Kids Secret Spy Code Adventure Game

Spy Master -

Some paper and pencils and a little bit of patience and you can create an adventure that's practically
self-sustaining. I have fond memories of passing coded notes to my friends in school and your child will
love having his or her own secret code too! You can even teach your child to make their own codes to
use with their friends!

To make a simple code layout the letters of the alphabet and assign another letter, number or symbol for
each letter as in the example below. This is your "key" and all authorized code breakers get to have one
so they can read each other's secret messages. Be careful to never let your key fall into enemy hands!

Feel free to use our code above, but half the fun is creating a code
of your own for your children. Once you have your key and code,
what to do with them is up to you. Your child can email coded
messages back and forth with you or your spouse when you are at
work. You can incorporate the codes into treasure hunts or mystery
detective cases. Your daughter can text secrets to her BFF, Jill.
Activities are only limited by imagination.

The only downside to teaching your child how to create codes is the
secrets they can now keep from you. Foster a trusting relationship
before handing this kind of ammo to your child. The code in our
example is a very simple code which can be cracked without an NSA
guide to cryptography. Simply start by shifting the alphabet over one
letter and deciphering. If the first word doesn't make sense, shift
again until you've cracked the code. It isn't much of a leap from here
to make more complicated codes, however. If you have a trusting
relationship with your child, feel free to explore the possibilities. For
example, in our code, we simply started A at K and scrolled through
and back to the beginning from there. Essentially, all we've done is
shift the alphabet over 11 letters but left it sequential. This method
of coding could be made far more complex by randomly assigning
letters such as S to A, J to B, Z to C, M to D, etc.

Expand on this adventure and explore more spy related history and methodology with your son or
daughter. It's an exciting and eye-opening adventure but, more importantly, it will force them to use
their brains for something more than channel surfing!