Ready to tell your older children whether or not they are getting a little brother or sister? These gender reveal ideas for siblings will make it a blast!

Nothing warms your heart more than watching your kids discover if their new best friend is going to be a brother or a sister. Because of that, it’s fun to make it a game for them.

Here are some suggestions for fun & active gender reveal games for kids. At the end of the article, I share the materials we used for our own gender reveal with my older boys!

Balloon Dart Game

balloon-darts-gender-reveal-ideas-for-siblingsKids love trying to pop things! That’s why they love those carnival games so much.

For this game, you can create your own balloon game board. I recommend using black or darker colored balloons to help disguise any fillings you might put in. No matter the color, avoid blowing it up too full–it’s easier to see through the balloon when the latex is stretched tighter.

You can take a large piece of cardboard and create rows of blown-up balloons for the kids to pop. One of your balloons must be filled with a reveal of some sort. You could use paint, glitter, confetti–whatever sort of mess you prefer.

Fill one random balloon with pink or blue. Don’t go too heavy on it so as to create a bigger mess than you need to get the point across, but also make sure you use enough that it doesn’t just stick to the popped balloon and you lose the effect.

Have your older kids (and maybe even spouse) take turns throwing darts and cheering each other on. See how long it takes to find the balloon that reveals the answer!

Balloon Box

gender-reveal-ideas-for-siblings-balloonsBalloon boxes are a pretty common idea now, but they are super fun for kids.

Get a few balloons in pink or blue. Helium would make this a lot of fun.

Have your older children open the box and watch them fly! While this is super cute outside, it could easily be done inside, too, to avoid littering. 🙂

For an added step of fun, you could wrap the box and let the kids unwrap it like a gift before they release the balloons.

Another fun idea with balloons is you could put non-helium balloons of your chosen color in a big garbage bag. If you have a two-story house you could stand on the stairs and have the kids stand below, or you can find another way in which to elevate yourself above your kids. Then have them close their eyes and start dumping the balloons on top of them.

Have them open their eyes once they start feeling the balloons. See if your partner can try to catch their look of surprise on camera!

Smoke Bombs & Silly String

Kids will find smoke bombs and/or silly string a super fun way to discover if they’re getting a brother or a sister, too. Decide what would make the most sense for your space.

For example, if it’s the middle of winter, I would choose silly string since it’s probably not a great idea to set a smoke bomb off in the house. 😉

For both of these, it would be fun to blindfold your kids and then either start the smoke bomb or start spraying silly string and then have them take their blindfolds off.

Kids are sure to get a kick out of these!

Scavenger Hunt

scavenger-hunt-gender-reveal-ideasThe scavenger hunt is my personal favorite and what I chose to do with my kids.

Scavenger hunt clues can be scaled to accommodate kids of any age, making this a lot of fun. If your older kids are pretty young themselves, maybe you will just do picture clues. Once they are 4 or 5, it gets easier to start incorporating easy riddles. You can make the riddles more challenging for older ages.

Here are the scavenger hunt clues I wrote for my kids (ages 5 and 2). The 5-year-old really carried the weight for the activity, but the 2-year-old got into it, too. It helps to have an older brother to lead you along!

We helped him with some of the clue reading, but he was great at solving the riddles and it was a ton of fun.

Scavenger Hunt Materials & Step-by-Step

gender-reveal-ideas-for-siblings-scavenger-hunt

Click here to open a full-size file for printing. Gender Reveal Scavenger Hunt

My intended answers are below, but your answers can be whatever makes the most sense for your family.

#1- Crib   #2- Pantry or Fridge   #3- Table   #4- Washing Machine   #5- Bookshelf   #6- Bathtub   #7- Rocker   #8- THE REVEAL!

I have numbered the clues in the order in which I used them, but because this is a simple scavenger hunt for relatively young kids, the order of the clues doesn’t matter a whole lot. All they are collecting at each site is the clue for the next site.

Feel free to leave some out or skip around. The only one that really needs to be in the order in which it is numbered is the last one (#8).

To get this setup, you will need the following:

Materials

  • Printed Scavenger Hunt Clues
  • Scissors
  • Envelopes
  • Marker
  • Tape

Steps

  1. After printing the scavenger hunt clues, use scissors to cut them apart.
  2. Count out 8 envelopes. I used #6 3/4 envelopes and they were a great size.
  3. Label the envelopes with the clue number, except #1 and #8
  4. Put the corresponding clue in each envelope.
  5. For the 8th clue, you can decide how you want to do this. I put a note with “Girl” written on it inside the envelope and taped the clue on the outside. The 8th envelope was the only one I sealed just to make it more secretive.
  6. For the first clue, you will be handing it to your kids to get them started. You can hand them the clue as is, or put it in an envelope. I wrote a cute little, “Brother or Sister? What Will It Be?” type of message on the outside.
  7. Go around taping the clues in a somewhat hidden spot! Harder hiding spots for older ages, easy for younger ages.

Tips

  • Remember to tape the clue that is one step ahead at each site. I know that seems obvious, but for those of you that suffer from “pregnancy brain” like me, it’s a good reminder. You tape clue #2 on the crib, clue #3 on the refrigerator, clue #4 on the table, etc.
  • Hand your kids the first clue to get them started. For older kids, it might be fun to surprise them with the scavenger hunt by taping the clue in an obvious place they will stumble upon after school one day (like the bathroom mirror, or sitting with a special snack for them to eat after school).
  • The last clue can be the reveal like I did it, or you can use that clue to lead them to the place where they will find the answer. When I did this with my son, he thought the clue was telling them to go to the bounce house to get the answer (yes, we have a bounce house, and it’s amazing LOL). You could correspond the clue with a trampoline or anything that would make your kids hop.

How did you share the brother or sister news with your kids? Give us your fun ideas in the comments!

gender reveal ideas for siblings