I’m so excited to be sharing with you the activity for Day 23 of the Creative Christmas Countdown: Play A Card Game!

 

One of Jane’s favorite games is the iPhone Toy Story 3 Memory App. She’s already mastered the Easy Level and isn’t fazed at all by the Medium Level. To break her away from an electronic device and get her in tune with the holiday spirit and family togetherness time, I came up with a simple homemade version of the classic game, Memory.

This game is so easy to set up and it’s great to keep your children occupied if you’re wrapping last minute gifts or for you to play with them and enjoy some together time.

Materials

• Photos (You can either use old photos you have lying around or you can print out photos on any kind of paper with your printer - just be sure you have two copies of each photo)
• Scissors
• Optional: cardstock, wrapping paper, your child’s old drawings, or construction paper
• Optional: laminator or contact paper
• Optional: pen for writing on the backs of the photos

Step 1

I just selected a few photos on our computer and printed them on cardstock using the “Contact Sheet” option, so I could fit several on one page. You could use old photos you already have in the house or have the photos professionally printed - just make sure you have two of every photo. (This is a matching game, after all!).

Step 2

I wasn’t meticulous about printing or cutting equal-sized photos, but you might want to use all horizontal or all vertical photos of the same size and use a ruler if you really want perfect squares or rectangles.

Step 3

Optional

Make easy and advanced versions or spruce up your cards!

I made four sets of playing cards.

• One set (pictured above) was just the photos printed on cardstock. Super easy, super fast.

• I spruced up a second set by adding a pretty cardstock backing and then laminating the cards.

• The third set was color coded so my son (19 months) could play, too. He looked for matching color pairs to find the matching photo pairs.

• If you have an older child who can recognize or read words, this fourth set using family members’ names or descriptions (mother, father, sister, etc.) would be great.

Jane was so excited to open her little packet of cards after Sam went to bed! She loved setting them all out and turning them over for a smiling surprise of her family members on each card. After she matched all the pairs, she kept playing with the cards, identifying everyone in our family and telling a little story about each person.

Hope you have fun with this activity, too! And be sure to check out the entire Creative Christmas Countdown calendar for more family holiday activities from these fabulous bloggers:

1. Let Kids Create

2. Dilly-Dali Art

3. Red Ted Art

4. Teach Preschool

5. Angelique Felix

6. Rainy Day Mum

7. The Imagination Tree

8. Mama Pea Pod

9. Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

10. Nurture Store

11. A Mom With A Lesson Plan

12. hands on : as we grow

13. Frugal Family Fun

14. Art for Little Hands

15. Kitchen Counter Chronicles

16. Living at the Whitehead’s Zoo

17. My Creative Family

18. Sun Hats & Wellie Boots

19. Toddler Approved

20. Dinosaurs & Octopuses

21. Creative With Kids

22. Science Sparks

23. The Outlaw Mom Blog

24. Creative Connections For Kids

Happy Holidays!

Parents and friends: for more ideas, activities, and inspiration for #RaisingThinkingKids, click on an icon below to join us on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Twitter.

Fellow bloggers: join me at Bloggy Law, where you’ll find Simple Tips for Bulletproofing Your Brand and Blog and I’ll help you navigate the social media legal landscape a little more smoothly.

Chrissy – who has written 426 posts on The Outlaw Mom® Blog - Creative Living in a Conventional World.

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