DIY Travel Bingo Board in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

With the summer travel season coming up, families will be spending more time in the car.  One thing that won't change is the need to keep the kids entertained on the road. Travel Bingo can be a fun way entertain the kiddos on the trip. There are plenty of places online to find Travel Bingo printables or mass produced commercially manufactured boards. It's not hard to make your own though. This allows you to personalize them and theme them any way you like. 

 

What you will need:

 

--printer

--computer

--paper

--Some type of writing software like Microsoft Word or Kingsoft writer

 

Optional:

--laminator

 

I created a general board myself that will work for just about any trip.

 

The first thing you'll want to do is decide how many squares you want. This one is 4x4 but you can make them just about any dimension you want. If you want to do an odd number like 5x5 then you can add a "free" space in the middle. After you've decided on the number of squares you'll have, then it's time to find clipart.  You can find free clipart online by searching the terms "free clipart" or "royalty free clipart." Think about all the things you might see along the way. Find more pictures than you have squares so you can make up several different boards. By doing that, each kid's board is a little different. If you have one child they'll have options. 

 

Once you've saved the clipart to your computer go into your writing software. I used Kingsoft which is very similar to Micosoft Word. Choose "insert" from the options in the top left and choose "table." This is where you can choose the size and how many boxes your bingo board will have. See where I circled in black the insert with arrow to table insert.

 

 

 

Once your table is made you can move it to fit how you want it on the page. Then it's as easy as clicking on each box, choosing "insert picture" and choosing the clipart you want in the box. Remember, if you're making several boards, add some of the extra pics you found and move some of the pics to different boxes so not all boards are the same. 

 

Now, print them out. You can print several copies of each board you create and let the kids mark them off with a pencil or crayon. If you have a laminator you can laminate them and let the kids use crayons them wipe them off with a paper towel. I do not  recommend dry erase markers in the car since they can give off a terrible smell.

If you are still looking for ideas of places to go during the summer vacation, check out this post on Family Friendly Road Trips from Philly. Also be sure to contact Caitlin Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM for more road-trip related ideas!

Visit my blog for theme ideas for this project as well:

 Angie Beechan - Blogger for LuvSavingMoney.com

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Twitter: @angiewith3