Summer Bingo

When we were at our family's home (my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's house) we noticed on the back of their front door that they had "Summer Bingo" boards. My sister-in-law had mentioned that they had been doing that and told me a little bit about it.

When we go home, I thought it was a good idea to keep the girls and me busy. On Friday, I finally took the time to look up the website and make our own boards. The nice thing about the bingobaker.com website is that you can totally customize what you want to enter into the boards. No more making boards with markers like I did in college... technological progress!

The hardest thing for me was what to put into all of the squares. I wanted to keep my kids active, so I put in entries such as, " 3 walks," "2 walks" and "go for a walk or run." I also added things like "pick up sticks in backyard" because that ALWAYS needs to be done here. I added, "go on a hike", "do yoga," "learn a new dance" and "play frisbee" as other active ideas. I also wrote in "call a friend" and "FaceTime a friend or family." Some squares say "write a card or letter" and "write in a journal" to keep their hands and writing skills up. I also have "play a game with others," "read 30 min." and "read outside." To fill in others I wrote, "clean something," "find something to donate," "weed the garden," "work on the puzzle 10 min." and "take photos outdoors." We can "make a craft", "make a video" or "try a new recipe."

The website printed 8 boards for us. They mixed them up and a few spaces are duplicates-- like clean something-- which I like to see happen! So far we all have enjoyed it. I've been happy to see Bethany reading outside, playing a game with others, and writing in a journal. Mallory also played a game with others, read 30 minutes, and wrote a letter to a friend. She crossed out her extra "clean something" and wrote "play ukelele." We put them into clear page protectors so we could use dry erase markers to write on them. On the "3 walks" space we will put hash marks when we do each one. Then we can erase and reuse the page protectors.

If you need something productive to keep your kids busy the next few weeks until school begins, I encourage you to go over to http://bingobaker.com and make some summer bingo boards of your own! If you do, I'd love to hear about what you did.

For prizes, we've restricted them to be under $5.00 or maybe $10.00. Otherwise a bingo each week could break the bank! For me, it is not so much about the prize. Although a square of dark chocolate, ice cream, or a mint candy does sound good! Of course, I am trying to restrict my sweets intake... a cup of hot tea doesn't sound like much of an incentive. Maybe reading for an hour alone? Even though I got a bingo diagonally already, I haven't decided on anything for a prize. I'll keep thinking about it!

1 Corinthians 9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Philippians 3:14
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,