Family Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Coronavirus has changed the way holidays look. So today I’m sharing a fun Halloween activity that you can do and still socially distance. Download your free printable family Halloween scavenger hunt.

Happy Halloween friends! We have had our first serious cold front here in Texas where I live and it is awesome! I love sweater weather so much. Most of the time our Halloween in Texas is pretty warm still so I’m excited about this cold weather. Lots of people are altering how they do holidays this year. COVID has just totally turned our world upside down. Since we live one of the largest cities in the U.S. , we are seeing some escalation again.

If you want to do something fun that doesn’t require you to be exposed to a bunch of strangers, I think scavenger hunts are really fun. If you have a neighborhood that goes out all for Halloween, then take things outside for more fun. Otherwise, you can do this in your own yard or house. I’ve created a fun family Halloween scavenger hunt that you can print out and do at home. But first, let’s talk about some fun things you can do this Halloween (or should we call it Corona-ween) and still maintain distance from others.

Social Distancing Halloween Activities

Close But Apart Trick-or-Treating

Originally, I heard some people talking on social media about just leaving a bowl of candy on the porch for people to help themselves. This sounds like a great idea, but I know lots of people who have done this before pre-Corona for one reason or another and had horrible experiences. Some people, when left to their own devices, pour the whole bowl into their Halloween sacks. You see this kind of footage taped by RING cameras all the time. I’ve even seen parents doing it! Ugh! It’s sad that people do this, but people do!

So instead, set up a small table, bench or some other surface on your driveway or lawn. Then you can stand on your porch or near your door and monitor and great people like you normally would but at a safe distance. You can even put the candy in Ziplocks or treat baggies so everyone gets their fair share.

Also before you leave, don’t forget to download my fun Halloween I Spy game. You can do this cute activity inside while they eat their candy. Happy Halloween friends! Be safe. Before you leave, don’t forget to subscribe for future posts and subscriber-only goodies.

Family Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Candy Egg Hunt

If you’ve got some extra Easter eggs kicking around a closet, pull them out and fill them with candy just like you would do at Easter. Scatter them in your yard and let your kids find them. You could also have a glow in the dark version by covering the eggs in glow-in-the-dark paint. Additionally, you could also just put lots of glowsticks near the hidden egg areas.

Halloween Photo Backdrop

You can create a Halloween photo backdrop on your garage or the side of your house and allow others to come and take pictures against it. This way you can join in with all the Halloween fun, but you aren’t having to hand out anything. No contact! Of course, you can always leave a bowl of treats out next to it if you want.

Halloween Car Parade

You can organize it with your neighborhood, but everyone can give their cars a spooky makeover. Then a designated driver from each family can join in the caravan while the rest of the family gathers on the driveway or lawn to watch the haunted motorcade go by.

Skeleton Scavenger Hunt

This is a slightly different take on the printable scavenger hunt idea. This would probably be more fun with older kids or adults. Buy several of the full skeleton decorations found in stores. Disassemble the bones if needed. Scatter them over your house and or yard. Either individually or in teams, have participants find all the bones to complete their skeleton.

Family Halloween Scavenger Hunt

That brings us to my fun family Halloween scavenger hunt. Now, if you have a fun neighborhood that goes all out for Halloween, I say, take the scavenger outside and see what you can find. Additionally, you could always do a car version of the scavenger where you drive around neighborhood streets and try to spot these things.

But I think the easiest thing is to do the scavenger hunt in your house or at least around your property. One fun way to do it is to print out a scavenger hunt and give a copy to every participant. Select a place to be the finish line. To make it fun, have the participants start in different areas. First one to the finish line with all the items found, wins.

I hope you have a safe and happy Halloween. I’d love it if we became friends and you subscribed to my blog. I promise I don’t email too often and I send fun free stuff once a month. Thanks for reading!

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Halloween I Spy Printable

Are your kids bored this week? Download my free Halloween I Spy Printable for a for spooky Halloween activity that’s fun for all ages.

Halloween I Spy Printable

Hey Friends! We are in October and here in my house we are wondering how things will be different in 2020. This year, lots of things have looked differently. This year, we did all of our birthday parties on Zoom and we even had drive by parties. My husband and I have had to get pretty creative on how we can keep the kids entertained.

Personally, I’ve been creating lots of printables to keep my kids busy. Things that are low cost and certainly things that kill their boredom while social distancing. You see, I know many people have returned to relatively normal lives, but since we help my elderly parents, we are still strictly quarantining. I keep telling myself one day this will be all over!

So, I decided to create a fun Halloween I spy printable to add to our homeschooling activities. My kids love I spy games and they are so fun to do. But they are more than just fun, they are actually educational. So why are I spy games good for kids, you ask.

