Catholic Escape Room Advent Calendar for Kids

About this book

This Advent, your family takes the case.Sister Clare, a puzzle-making religious sister with blue paint on her sleeve, hands your family an old box of 24 numbered files and one question: when does the Christmas story really begin? Everyone knows it leads to Jesus. The mystery is why it starts thousands of years before the manger.This is a paper escape-room-style mystery: no locks, no app, nothing to cut out. One book, a pencil, and twenty-four evenings together. How a night worksFrom December 1 to Christmas Eve, open one file. Read a short Bible story aloud, retold in simple words with the reference so you can open your own Bible. Then solve the puzzle that grows out of it: picture cards to put in order, a smudged map with two hidden towns, a conversation to rebuild, a road to build across the desert. Write the answer and the seal number on the Evidence Board at the front of the book. Most nights take 20 to 30 minutes, and each file says QUICK, REGULAR or BIG at the top. Every file gives the youngest detective a real job, and the quicker nights carry an optional challenge for a child of 11 or 12. Each night ends with an Advent Moment to talk about or pray, and anyone may pass. What your children discoverNight by night they meet the promises, people, prophets and signs that Christians see coming together in Jesus: the first promise in the garden, Abraham, Judah, David, Micah's little town, Isaiah's sign, the priest who couldn't speak, Mary's answer, Joseph's dream, the emperor's order, the shepherds. On December 23 the whole board spells a sentence. On Christmas Eve, the seal numbers your family earned all month become the combination that opens the last file, and the empty center of the board is finally filled in.Who it is for Families with children about 8 to 12; younger ones help, and a strong reader of 10 or 11 can often solve alone Catholic families: the explanations express the teaching of the Church in words a child can hear Any Christian family who wants Advent to run on the Bible Catechists, teachers and homeschoolers: the owner may copy the Evidence Board and up to three files for one class What is inside A note for parents, grandparents and catechists, and a one-page How to Play The Evidence Board: a two-page spread with 22 spaces, a sentence line and a center box marked DO NOT FILL IN UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVE "The Box," the opening chapter to read together on December 1 24 case files, each with Sister Clare's note, a story to read aloud, the evidence, a step-by-step investigation, and an Advent Moment Two hints for every night, full solutions, and an upside-down Recovery Key for the nights you miss Six sealed letters from Sister Clare at the back; only one is her last letter, and File 24 tells you which A Nativity page and a family prayer for Christmas Eve A Christmas Day ending with no puzzle, a "Solved by the ______ Family" page, and an Epiphany teaser 8.5 x 11 inches, black and white, with room for a child's handwriting. Pencil in hand, lights on the tree, one file a night. By Christmas Eve your children will be able to tell you why the story starts so long before Bethlehem.