Make Your Own Memory Game

Well, I didn't find this one on Pinterest, but I did steal the idea from our Guest Poster Rachel's sister-in-law. 

This year for Christmas, all of the nephews and and the niece gave 1 present to one of their cousins, and since my little man is still a little too little to be picking out presents himself, I took charge on the gift this year, and put together a Family Memory Game for Judah, 5 years old.

I found a photo of everyone in our family (plus a few group shots of the cousins all together!) and cropped each one to 3x4.  I took the .jpg s into Blacks Photography and had them print 2 of each photo at the 3x4 size.  I had 17 different photos printed, and it came out to about $5. 

Next, I took a roll of patterned mac tac (that I purchased a few years ago from the Dollar store!) and stuck each photo onto the sticky side.  Be sure to choose a pattern that's fairly repetitive so that all of the backs will look pretty much the same when playing. 

I purchased 40 hockey card protectors from the Dollar store for $4, and slid each photo into its own protector = voila, your very own personalized memory game!

I also picked up a simple wooden treasure box from the Dollare store too, stained it with some watered-down paint, added stickers, and sprayed it with a few coats of spray glaze.  It was very well received, and all the cousins had a great time playing the family memory game with grandma!

A family themed memory game is a great way to keep distant family members close to the child's mind.  Older children could help make their own memory game by finding large letters in magazines to make an alphabet memory game, or finding pairs of animals to make an animal memory game.  Any other ideas?