Have you ever thought about tackling an escape room with your little ones? Why not! Escape rooms offer a perfect opportunity to spend quality time together as a family. But before taking the plunge, consider our top tips for playing with younger team members to ensure everyone has a blast during their escape room adventure.
Whilst the puzzles & challenges in our rooms are typically geared towards grown-ups and older kids, we’re seeing that littler ones are starting to show interest in joining in the puzzle party. If you’re considering whether to bring along a 7 – 10 year old for an escape room escapade, keep scrolling for our handy hints!
CHOOSE AN APPROPRIATE GAME
Escape games are not all the same, in fact that’s why they’re so addictive! When planning an escape room trip with younger team members, it is very important to choose a game appropriate for their participation.
Firstly, consider a games difficulty level. Whilst a group of 5 or 6 adults may enjoy a more challenging game with complex logic puzzles and tasks requiring steady hands, good focus and patience (such as Project Atlantis), younger players tend to enjoy games with more visual based puzzles, searching tasks & quicker solves (such as The Magic Market & Tropical Treats).
Secondly, consider the game’s theme. Our games are all family-friendly, but some themes might tickle your kid’s fancy more than others. So, does your little one fancy waving wands & casting magic spells, exploring a world of cool ice creams, or exploring ancient Greek mythology? Choose wisely from a kids perspective for maximum fun!
DON’T COUNT ON YOUR KIDS TACKLING THE GAME AS AN ADULT WOULD
Whilst most kids have a natural curiosity and tend to get stuck into exploring the games world, they will also need your guidance to help them make sense of their discoveries. A team of adults will largely do their own thing, exploring, making their own connections to solve puzzles & trying codes whilst kids will want to work closely together with you in order to solve & complete tasks. It is very important to explain your thought process as you solve puzzles & make sure that you keep everyone informed of what you have used or opened.
This means that if you’re bringing smaller kids as part of your team, you need to be fully prepared to be the one to keep them engaged & act as their guide for the whole experience.
Where possible, we recommend that teams of younger players also have multiple adults for supervision, guidance & most importantly your own enjoyment!
GIVE YOUR KIDS MANAGABLE TASKS
Unless your child is a 7-year-old genius with a knack for code breaking, it’s unfair to expect your child to be solving some of the more advanced puzzles & tasks that are required to complete the mission as your game progresses. Our games are of course designed to be challenging to groups of adults, this means that you will need to create realistic expectations as to what your younger team members will do during your game.
Children are incredibly creative and more than capable to find hidden objects & visual clues, often better than most adults. If this is a part of your game (and it is highly likely that looking for hidden objects & visual clues will be a part of your game), send your child to do an age-appropriate task that will actually help your group to succeed! Other tasks that are easy for children include pattern recognition, observation based puzzles, or interactive activities.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HINTS
If you’re feeling stuck during your game, re-group with your team, discuss what you’ve discovered, what you’ve used and what you haven’t used yet. It may be that someone else has seen information that they haven’t shared that could relate to a puzzle someone else is attempting to solve.
Teams of adults tend to be fairly competitive (and often stubborn) and will go for as long as physically possible without asking for help. When you have younger team members, bear in mind that their concentration can waver if too much time passes without something to do. Don’t be afraid to ask your gamemaster for a hint in order to get your team back on track and to keep kids engaged throughout the experience.
We often find that younger team members can become panicked as time gets low. Be kind, patient & reassure them that nothing bad is actually going to happen (in fact, so long as your team arrives on time, we plan for 10 bonus minutes where needed to ensure teams complete their mission).
HAVE FUN!
To make the most of your game with your younger team mates, talk to them, work with them & make them feel like a valued part of your team. Don’t forget to give them plenty of positive reinforcement throughout (this is also great advice for your adult team mates to)!
Celebrate your victories whether you complete your mission within the allotted time or not & be sure to get a celebratory team photo to remember your experience with!
Make sure to debrief together following your game. Ask what everyone’s favourite part of the game was & if there were any parts of the game that they didn’t understand too. Their feedback on what they enjoyed and what they struggled with can then help you the next time you (hopefully) play and escape game together!
Now you’re ready to book your family escape game! Head to Our Games for more information & to make your booking for our 3 interactive escape game experiences!
