How to Create a Simple at Home Escape Room for Kids

While escape rooms have become extremely popular with adults, they are truly an experience for all ages – and one that can be replicated at home. Whether it’s for a birthday party or just a rainy day, a home escape room can be a great way for parents to bring both intellectual enrichment and fun to their kids. The most important things to consider when designing an at home experience are the ages of the children involved, and most importantly: fun!

When designing for your children, you should design your game around a roughly equal balance between tasks, games, and puzzles for them to solve. A good rule of thumb is to begin the experience with a task, preferably one that will aid the children in solving a subsequent puzzle. The puzzle will serve to not only challenge their minds but give them a sense of empowerment when they complete it. Then, you can give them a break from the more mental parts of the experience with a rewarding game based around the setting that you’ve already created.

Escape rooms are at their core interactive and immersive experiences, very similar to a real-life video game. This is something that should be kept in mind when designing an at home experience, especially when doing so for children. Kids are already familiar, in general, with concepts that are commonly found in video games, and you can use this to your advantage when designing the at home escape room setting.

Using the concept that an at home escape room should be divided somewhat evenly into tasks, puzzles, and games, it’s easy to take this idea and turn it into something fun and engaging. For example, one could design a room around the concept of an alien spaceship that the players have to commandeer in order to stop an invasion. Scissors attached to a padlock can be spun to the player’s imagination as laser bolt cutters, which can then be used to solve a cut out word puzzle that then reveals the password to the alien armory of nerf guns, used to fight off the evil invaders and save the day.

You can create a great at home escape room for your kids by following these simple steps:

1. Decide on your theme

2. Set the stage with your setting with decorations and environmental cues.

3. Establish your scenario for the players to solve.

4. Create a story with your games and puzzles.

5. Test it out and have fun!

At the end of the day, an at home experience is only limited by the depths of your imagination and the degree to which you’re willing to transform your home into a temporary, and truly an unforgettable experience for your kids to truly immerse themselves within.

But, for those days that aren’t rained out and miserable, no where on earth can give you more inspiration than a genuine escape room experience. Boerne Escape Rooms have a variety of experiences and settings that are great for all ages and levels of ability. Relive a terrifying enactment of the classic story of Hansel and Gretel in “Seasoning of the Witch”, or the fantasy adventure of your dreams in “Fairy Kingdom”. No matter your interests, we have captivating and fulfilling experiences available for everyone. Book an escape room with us today!