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Hot Cold Game

Get the kids warmed up with this chill game!
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Why send the kids on an aimless scavenger hunt around the house? Give them some direction with the hot and cold game! Yell out, "hot" when they get close to a hidden item and "cold" when they stray far away. Who knows, while they're searching, they may come across that earring you lost last year!
Hidden item: Anything small and easy to hide, including an item that becomes a prize for the successful searcher (say a set of stickers. You can never have too many!). If Dad is the searcher, Mom should hide the remote! Although, that might not be too pretty…
Searcher: Your child
Hider: Mom, Dad, Grandparents, an older sibling
Hiding place and play area: This game can be played indoors in any room of the house, or outside.
1 Send the searcher out of the room.

2 While he's gone, the hider stashes the item in a safe, age-appropriate place. In other words, don't hide the prize on top of the fridge if your searcher is only 36-inches tall! It's also a good idea to avoid hiding things like eggs or other breakable or degradable items. What if your Mommy-brain kicks in and you can't remember where it's located? You don't want to accidentally sit in a pile of yolk!

3 Call the searcher back into the room and have him start searching.

4 The hider helps the searcher by yelling out, "warm" when he is headed in the right direction and "cold" when he isn't. Make the game more fun by coming up with extreme adjectives, rather than just "warm," "hot," "cool" and "cold." Here are some more words to use that just may improve your child's vocabulary:
  • Frigid or freezing: When he's strayed very far away.
  • Scalding, sweltering, scorching, searing: All these "s" words are great for when he's practically stepping on the item.
  • Subzero: Means he's headed in the wrong direction.
  • Antarctic: When he's left the "continent" and isn't even in the general vicinity of the item.
  • Caliente: Teach your kids some Español while you're at it!
  • Ice Cubes: Nowhere near it.
  • Glacier: Absolutely nowhere near it.
  • Tropical: In the general vicinity.
  • Boiling: It's right under his nose.
5 When he finds the item, have him do a little victory dance.

6 Swap places. The searcher becomes the hider and vice versa. Before you know it, hours have passed and it's time for night-night (yay!)

This is a classic birthday party game. Have the birthday boy be the searcher while all of his friends help direct him to his prize by calling out, "Hot, hot, hot!" Continue playing until every child has had a turn as the searcher. C'mon, make those kids work for their party favors! You can't just give them away! This is also a fun game to play in the pool. Get the kids to cool down on a hot summer's day with the aquatic version of hot and cold. Toss a penny into the pool and the kids can go swimming and diving for it as you yell out "hot" and "cold."

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