Where's Waldo? Has Gone Digital & It's The Perfect Family Activity

By this point in your social distancing adventures, you're probably desperately searching for fresh ideas to keep your kids entertained. (I know I am.) The internet is filled with an array of activities to keep everyone occupied and now, you can even find Waldo online. Yes, Where's Waldo? is back and he's gone digital.

Candlewick Press, home of Where's Waldo?, has an entirely new web portal where kids and parents can go to enjoy all things Waldo. Between watching promo videos for new books, completing activity pages, and participating in your very own homemade version of Where's Waldo? on social media, there is plenty of Waldo fun to keep your kids occupied right in the comfort of your own home.

Back in the stone ages (*cough*cough* I mean, the '90s) before every kid had a rectangular piece of technology basically permanently attached to their hand, my friends and I used to spend literal hours starting at seek-and-find books. The pages were covered in a chaotic mess of crowded figures all so close together and so tiny that you sometimes needed a magnifying glass to find exactly what you were supposed to be searching for. If we were looking at a Where's Waldo? book, his iconic red and white-striped shirt, pop-pom-topped hat, and circular glasses were a welcomed sight that caused whoever found him first to squeal with absolute delight.

My kids love looking at the same Where's Waldo? books I used to spend hours pouring over as a child when we visit my parent's house. Using these type of search-and-find activity books to pass the time seems like an old idea made new again thanks to the plethora of new resources for kids and parents online at Candlewick Press. Now you can find Waldo and friends from the comfort of your own home whether you already own any of the iconic books or not.

Printable worksheets (and no, not the kind your kids are begging not to do during at-home schooling) are available for parents to download on the Candlewick Press website that include six different Waldo-themed activities. One activity encourages kids to create their own Where's Waldo? scene built around a photo of Waldo's head pre-printed in the corner of the page. The beauty of this particular activity is that you could print out multiple pages to create several different scenes, staple them together, and make your very own Where's Waldo? book at home.

Yet another page for parents to print out includes blank drawings of Waldo walking amongst a crowd of people where kids can create their own colorful designs for the clothing. They can choose to give Waldo a whole new look or master his signature red and white-striped attire on this page as well as a printable coloring page featuring only Waldo. Other printable pages feature a matching game, a list of Wizard Whitebeard-themed jokes, and a word search.

You can also play your own giant game of Where's Waldo? right inside your own home with your kids using free printable figures of Waldo and friends on the Candlewick website. Find unique places to hide Waldo, Wenda, Woof, Wizard Whitebeard, Odlaw, and several of their favorite accessories around your house. It's basically like a huge game of hide-and-seek using Waldo characters, and if you hide the print outs well enough, your kids can keep busy for hours.

Use the hashtag #FindWaldoatHome to play along with others on social media by posting photos of Waldo hiding in different places around your home. Maybe your Waldo is taped to the inside of a cabinet door, Wenda is peeking out from behind your couch, and Woof is stuck to the underside of your dog's food dish. The options are endless. Candlewick Press will post new challenges for you and your kids to do every few days on their social media pages, so be sure to keep an eye out for posts that include the Waldo hashtag to keep the Where's Waldo? fun going.