I’m so excited to share my activity bingo with you today!
Have you also reached that part of summer break where your kids keep saying “Moooom I’m bored”?
My kids are usually pretty good at entertaining themselves, but some days I feel like they think I’m their entertainment coordinator, and they want me to help entertain them every. second. of. the. day. Those days can be so fun, but also so exhausting. Sometimes I feel like I’m great at helping them find an acitivity to do, other days I’m really scratching my brain to find different activities to help entertain them. My boys are 9 and 6 and they are usually great at entertaining each other, but some days they definitely struggle.
I thought it might be fun to change things up a bit and have some ideas in my back pocket for when they come to me saying they’re bored. My kids go-to question when they’re looking for something to do, is to have some screen time. While we do have screen-time in our family, I try to limit how much my kids have each day. I know its so much easier to sit them in front of the ipad to play a game, but I also feel so strongly that kids NEED to be bored.
Why is it important for kids to be bored? When kids are bored, they begin to use their imagination. They create their own play, and their own rules to play by. This is so important for kids both developmentally and socially. And honestly, some kids are great at it, and some kids really need a little help getting into that make believe stage… and that’s ok!
To help my boys become more creative, to set aside time to imagine, play and get outside, I created a summer activity bingo sheet.
What is an activity bingo sheet?
An activity bingo sheet is similar to the regular bingo game, except the kids have to physically complete each square in order to check it off. The idea for this activity bingo is to have a few different sheets printed out, so when my kids are bored and needing a little push in the right direction, I can hand them this paper. They can pick a row of squares to focus on for the day, and the goal is for them to cross off five activities in a row. There’s a variety of planned activities, most of which are pretty simple, and many kids can do on their own.
Once my boys cross off their five bingo activities (including the free space… so they could only have 4 activities), they can earn something, usually screen-time in our house (my boys always ask for Minecraft time). The hope is that kids will enjoy creating, getting outdoors, imagining and designing all on their own or with their siblings.
Click below to download my FREE Kid-Approved summer boredom bingo sheets.
If you are looking for an AWESOME kid-approved summer bucket list for this COVID-19 summer, CLICK HERE