By Cheryl Maguire

Visiting a museum, zoo, or aquarium is a fun, educational way to entertain your children. However, it can be challenging if they are different ages and interests. One way to engage all of your children with different personalities and developmental levels is to play a game. 

A great way to involve all your kids at a destination is to offer them a scavenger hunt. Visit the website of the museum, zoo, or aquarium before you visit. Most websites have information you can use to create an appropriate scavenger hunt based on your child’s age and interests. Write a list of items your child needs to find while visiting the spot. For example, historical information and pictures. An item on the list could be as simple as “find a baby cradle.”

Similar to creating the scavenger hunt, make a passport book by stapling together some white pages of paper. On each page write either a place to visit such as “the lions at the zoo” or a challenge or question such as, “Who was the 16th President of the U.S.?” When your child has completed the task on the page, give them a stamp (you can bring one with you).

Before you go to the site, create Bingo game boards for the whole family. Each square could be either a picture or a written word of something you plan to see during your visit. For example, if you are going to the aquarium you could have pictures (even printed pictures from the website or online) of a shark, octopus, and sea turtle. The first person to spot the shark marks off the square with the shark in it using a pencil. You win Bingo when you get five squares in a row.

For the ABC Game, write down all the things you can think of that start with a particular letter in one minute. If two people have the same word, that word gets crossed out. You move consecutively through the alphabet and whoever gets the most words wins. This is a fun, easy game you can play anywhere, you only need some pens and paper (or the note pad on your electronic device).

You can play this game in the car if you're driving a long distance to the place you're visiting and try to think of topics related to the place for each letter. You could also modify the game at the location by saying whoever first sees something that starts with the letter A wins one point and then continues to B, etc.

Even though my twins are 12-year-olds, they still like to play I Spy. The great thing about this game is young children are able to play it as well. This is a fun waiting game if there are long lines or if you have to wait to get into an exhibit. You can also play I Spy while you're at the museum, zoo, or aquarium. This game will increase your child’s observation skills while still being fun. 

Cheryl Maguire holds a Master of Counseling Psychology degree. She is married and is the mother of twins and a daughter. She is a professional member of ASJA. You can find her on X @CherylMaguire05.