A Printable Escape Room You Can Play at Home

August 28, 2025 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

It’s the time of year when I write this that no one really wants to be outside where I live because it is just too hot. But we still want to make things fun while we’re stuck inside all day.

Escape rooms at home are a great way to give kids a little fun challenge, and they’re great for small groups of kids to work on together, just for a fun afternoon activity or to build a birthday party or other special event around.

The best kinds of escape rooms are the ones that are totally done for you, like this zoo themed one from In the Playroom.

It opens with kids visiting the safari zoo, and somehow they are locked in the zoo and have to figure out how to get out before the zookeepers come back.

This set of printables has absolutely everything you need to complete the game, including details kids will love like a zoo admission ticket and certificate of completion for when they figure out the code to get out of the zoo.

In between they’ll solve puzzles with secret codes, go through a maze and match animals to letters to crack another code to finish the puzzle.

All of the pieces are really cute and I think this will engage kids of a variety of ages. Little kids might need a little help with the puzzles, but it should be fun for grown ups to play along, too. And if you or your kids are having trouble with any of the clues, the PDF also includes the solutions so you can help them crack the case without having to think too much about it.

This free download is available to subscribers, so head on over to In the Playroom to sign up and download this great zoo escape room to play with your kids today.

[Photo: In the Playroom]

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Book Review: Borders

My brother went through a phase where he was obsessed with maps. He loved to look at maps and he would draw maps of places real and imagined. He even drew maps that followed our route when we’d go to visit our grandparents in another state!

I assume there are still kids who go through map phases, and kids with an interest in history and how things got to be the way they are. Both kinds of kids will enjoy the book Borders: Understanding the Lines that Unite and Separate Us by Karim Ressouni-Demigneux, with illustrations by Karine Maincent.

The book describes how the original borders were natural, such as oceans, rivers, mountains and deserts, and while some of those borders are still in use today, many borders are human made, decided by treaties or carved out by colonizers. It covers the history of people congregating in one place and how city-states evolved into empires, how maps are drawn and how human conflicts can reshape borders.

There are stories about walls that reinforce borders, how borders work in the air and at sea, how people cross borders with passports or as refugees and how climate change is altering the borders of some countries.

You’ll also learn some fun border facts like the fact that if you stand in the middle of the bridge over the Zambezi River you can be in four countries at once because that’s where the borders of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe meet. Or how there is only one border crossing between India and Pakistan that’s closed each night in an elaborate ceremony.

The book talks about time zones, border towns and places where countries and parts of countries are inside other countries and places where borders are less important such as the European Union.

While there are serious subjects in the book, it’s still a fun read that’s sure to interest those kids around ages 8-12 who like travel, maps and weird but true facts.

About the book: 72 pages, hardcover, published 2026 by Blue Dot Kids Press. Suggested retail price $21.95.

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