Keep Kids Busy This Holiday Season (and Beyond) With Fun Printable Escape Rooms

What are your plans this holiday season? Are you hosting Thanksgiving at your home? Are you traveling to another friend or relative’s house? Are you traveling somewhere where you’ll be at a hotel?

The holiday season is all about being around family and friends. Sometimes that can also mean a lot of boredom for for kids. Take for example Thanksgiving. While the adults are busy cooking and baking, and others are watching the parade and/or football, there is not much to occupy a child’s time.

I can remember when my kids were little and we had Thanksgiving at my in-law’s homes (meaning my husband’s sibling’s homes). The kids would get forced into a room or a basement to keep them from being underfoot. But what are kids suppose to do? Many times I recall the kids would get into a lot of mischief because they didn’t have anything constructive to do to keep them busy (not all kids love to sit and color).

If you are looking for something fun to do this holiday season (and beyond!) to keep your kids busy, you should download and print out some fun escape rooms from PaperEscapeCo.

PaperEscapeCo is an online company (also found on Etsy) that offers families a variety of escape room activity sets that you simply purchase, print and play. It’s that easy! Best of all, you don’t need to run around town purchasing additional supplies. Everything you need comes in the printable.

The paper escape rooms are fun for groups of people (young and old can enjoy the games), in small or large groups. You might have to print out some extra sets if working with a very large group. Once you purchase the game, you can print it out again and again.

The games from PaperEscapeCo are also ideal for summer camps, youth groups, YMCA programs, and classrooms.

Instead of a board game for your next game night with family and friends and opt for a fun and unique escape room game.

The available escape room options are available for adults, children ages 5-8, and children ages 8-12.

Here is an example of setting up a Paper Escape Room for adults.

 

Some of the currently available escape rooms include;

• Abandon Warehouse
• Ancient Ruins
• Prison
• Office
• Deserted School
• Pirate Ship
• Fall

Keeping checking for future releases too.

My husband tried and escape room at the mall many years ago. We failed to escape in the allotted time. While I was impressed we were able to figure out as many clues as we did, I’m sad we didn’t make it out. None the less, we had a blast and we’ve been talking about doing it again for the longest time now. We really need to do it again.

Each game from the PaperEscapeCo comes with an instruction sheet that tells you how to set the game up. They also come with the story and all the clues you’ll need to figure it out. Everything is simple and easy to understand.

I was sent a few games to try out with my “work kids.” The ones I received are for ages 5-8 and 8-12. I cannot comment on the adult versions, but if they are anything like the ones for kids I am sure they are a lot of fun.

The first thing I did was print out a single set of each game. From there I decided if I needed to print out additional pieces and/or how I would group the kids (teams). I printed out extra pieces where necessary. Since you own the game when you purchase it, you can print out as many pieces/pages are you need to help make the game work with your group size.

I am the site director for an afterschool program. Since my “work kids” are not my kids, and the kids are not allowed to have their images shared on social media (including my blog), I was unable to take photos of the kids playing the escape room games.

The first game we tried was the Zoo Escape Room. For that game you need to help lure visitors back to the zoo after “Mean Hank’s” attempts to scare people away. The challenges are easy for older children, but a lot of fun for the young ones. For example, you need to fit together pieces of an animal puzzle to spell out the clue word. Another game children need to find the differences between two images.

A few of my older kids sort of grumbled that it was too easy, however, others were having just as much fun as the younger kids were.

The games for the older children are definitely more challenging. After looking them over beforehand I knew that most of the little ones couldn’t solve the puzzles. That’s okay, I had other things they could do. One older student told me he wished the game for them was as easy as the one for the younger kids (ha ha). The ones for the 8-12 kids are more challenging, but they are not difficult either.

There is an answer key for the games for the older children too. There are even hints you can give them.

These games would work best with a color printer, but if all you have is access to one that prints black ink only you can still play and enjoy these games.

What I love about these games it that you can print them out where ever you are (with access to a printer). That means you can print them out at your in-laws house when you need them instead of printing them out and bringing them with you. If you choose to print them out ahead of time you can cut them out and put all pieces in a manilla envelope (that is where I stored the ones I printed out for my “work kids”). They are also reusables so you can use them again and again.

The games are only $13.99 on the PaperEscapeCo website, which is a lot cheaper than your typical board game (and more portable too!). They sell for $15.99 on Etsy (same company).

If you are interested in learning more, visit PaperEscapeCo.com or the brand’s Etsy Page.

You can also check them out on Instagram and YouTube.

Kimberly

*I received free product samples in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.