Design Your Own Escape Room

What you need

• Paper, 4 sheets
• Crayons or markers, pencils or markers
• Cardboard box, 1 box or bag to act as the lock
• Painter's tape, 1 roll
• Phone, 1, to use as a timer
• Pillows and cushions, 1, for a hiding spot
• Book, 1 big book, for a hiding spot
• Sticky note, 1
• Small treat or prize, 1

How to do it

Grown-up prep: Pick one room and clear a path so nobody trips. Check that the treat is safe for everyone playing, and keep every door unlocked the whole time.

1. Plan a chain of three hiding spots, where each riddle leads to the next.
   Ask: Which hiding spot do you think the grown-ups will find last?
2. Make three dot slips. Together they are the code for the box.
3. Write riddle 1 on a card. This is the clue you hand over at the start.
4. Write riddle 2 on the back of the 3-dot slip, and riddle 3 on the back of the 1-dot slip.
5. Shut the treat or prize in the box and tape on a paper lock.
6. Hide the slips, then walk the whole chain yourself once.
7. Set the timer for 20 minutes, hand over riddle 1, and let the grown-ups in!
   Ask: Do you think they will escape before the timer ends?
8. If they get stuck, give up to two hints, out loud.
9. At the box, the players read their dot slips in a row and write the code in the lock.
10. Open the box together and share the treat or prize inside! Now swap roles: can the grown-ups design the next escape room?
    Ask: Which three hiding spots would you use next time?

Play it again

• Theme night: build the room around pirates, spies or a space mission.
• Team design: two kids create one room together and hide clues in two rooms.
• Silent mode: solve the whole room using only gestures and notes.