Before we get ahead of ourselves, we should first examine the difference between Codes and Ciphers! A CODE is a system where every word or phrase in your message is replaced by another word, phrase, or series of symbols. A CIPHER is a system where every letter of your message is replaced by another letter or symbol.

Here is an example of a code. Let's say you and your friends have a code word for the lunch room and that word is "Purple" and the code for playground is "1775." The words or numbers don't matter as long as you and your friends know the meanings!

Long before there was language as we know it, prehistoric people communicated with images. Sometimes one symbol translated into an entire sentence! So using codes, symbols etc to communicate a meaning spans the length of history.

Cyphers come in many forms like substitution ciphers, keyboard cipers, pigpen cipher, rosicrucian cipher, substitution cipher, date shift ciper, greek square ciper, rail fence ciper, okay we think you get the drift! While there are far to many to dive into, we encourage you to research these and have fun making different codes and ciphers for your friends and family to solve!