The Benefits of I Spy Games

It Builds Memory Skills

Memory games and I Spy games help your child fine-tune their photographic memory. When children search for the image in the maze of other pictures, they must use their visual memory to find the picture. Using I Spy activities really strengthens your child’s memory. This is essential for growing children. It can be really frustrating when children disobey us. But as a mom of two, I’ve learned that many times my kids don’t mean to disobey, they simply forget. Little ones still have budding brains and it has become really apparent to me as I’ve homeschooled that children really need memory training.

It Improves Focus

Children have to focus when they do an I spy game. Nearly all young children struggle with concentration and focus. That’s why training their minds to focus through games is so helpful. To them it is just play or a fun activity, but ultimately you are trying to get them used to focusing so it can carry over into school work and other life skills.

They Can Improve Counting Skills

Some I spy games, like the Halloween I Spy printable I’ve created for you, asks children to find the picture multiple times. This forces children to keep count. When you complete the I spy printable, have your child make tally marks as they find the picture.

It Enhances Visual Discrimination

I can recall when I started to teach my children colors. We did lots of color sorts. I’d give my child math counters of different colors and they would have to sort it into the coordinating colored bowl. Why? Because sorting helps your child not only decide what color it is, it helps them figure out what color it is not. The same is true for I spy. As your child sorts through the jumbled pictures, your child will have to hone in on the discrepancies, differences, and similarities between the pictures and ultimately decide if the picture is the same they are searching for or not. Your child will have to use visual discrimination to determine the differences.

How to Use The Halloween I Spy Printable

The printable is a US letter-sized document. I’ve made it into a PDF document you can download. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat or some other PDF viewing software. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free here.

I’ve purposely made the pictures black and white. First, so that the images are harder to find. Secondly, so that your child can color them in when they find them. He or she can also put an “x” over the image if they’d rather not color. If it’s easier for your child they can also put little tally marks in the answer key if they want.

Thanks for reading today. I hope that you and your family have a safe and Halloween. Be sure to subscribe to the blog before you leave for giveaways, free printables and subscriber-only goodies!

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Printable Halloween Memory Game

Keep your little one busy and improve their short term memory with this FREE printable Halloween memory game.

printable halloween memory game

We are just a few weeks away from Halloween and today, I’m sharing another FREE printable with you. If you are looking for a quick, fun way to pass the time I’ve got something for you. I love making memory games for my preschooler. It’s a simple game that he has really grown to love.

I love getting my preschooler to do it at the kitchen table while I make dinner. It’s a great boredom buster and I don’t actually have to sit down with him to play.

Benefits of Memory Game

Playing memory games has lots of benefits for your child. Some of those benefits include:

  • Trains short term memory
  • Builds vocabulary
  • Practice problem solving
  • Trains visual memory
  • Improves concentration
  • Improves ability to classify objects based on similarities and differences
  • Practice following directions

To find similarities, your child will look for similarities in size, shape and color. This skill is actually an early math skill. They’ll need this skill to find patterns and sequences in numbers.

Free Printable Halloween Memory Game

How to Use Your Free Printable Halloween Memory Game

  1. Download the file to your computer

  2. Use Adobe Acrobat or other PDF viewing software to open

  3. Open file and print on card stock or paper

    For added durability consider printing on card stock and laminating.

  4. Trim following the lines provided

  5. Mix them up and place them face down in rows

  6. Take turns lifting two at a time until a match is found.

Have a wonderful and safe Halloween, friends! Don’t forget to pin this post for later. Also, check out some of my other free printables here! Share this post with your friends. Thanks for reading.

Monster Halloween Gift Tags

Halloween is upon us and I’m sharing these cute monster halloween gift tags, perfect for all your spooktacular gifts and treats.

monster halloween gift tags

This post may contain affiliate links. Should you click or make a purchase through one of the links, I may receive a small percentage at no cost to you. Your support helps me offset the costs associated with this blog.

Halloween is here and today I’m sharing a FREE printable! I know how much my readers love the free printables (Thank you for telling me!) and so I’ve made a cute set of Monster Halloween gift tags for you to use. Personally, I love using these on treat bags, but you can use them on basically anything you want.

This year I used them on party goody bags, snack mix treats for school and soap and hand-sanitizer gifts for our teachers. I even put this on a bottle of wine I took to a party! Get creative and use them on any kind of gift-giving you do this Halloween.

monster halloween gift tags

Download Now

The monster halloween gift tags are in a pdf file. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat or some other pdf viewing software to use them. Just print them out, trim, hole punch and tie around your gift or treat. I recommend printing them on white card stock paper for best results. Enjoy!

I’d love to see how you use them. If you are on Instagram, be sure to snap a pic and tag me at @my_beautiful_mess_blog

If you’re looking for an awesome treat, you need to try my Monster Munch Snack Mix. It’s so easy to make and the best part is it can be a fun Fall activity to do with your kids. Also if you are looking for other fun Fall things to do, take a look at my Fall Bucket List. It’s a great way to make to celebrate Autumn and make it extra special.