Simple Programs Are Sometimes the Best!
Leah Langby
April 1, 2016

Thanks to Jill from LEPMPL for sharing this post!

Last week was Spring Break in Eau Claire, and we held two sessions of BINGO!

Family bingo

We had a school-age session on Thursday afternoon for an hour, and then a family session on Saturday afternoon for an hour. Both were super successful and totally fun! This was super low prep time. Supplies: I bought reusable bingo cards and bingo chips (I got the ones for nursing homes since the numbers are nice and big), and I had a bingo cage with balls that I found at a garage sale. Prizes: I asked the staff to empty out their junk drawers and bring me any small plastic rings, extra Happy Meal toys, small notebooks, etc. and ended up with a very nice selection of “stuff” that appealed to many ages. I also bought one bag of carnival prizes online with things like parachuting guys, bouncy balls, etc. Payoff: we had over 60 people total attend these two programs. School aged kids leaving were overheard saying, “That was fun!” A ringing endorsement for a very easy program!  We will definitely be repeating this in the future. This would be a great multi-generational program or one to advertise as just “grandparent and grandchild’s afternoon out” or something like that.

Intergenerational fun!

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