“Make It Your Own”

And I feel like I should follow that title up with a resounding, “Yo, dog!” like the judges on American Idol.

But you know that’s NOT what I mean I say “make it your own.” I’m talking about taking something that’s not quite personal and adding to it so it’s unique to your little family.

This week, I realized back in February I promised to blog about a certain little game I made. (Read that post here.) Did I ever do that? Nope. So, here’s my post, fulfilling my promise six months late!

My kids love playing Cariboo, and it’s one of the few games that doesn’t drive me crazy after three rounds. [NOTE: Go check out the link to Cariboo I included above. It says the game sells for $191 on Amazon. Whah?!] This is how the game looks regularly.

You draw a playing card that has a shape or letter or color on it, and you find a door in the game that has a matching shape/letter/color. Use a little key to open the door and see if there is one of six balls inside the door. If so, put the ball in the vertical blue cache on the right side of the game. When all six balls are placed in the cache, a treasure box opens and the game is over.

I decided to step it up a notch and personalize our Cariboo. First I removed the cards on the door covers. I used photos of our immediate family members and sized them in Microsoft Word, and then tinted the photo one of three colors. I included the person’s name under their photo, then printed them off on white cardstock. I cut the papers into the precise door shape, then slid them in place. Next, I took regular typing paper and printed colors and letters for the playing card pieces.

Once I figured out the door sizes, it was pretty easy to personalize the game for my kids. Now they get to play a game that helps them not only learn family member’s names, but how to spell those names too.