Seven-year-olds have an amazing ability to suspend disbelief

[rhu]

We had Tani's birthday party today. (Yes, a month late. First was Pesach, then the Walk for Hunger, then Mothers' Day.) He wanted "detectives" as his theme, so we started off with "detective school" involving teaching the kids the rudiments of fingerprinting, lemon-juice writing, etc. Then we had a "graduation ceremony" where they got their badges, and then I went into the house to get their goody bags.

I barged out of the house, letting the screen door slam, and cried out, "Oh, no! The goody bags have been stolen! We're going to need detectives to look for clues! Where can we find detectives?"

The looks on their faces were worth a million bucks. They immediately started running all over the yard looking for clues. I wish we'd trusted their enthusiasm more, and had actually bothered to hide the clues, instead of planning on staging the discoveries.

We provided them with a list of fifty suspects. For each suspect we had provided hair color, fingerprint classification, footprint length, and occupation. We then proceeded to "discover" a fingerprint (which the kids had to classify based on an "enlargement"), a footprint (which the kids had to measure), and a hair (whose color the kids had to agree on). There was only one suspect, Deborah Jones, who matched all three of those criteria, and her occupation was "Toy store sales clerk."

So I announced, "I know where the toy store is. Let's go!" And I led the kids on a march around the house, back to the patio. In the interval, H (i.e., introverte) had put up a "Toy Store" sign on the patio.

We got to the "toy store" demanding to see Deborah Jones. The store owner (played by H) explained in an exasperated voice that she was looking for Deborah Jones, too, because she hadn't shown up for work this morning. But she had left an envelope behind in her cubbyhole; maybe it had a clue?

What it had were twelve slips of paper, blank except for a small number in the corner of each one. The kids immediately grasped what they needed to do, and ran over to the incandescent lamp that we'd left on after the lemon-juice demo. As each kid got his or her letter, they'd run up to me and I copied them in order on the easel; they spelled "CANDY FACTORY".

So once again I called out "I know where the candy factory is; follow me!" And again we went around the house while H changed the sign.

This time H was the factory owner, and we were given an envelope that Deborah Jones had left behind:

Listen to me, all you girls and boys.
I've stolen your candy and taken your toys.
I've kidnapped your animals, taken them far.
Can you figure out what those animals are?

There were ten riddles in the envelope. The kids divided them up, helped the younger kids read theirs, and came up with answers. Once again, I transcribed their answers onto the easel, and then read the end of the note:

Now take the first letter of those answer words
To locate your mammals, reptiles, and birds.

I was afraid that I'd have to copy the first letters in a horizonal row, but it only took about half a minute before Tani noticed that if you started with the last three answers you'd have "ZOO" at the end, and then the entire message fell: "GO TO THE ZOO".

Tani shouted, "Hey, I know where the zoo is!" and he led the other kids around the house. When they returned to the patio, we'd changed the sign to say "Zoo" and read them the final note, which was Deborah Jones's confession and promise to return the goody bags after lunch.

Lunch was enjoyed by all, and at some point during the food, the box of goody bags mysteriously reappeared.

The kids all really threw themselves into the role-playing, accepted our role-playing, and seemed to have a good time with the puzzles. The puzzles were at just the right level of difficulty; none of them was a "gimme" but neither did we have to give extra hints to forestall frustration. Tani was thrilled. And the timing worked out perfectly.

Comments

[twe.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant.

[ertchin.livejournal.com]

Tani shouted, "Hey, I know where the zoo is!"

Whether this was deliberate or not (coming after the previous two "I know where"s), this is my favorite bit.

[introverte.livejournal.com]

I loved that too! They were just the *perfect* age for this -- they saw right through the mechanics, but that didn't bother them, they engaged their imaginations and really got into it.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

What a lucky kid, to have a dad like you. :)

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

And a mom like introverte. :-)

[lucretia-borgia.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm sorry again that Gideon couldn't come; it sounds like Tani and the others had a blast. Yaay youse guys!

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Very cool! Sounds like you did a fantastic job... glad it went so well.

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

How awesome! We've done plenty of treasure-hunt type birthday parties, but none with the roleplaying or set-up like this... you've inspired me. Thanks for sharing!

[avon.livejournal.com]

This is awesome! When my kids (currently 4, 2, and 2) are older, I hope I can do half as well!