Bingo! Beating Summer boredom, one square at a time...

We had been doing a pretty good job of staying busy during the first few weeks of our summer break, but had recently lost a little bit of that momentum. The unhappy result was boredom, irritability, and overall bad attitudes. We've still got a few more fun activities planned for later this month, but in the meantime, we are SO thrilled to be playing the SUMMER BINGO game! I first heard about this wonderful idea when Celeste posted a link on facebook, and then Jessica shared how she and her family had adapted it for their own use, and after talking about it with Darren, we decided to go ahead and give it a try! I spent most of last Saturday making game sets for each of the three older kids, and I love how they turned out!

I basically used the same set of rules shared generously by Stacy. In fact, I think our entire game is put together much like hers: small ring holding a 4x6 laminated card stock "cover" with a photo of each child, laminated Rule Card, then a BINGO card (I didn't laminate the actual playing cards because they'll be using a new one each week).

Like Stacy, I used a 5 x 5 table filled with activities to do during the week. Many of them are duplicated on all three cards, so they can all work together to earn a sticker for that square, but quite a few are specific to each child according to their interests and tasks I'd specifically like them to complete. (Dylan, for example, has three separate squares that say "Practice Piano for 30 minutes", one that says "Post something new on your website", and "Create a Comic Book and mail it to someone").

Their cards are nearly full now, lacking stickers only for the squares that say "Make up a water game in the backyard", which we'll be doing tomorrow morning. ;) I am SO proud of how they've all responded to this game! Meghan, especially, has so enthusiastically embraced it, asking me every day what she can do next. I'll leave you with a final photo, because I think it's so cute: "Have a tea party in your playhouse". :)