the road, strolling around the block in search of greenery. We saw many neighbors, some with notepads to write down their findings. All with a smile and hand waving (from afar) when we were noticed.
It would be nice to associate this event with a holiday, but isn’t every day a holiday now? (Don’t reply to this.) As the new managing editor of Lifehacker pointed out on Twitter, this is an action you can do anytime. Just replace the shamrock with flowers, hearts, animals, or whatever:
Take some paper with you to jot down your findings: how much have you seen? Which ones were in the most unique places? What were their favorites?
If you want the hunt to be smaller geographically, for example, just for your block (you may not have a larger Facebook group or email list set up yet), you can organize a more classic version of the game. Each neighbor puts an item in or near his yard. Make a table of the items that the children need to find and send them on the hunt.
If you’re lucky, a neighbor will coordinate this and you might just be a happy participant. But if not, then you can become the hero that brings your neighbors together so they can come together and leave a fun memory – and remind yourself and our kids that we are still here and together.