We have not been able to hold our usual monthly meetings, but we have a fun, new way to interact with you all virtually and it includes the chance for you and your family to win some prizes! As we prepare for a return to school, however that may look for our families, we want to have some fun with you all over the next month.

Hope you will join us for our Summer Bingo Event!

How it works

We have put together a Summer Bingo Card full of fun activities families can complete with their child. As you complete an activity, mark it off on your Bingo Card. Complete as many as you can to see how many “Bingos” you can get before August 20th. On that date, we’ll ask you to email us a photo of your Bingo card and we’ll be sending out small prizes to everyone who participated!

Download your Bingo Card PDF to print at home or save and mark it digitall:

We tried to include lots of different activities that can be adapted for all ability levels and that involve mostly items you already have at home or that you can get pretty easily that are also inexpensive. The main goal with these activities is to break up the summer boredom brought with this pandemic and to offer opportunities for creativity! Don’t have a bowling set at home? How can you create one? How about lining up stuffed animals? Filling empty water bottles with beads to knock over? How about empty toilet paper rolls? The possibilities are endless and we can’t wait to see what some of you come up with!

Share With Us

Take lots of photos and videos and share them with us! We’d LOVE to see your creativity in action and share it with others. You can post or tag us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Video Check-in/Virtual Family Meeting

We’ll also be hosting a virtual family meeting on Sunday, August 2nd at 1pm. During this meeting we will be completing one of the activities on our Bingo card together! As we get a little closer to the date, we will choose an activity and let you know so you have plenty of time to collect all the materials.

The Activities

Here is a list of all the activities along with photos and links for inspiration! The great thing about this is that there is no right or wrong way to do any of these.

FINGER PAINT WITH YOUR FAMILY
Give everyone a piece of paper and some finger paints and enjoy painting together. Pick a theme, let everyone draw something random, try painting blindfolded, see what new colors you can create by mixing others.

PAINT A PET ROCK
This will be a fun activity to pair with a walk around your neighborhood. Take a walk and see if you can find some nice flat rocks to bring back home to paint and decorate. You can spice them up with paint, stickers, markers, anything you’ve got. Don’t forget to share a photo with us!

MAKE HANDPRINT ART
What can you create from your own handprint? Use some paint, trace your hand with markers or crayons. Try making some ocean animals, a family handprint garden, or a flock of flamingos! Check out some inspiration from Skip to my Lou blog or Crafty Morning for ideas and directions.

DECORATE T-SHIRTS
Give new life to some old shirts lying around or pick up a few blank shirts on your next trip to the store or order some online. You can tie dye your shirts, maybe grab some fabric paint or fabric markers and draw a fun design on your shirt. Here’s a great tutorial on how to tie dye with food coloring if you don’t have a kit or want to try something less expensive. That link also has another fun idea to try to paint with ice! That sounds like a great way to beat this heat.

DO CHALK ART
Grab some chalk and head outside for some chalk fun. Draw a picture, leave a kind message for your neighbors to see on their walks, or raise awareness for your Rare condition! Don’t have chalk? Crystal and co has an easy tutorial for homemade chalk and some alternatives if you don’t have all the supplies.

MAKE PLAYDOUGH
Kids LOVE play dough! It’s also another great way to encourage their imagination and good for helping fine motor skills. There are lots of different recipes available but most use flour, salt, warm water, cream of tartar, food coloring, and a little bit of oil. Check out iheartnaptime for directions.
Another SUPER easy option is cloud dough and you only need 2 ingredients (maybe 3 if you want color).
Ingredients: 2 cups of corn starch, 1 cup of conditioner, and food coloring for color. Mix up your corn starch and conditioner until it is a dough consistency. Fold in a few drops of food coloring and enjoy! You can use ANY type of conditioner. Our family has used the inexpensive V05 you can get for less than a dollar in great scents too. This does make quite a big batch so you can break it into smaller balls of dough to make different colors.

DO YOGA WITH YOUR FAMILY
Don’t worry if you aren’t flexible or an experienced Yogi, just have fun! There are lots of great videos on YouTube geared especially toward kids. Cosmic Kids Yoga is a great one to start with that has lots of different video yoga adventures based on some of your kids favorite movies and characters.

CREATE YOUR OWN OBSTACLE COURSE
You don’t need to go full blown American Ninja Warrior here, but definitely have some fun! It can be as simple as a 3 or 4 step course where you go under the table, over the chair, around the couch as fast as you can. Here are some easy ideas for low prep obstacle courses from Playtivities.

TAKE A WALK AROUND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
Take a walk around your neighborhood early in the morning or after dinner when it isn’t so hot outside.

