Maddy, Owen, Cora, and I have been in Pennsylvania for the last few days so that I could say goodbye to the father of one of my best friends while my husband re-couped from knee surgery.
It was an emotionally–and physically–exhausting trip to say the least, and after our usual 3 hour trip back to Maryland took close to 5 hours, I was more than happy that I took a few minutes while the kids ate lunch with my parents to create a Travel Bingo: MD to PA for our ride home.
- Travel Bingo: I admit, I searched for one on the Internet but couldn’t find one that would work for Maddy, Owen, and Cora that I could download and use today. I remembered my search came up the same way the day I made ABC Road Hunt.
So, I whipped up Travel Bingo: MD to PA while my crew filled their bellies for the long ride. I added things I knew we’d see along the way, like the “Barbell Guy” in York, cows on the farms we pass, and summertime flowers. I gave them each their board a sheet of stickers to use as bingo markers, and once we got on the road, I told them we could play but asked them to tell me when they were up for it.
After about our second mile of crawling through traffic, Maddy said, Hey, Mommy, what about that Bingo game? And it kind of kept us sane through inching along for a gazillion miles and then again when we hit another detour several miles later.
Maddy and Owen’s boards
I “tweaked” it tonight, making some changes that Maddy and Owen recommended, like changing “Body Building Statue” to “Barbell Guy” like we call him, and adding bridge, convertible, and a few other things.
The great thing is, like the shopping lists we use, this game can be changed according to where we’re going; on our way to the shore, I’ll do a little research and add some “beachy” sights, and for our trip to visit friends in Pittsburgh, I can add a tunnel.
I deliberately took the time to add the words below the pictures, since using both the pictures and text helps emerging readers to decode the words, and I put a few boards in uppercase letters for Owen and Cora and a few in lowercase letters for Maddy so that everyone was set up for success.
That’s it for today. I’m glad to be back in Maryland. Happy sneaky learning and happier travels!
ps: If you want to download Travel Bingo MD to PA as a pdf, it’s here to share. Enjoy!
