If you haven’t been living under a rock, you know that Escape rooms have taken over the scene in terms of things to do. You’ve probably already been hassled about an escape room for kids. The problem is that often times they are a little tricky for kids AND not to mention the price tag.

Fortunately, you don’t have to dip into their college fund to give them an escape room type of experience.

What are escape rooms?

Actual escape rooms usually have a series of puzzles that must be solved to ultimately get the key to escape. They rely on logic, critical thinking, and working as a team to get out before time runs out. They can be a lot of fun, but they can also be frustrating. We all know there isn’t anything as fun as dropping $100 or more on an evening that leads to frustration, tears, and drama.

Instead of all of that, I strongly suggest that you try some alternatives before you shell out the big bucks. You can DIY escape rooms.

Make an escape room for kids

Escapes rooms are really a set of logic puzzles to be solved and each puzzle leads you closer to the key and ultimately escape. A simple logic quest can be a great alternative and can be made as complicated or easy as you need it. That means that making an escape room for kids is the perfect solution when the topic gets brought up. You can use almost anything as an escape room puzzle.

How to make an escape for kids

You will need to decide on a topic. Escape room ideas are endless. You can make an escape room about a holiday, person, or even an educational topic (my favorite way to play). Games can be provided all on pencil and paper, a combination of pencil and paper and actual physical object to find based on the clues, digital, or even some combination. I suggest at least 4 puzzles to make it a good game.

What are the types of escape room puzzles?

That is up to you and your time and resources. Escape rooms puzzle ideas are just as variable as escape room ideas. You might use simple logic puzzles, complex riddles, code words, actual keys to open boxes, scavenger hunt style games, digital locks in google documents, or even actual treasure boxes.

When I make an escape room puzzle I usually try to build in a level of difficulty to help prevent frustration. For escape the classroom style games, I try to have a simple sorting or categorizing activity, then ordering steps or identifying parts, then usually I create a set of questions based on a topic we are studying or a reading that I provide.

Not interested in an escape the classroom game (an academic escape room), no worries! Pick a topic that interests your kiddos. I’m thinking of some video games that could be excellent topics for an escape room for kids. Creating an escape room challenge needs to be hard enough to keep the kids interested, but not so hard that they give up.

Along the way, I have code words that are used to decipher the hidden message. The first person to decipher the hidden message wins the game. You can also play where each person or group that decodes the message in the time allowed escape.