PLAY IN A SPRINKLER/WATER FUN AT HOME
This is definitely a favorite past time for many adults, so why not pass that love on to our kiddos?! Plus, there are lots of fun sprinkler toys available now to make this even better. If you don’t have a sprinkler, you can still have fun with water at home. Fill a container with water and small toys and cups of different sizes to work on scooping and pouring.

DIY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Make your own instruments and start a family band! Grab a couple of paper plates, fill one with beans or beads then glue the other plate on top or punch holes and secure with yarn to make your own tambourine. You can also use empty toilet paper rolls or empty water bottles and fill them with rice, beans, or beads and cover the ends with paper or duct tape for maracas. Check out these other ideas from Red Tricycle!

RAINBOW NATURE HUNT
Who says you can’t combine activities and mark off more than one square? Take a walk with your family and look for the different colors of the rainbow on your walk. If you can’t take a walk, explore your backyard or your house and find something red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

CALL A FRIEND VIRTUALLY
I’m sure you’re all Zoom pros by now, so why not call a friend or family member using FaceTime, Zoom, or other video platform. You can also plan to do one of our Bingo activities together while on your call!

INDOOR BOWLING
You don’t need a fancy bowling set for this one! Make some pins out of items you have at home, set them up, and then find a ball or small stuffed animal and ready, set, bowl! Check out this tutorial for an easy idea using empty water bottles.

HAVE A DANCE PARTY
No instructions necessary. 🙂 Turn on the music and dance, dance, dance!

MAKE CHALK PUFFY PAINT
A fun twist on chalking outside by making your own chalk puffy paint. Check out Hip2Save for an easy 3 ingredient tutorial

MAKE A SUNCATCHER OR DREAMCATCHER
Take advantage of all the sunshine and build a sun catcher to hang on your window to enjoy even thought it might be too hot to play outside. There are SO many ideas out there for sun catchers. Some easy ones include strips of tissue paper, or colorful beads. Here are lots of great ideas for you for suncatchers. For the night owls, try some dreamcatchers and learn about their Native American origins.

DO A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT
The next time your kids ask why something happens, encourage them to explore and see if you can create an experiment to help them answer those questions. Tornado in a bottle is always a fun one to try too! Here’s a list of 64 easy experiments to try to get you started. There are so many fun ideas out there though!

MAKE PAPER BAG PUPPETS AND PUT ON A SHOW
Paper bag puppets are super easy to make and bring so much fun for the littles! Get extra creative for the bigger kids and let them come up with a story to act out with their puppets. Here are some cute ideas to try from iheartcraftythings.

FLASHLIGHT TAG/CHASE
This is a fun game to play outside after the sun has gone down or inside when you turn off all the lights. There are a couple variations of this game, but feel free to make it your own! You can give everyone playing a flashlight and a la laser tag chase everyone and if you get caught by a flashlight you’re out, last one standing wins! Or you can give only one person a flashlight and they have to find everyone in the dark.

MAKE A SENSORY BOTTLE
Sensory bottles are fun for everyone and so easy to make. They also serve multiple purposes and are great to just have around. You can make them oil and water, dish soap, detergent, hair gel, baby oil, glue, lots of different ideas. Family Education has some great recipes depending on whether you want a bubbly bottle, wave, or slow motion. Make them themed, or completely random, it’s up to you!

PLAY WITH SHAVING CREAM
This one is usually a favorite with kiddos and bonus for parents, a great way to clean surfaces! Spread it out on a table or other hard surface, draw in the shaving cream, practice letters, numbers, play hangman, so much fun! Watch out with the really young kiddos or kiddos who like to put things in their mouth as shaving cream is not edible. For an edible alternative, try whip cream! It doesn’t have the same cleaning effect, but the kids will still love it.

HAVE A WATER BALLOON FIGHT
What better way to cool off this summer? You can find the bunch of balloons at dollar stores as well as grocery stores to make filling up lots of balloons at one time easy peasy.

PAPER PLATE TOSS
Tape an empty paper towel roll to the floor or a table. Take paper plates and cut out the center leaving just the outer ring. Decorate the plates if you’d like too! Then take turns tossing your paper plate rings on to the paper towel roll. You can see who gets the most rings, who gets them the fastest, etc.

GOOD LUCK AND HAVE SO MUCH FUN WITH YOUR FAMILIES!

We hope that you have fun trying some or all of these activities with your family. Remember that our goal is just to provide some fun ideas and so many of these you can do with things you already have at home. Also check your Buy Nothing groups on Facebook or neighborhood facebook pages for people who might be able to donate items you’re missing. Don’t forget to share your photos with us on Facebook, Instagram (@urourhope) or Twitter (@urourhope).