DIY Escape Room

After a summer of themed activities for Aunt Sadie's Summer Camp, I wanted something really out of the box for our final week. But I also didn't want to spend a ton of money . . . enter the DIY Escape Room. Pinterest was a huge help in giving me ideas and getting the wheels turning in my head. Don't get me wrong - it was a huge endeavor. It took me most of the day on Tuesday to plan everything out. But the kids loved it. And let's be honest: I love using letting my creative juices flow on projects like this. Lucky for you, I also like to share. 

An Escape Room is different than a regular treasure hunt, because the clues don't build on each other or go in any kind of order. Instead, there's a goal to achieve, and the clues help you get there. In this instance, I decided to have the kids find 9 keys that were hidden throughout the house. I made 8 clues that were stationed around the living room. Some of them were obvious. Some took the kids a few minutes to recognize as clues. You'll see what I mean . . .

I can't get the picture to rotate - but you get the idea. I wanted them to have a visual, so they'd know how many keys they had left to find.

This was the rest of the setup. I went with a "Back to School" theme.

Lena immediately made a bee-line to this poster on the wall:

I included an image of a magnifying glass on the poster to serve as a hint that they'd need to use one to find the tiny clue hidden on the page. But I didn't expect her to realize it that quickly. Haha. She immediately went to the other side of the room for the magnifying glass and studied the page until she found the clue (hidden in the far right emphasis line) that said, "Look Behind the TV." Key #1: found taped behind the TV.

Meanwhile, Nova discovered the popsicle stick puzzle that was in a mug on the desk. She didn't even put it together all the way before she knew what it was leading to. Haha. (I made it by printing a picture on computer paper, then gluing it to popsicle sticks and slicing them apart. I wrote the alphabet in order on the bottom to make it easier, but I guess I didn't even need to do that!)

Key #2: found inside the Lego boat!

Lucy went for the cup cipher, which was way too easy for her. Haha. I should've made her give it to Saylor. 

Once all the shapes were lined up it revealed the word "closet."

This was a multi-step clue, which threw them off. The boys immediately ran to the closet and started searching for a tiny key even though there was a huge black trash bag filled with balloons right there in front of them. Lol. I finally had to tell them there wasn't a key in the closet and they needed to find the next clue. It took Lena saying, "what's that trash bag?" for them to find it. Haha. Once they pulled out the balloons, Lucy immediately made the connection to another poster that was on the wall:

She called out, "the color order is important!"

Lena stepped in to help them as they realized there was something in the balloons. I had put a piece of paper with a letter on it in each balloon. (I also color coordinated the letters in case they popped the balloons before they realized the order was important. So red paper in the red balloon, orange paper in the orange balloon, etc.) Nova popped all the balloons as Lena called out the colors and Nash and Levi put the letters in order. Saylor was so excited, she levitated:

The letters in the balloons spelled out "computer." So then they rushed to my laptop, opened it . . . and didn't find the key they were expecting. Haha. Finally, Levi turned it on and this popped up as my background: 

Key #3: found taped to the underside of the coffee table!

In between helping the kids with the balloon clue, Lena was also perusing the letter I had left on the table:

These were the flashcards that were in the envelope. Nash pulled them out right away, but couldn't figure out what to do with them, so moved on to something else. 

Lucy eventually joined Lena to puzzle over the letter and they noticed the color connection. But that still wasn't enough to decode the clue. It was Nova who pointed out that the animals on the flashcards matched another poster on the wall:

Then they worked together. Lena called out a color from the letter, Lucy found the animal of that color on the flashcards, then called it out to Nova, and Nova called back the letter on the wall that the animal corresponded with. This clue spelled out, "Look in the oven." Key #4: found in a bowl in the oven.

In the meantime, Nash and Levi were working on this wall poster:

This one had some flaws. Lol. It was supposed to go: Bee, Bird, Sheep, Shark, Poison Dart Frog. I didn't realize until too late that "sheep" and "shark" have the same number of letters. Levi put shark first, so I just told him to switch them in order for the circled letters to be right. And the bottom one is "poison dart frog," but I put an extra _ in the word "poison" so that confused them for a while. Haha. Oops! Once they remembered all the animals, the circles spelled out "bread." Levi kept reading it, "breed" and didn't know what that meant. Finally, I told Nash to read it and he read it correctly. 🤦 Key #5: found under the bread in the cupboard. 

Then Saylor noticed the pattern blocks on the table and said, "Guys! I think this is a clue!" She and Nova put the blocks in place, but then they had to unscramble the letters. Lucy and Lena joined in, but it took them a long time to get to this:

Keys #6&7: in the ice cube tray. (I got sick of coming up with clues, so hid two keys in one spot. Lol.)

At this point, there was a lull. They had two keys to go, but didn't see any more obvious puzzles. Eventually I said, "all of the posters are clues. Did you do them all?" Once Levi took a second to read this one, he got it immediately:

Key #8: found taped behind the C.L.O.C.K

Finally, Nova realized the pens and pencils in the second mug on the desk all had words on them:

Then Nova and Levi got in a fight over who could look in the book. I'm pretty sure Levi won.

Key #9: found in an old book

Fortunately, no one stopped to read the words beneath the hole I cut out for the key. Lol. I have tons of old books that I keep for random things like this. I didn't even glance at the words. I just flipped to a page and started cutting. . . . At least he got his mistress's consent? That's pretty ahead of the times for Virgil.

Once they found all 9 keys, I told them they had to unscramble the letters written on each key to reveal their prize: DOMSCLAND. Again, Levi got it almost immediately (because he anticipated what kind of reward I'd come up with). . . . Did you? 

I timed them like they do at an actual escape room. All that work on my behalf, and they escaped in 20 minutes flat. Lol. That's what I get for underestimating their intelligence, I guess! 

I had to go buy styrofoam cups, keys, and balloons at the dollar store, but the rest of the supplies I had at home. I made all the printables (except for the dinosaur pattern block mat) in Canva - feel free to steal them! (Google Drive link to all of them here.)