One of the things that are fully embraced by children is technology. More than any generation before them, kids’ faces light up when it comes to using gadgets, gizmos, and anything interactive. This is great, but something is also being lost with old-fashioned problem-solving and learning to deal with life’s problem by working through them.

Patience Is a Learned Skill

The kind of patience required to work through a challenging situation, talk with people and find a resolution are essential skills. In an age where millennials and snowflakes have lackluster communication skills because so much of their conversations only happen in the digital world, parents need to assist their children to learn through different methods.

When Instant Gratifications Isn’t Instantly Available

There are some excellent lessons in getting your kids involved in puzzles and challenges that aren’t simply one or two parts.

Watching an episode of Survivor passively doesn’t teach children how to start a fire as a survival or basic camping skill. Skills are learned through acquiring the knowledge and taking the time to practice them until they become skillful; watching and not participating isn’t enough.

The Escape Room

An Escape Room Atlanta game (there are other locations too) provides live action puzzles and problem-solving adventures.

Their Breakout Games in Atlanta is an hour-long mystery that follows an intricate storyline where participants must follow the characters, read clues, and decide what action to take. They get to solve puzzles along the way and crack difficult codes. It’s a challenge for the participants to figure out how to complete the adventure before the time is up.

The Mystery Mansion is another adventure. It’s based on a mystery that needs smart thinking and teamwork with other kids and adults playing along. Figure out what is true and what is just a rumor. Explore the old mansion to find the answers before the clock runs out.

Both of these adventures see kids putting away their smartphone and becoming involved in the mystery. When learning to investigative and practice their communication skills with other participants, they work towards a common goal.

Scavenger Hunt

A family scavenger hunt where clues are left in key locations and your child (or children) must decipher their meaning, follow the trail, and solve the cryptic messages along the way is both fun to create and participate in.

Depending on the lessons that you’d like your kids to learn, they can be emphasized in what they must do to find the treasure within the allocated time. Map reading not great? Make that part of how they must locate the next location. Attention to detail weak? Leave clues in written messages that they’ll need to read properly to find the answers.

The scavenger hunt can certainly incorporate gadgets and gizmos like a GPS tracker, a smartphone app or researching online to find the answers to clues. But be sure to mix them in with practical steps. This will better equip them in life with or without technology dominating it. Ultimately, this better prepares them about the need to be flexible and to think outside the box because life is unpredictable.