News
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Mail Order Mystery Inspires Kids to Demand Airplane Tickets for Real Life Treasure Hunt!
Read more →All of our mysteries are a mix of fact and fiction, and for a curious kid, a Mail Order Mystery can be a springboard for the soaring imagination. We once received a letter from a parent who was super peeved at us because her kids were finishing up the Treasure Hunt mystery and were demanding airplane tickets to the Seychelle Islands so they could keep searching for pirate treasure.We were entirely sympathetic, of course, because it’s hard to say no to kids, even when they are begging for plane tickets. We were also kind of thrilled, though. Her kids were so...
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Our Summer Spy School Students Are Sneaky, Stealthy and Smart
Read more →This summer’s spy school students (aka your kids) are off to a strong start, even though they may or may not yet know that an evil villain will soon attempt to end all fun and it’s up to them to save the world. We have faith in them, though. We know they can do it. In the first installment of the Spies, Lies and Serious Bad Guys mystery we send kids a questionnaire along with their acceptance letter to spy school. Our junior agents-in-training have been diligently filling out these questionnaires and sending them back to us. They write down all the reasons...
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Keep Kids Active with a Mail Order Mystery
Read more →In our Enchanted Slumber mystery, things are not always as they seem. In this twisting, turning take on the classic fairy tale, the knight is not much of a hero, the dragon is sensitive and kind, the troll loves books and the happy ending requires teamwork. Another twist in the Enchanted Slumber is that in order for kids to prepare themselves for a mission involving a seven-century long sleep, they must be awake, alert and fit. Knight training is serious business.These are the Official Rules and Guidelines for Accepting the Noble Mission in the Enchanted Slumber, which arrives in a wax-sealed envelope, written on parchment...
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Wanted: Junior Detectives, Heroes, Pirates & Spies for Summertime Adventure
Read more →I think we can all agree, regardless of when school ended and when the weather finally came to its senses, that summer is here. Summer can be a glorious time, especially for kids.But summer can be a mixed bag for adults. No matter what time of year it is there is always a to-do list. We can never fully explain to kids that we have more to do than just entertain them. Mail Order Mysteries are a great way to keep kids entertained, but they do more than just entertain. Mail Order Mysteries are six week long adventures of the imagination...
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What Is the Summer Slide? And How to Stop It!
Read more →Over the summer kids can lose more than two months of what they learned during the school year. It’s called the “summer slide”, or “summer learning loss”, and it’s what happens when kids hang off the end of the couch all summer and their times tables fall out of their heads along with everything they learned about punctuation.The summer slide is a problem. It’s a problem for kids and it’s a problem for the nine out of ten teachers who have to spend the first month of school re-teaching everything the kids learned the year before. And while a month...
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We Can Mail Your Mail Order Mystery Any Way You Like
Read more →We don’t expect you to stay in one place during the summer, so we can make your mystery work for you. Normally we send one installment a week for six weeks. But if the kids are going to stay with the grands for a few weeks, or if you are going on a family road trip, or if the cousins want to solve a mystery together at the cottage, we can pack up your mystery all in one box and ship it to you all at once so you can decide when and where to hand out the clues. Just...