Summer BINGO

Are your kids already bored, do you have to fight with them to do their chores and not watch hours and hours of TV? This is probably the best summer idea I have ever seen! SUMMER BINGO! The idea is originally from Stacy Julian, you can see her version HERE.

SUMMER BINGO! Ok basically it works like this, every Sunday each child gets a new card. The card has various activities on it, from boredom busters, reading, and chores. Thought the week as the kids complete an activity & they get a sticker from me. They get a ticket for each BINGO and 5 tickets if they get a blackout by the end of the week. Tickets can be used for various “prizes” such as a popsicle, or a trip to the park all the way up to having sleep overs and even earning money. (a motivator for my 11 year old).

I decided to keep our bingo cards hanging on the back of the pantry door. I already had this nifty little basket on the door (that really wasn’t being used) so I decorated a couple Pringles chip cans to hold the kids tickets (this makes a nice spot for everything to be kept together…and it looks pretty darn cute too!)


**Of course this can be simplified it doesn’t HAVE to be all cute, heck print out the cards on paper and magnet it to the fridge, the point is playing the game, having fun, and avoid hearing the “I’m bored” mantra!**


I did make a few changes from the original, one being I added chores to the bingo card. You can find Stacy’s BINGO card HERE ready to fill in the blanks and print. (Don’t ask me what the J21 and TT mean I have NO clue…I meant to delete them off and forgot-oops) the younger kids cards are the same where I made my oldest’s a bit different. Some of the activities I did for the younger kids were…

clean your room, read a book outside, play outside for 1 hour, vacuum a room, play dress up, play Wii for ½ hour, do something kind for someone else, make something in the kitchen, make nature art, wash 2 windows, make up some kind of water game, clean bathroom mirrors, play a board game, take a bike ride with Zack, Take a nap (love this one!), do a chore of moms choosing, make your bed every day, play hide and seek, draw/color a picture, sweep floors, build a fort, no arguing for a whole day (love this one too!), play a computer game for ½ hour, write a letter and mail it, build something out of blocks, practice sight words, dust, wash the van, play dinosaurs outside, play in the sprinklers, brush teeth every day, etc...

Many of my oldest’s activities were similar but some were a bit different like...

take M&A on a bike ride, run around the block 3x as fast as you can, make something out of legos, clean the bathroom, empty/laod dishwasher, gather cloths for wash, Mop, read a book to M&A, plan and cook a meal, Play at the pool w/ a friend, make a scavenger hunt,



I made a total of 8 cards for each kid, to get us through the summer. I mixed and matched the activities so each week were a bit different. I do wish however I added a *wild* square on each card that could be used for “anything” maybe something I come up with or the kids come up with on their own.



I also changed the rules from Stacy’s original, you can download the rules page HERE. Some of the biggest changes were to ticket values. This is what I felt would be a motivator for my kids (we are still experimenting with these rules so they may change as we play the game). There is potential to earn up to 17 tickets a week, I tried gage how often I was willing to do activities and how much they should be worth. Like I said some of this may be tweaked as we play along.


Popcicle-1 ticket, Netflix movie online -2 tickets, go to the park-5 tickets, Dollar movie 10-tickets, Ice Cream cone-10 tickets, Play date with a friend 10- tickets, sleep over- 20 tickets (this was mostly to curb my oldest from asking to spend the night several times a week!) Swimming-20 tickets, lunch “out” 15 tickets, or every 15 tickets = 5.00

Instead of buying a whole roll of tickets (you can find them at Wal-mart for 6.00) I just made my own from cardstock, and paired them with some tickets I already had in my scrapbooking stash. I just bought some star stickers for 1.88 /200 stickers at wal-mart. So far it has been working really well. And the best part were having FUN!

EnJoy!

***HeatheR***