Imagine a world where kids happily keep themselves busy and learning all summer while doing activities that they love and learning math at the same time. A place where kids compete in a friendly way by doing athletic activities, creative games and reading books.
Sounds too good to be true, right?
I’ve always heard that necessity is the mother of invention and this is certainly true of a recent idea I had. Ever had one of those motherhood moments where every child needed something at the same time, one had just spilled a smoothie everywhere and the baby needed a diaper change?
I had one of those moments a couple of weeks ago and I realized that for the sake of my sanity and the kids activity levels I needed to have a plan for summer that didn’t involve them watching TV everyday.
We already have the “Mom I’m Bored Jar” which works really well but is more of a help when they are already bored and I wanted to find a way to encourage them to find activities without getting bored in the first place.
In a rare moment of postpartum ingenuity, I thought of a way to play to my kids creative and competitive sides and motivate them to be active all in one system (while learning math): Adventure Points!
What are Adventure Points?
In short, this is a simple system of points for doing creative or athletic activities that encourages movement and creative play over TV watching. It also plays into my kids’ natural competitiveness and has surprisingly reduced the bickering and fighting in our house.
The idea for the name “Adventure Points” came from my kids hiking boots, which they call “Adventure Boots” since they wear them for hiking, fort building and other outdoor adventures.
How Adventure Points Work
I sat down with a piece of paper and thought of activities I wanted my kids to do this summer and assigned a point value to each. The kids helped me brainstorm and we came up with a big list of activities that they enjoy (that don’t involve a screen or a snack). Things like:
- Riding Bikes (30 mins) = 10 points
- Pull-ups = 2 points each
- Push-ups = 1 point each
- Swimming = (30 mins) = 10 points
- Drawing (30 mins) = 5 points
- Preparing a meal for the family = 20 points
- Reading a book = 5 points
- Reading a chapter book = 20 points
- Fort Building = 20 points per hour
- Folding Oragami (30 mins) = 10 points (Great tutorials in this book)
- Make Paper Airplanes (30 mins) = 10 points (They love this book for ideas)
- Draw with sidewalk chalk (30 mins) = 10 points
- Read to a sibling (30 mins) = 25 points each
- Climb a tree = 5 points per tree
- Do a chore (not on regular chore list) = 10 points
- Play Monopoly = 15 points
- Play Scrabble = 15 points
- Play Battleship = 10 points
- Play Chess = 10 points
- Play Uno = 5 points
- Play War (card game) = 10 points
- Play Apples to Apples = 10 points
- Play Hopscotch = 2 points
- Jump Rope = 3 points
- Weed garden (30 mins) = 10 points
- Play a game of wiffle ball = 15 points
- Water the plants = 5 points
- Run around the yard 5 times = 10 points
- Jump on the trampoline for 10 minutes = 3 points
- Do a puzzle = 20 points (this is a favorite)
- Do 25 cartwheels = 10 points
- Write and mail a letter to friends or family = 10 points
- Create a scavenger hunt for siblings = 10 points
- Play legos (30 mins) = 10 points
- Get caught doing something unexpected and kind = 50 points bonus
- Rollerblade outside (30 mins0 = 10 points
- Listen to a history podcast = 10 points
I thought of about 50 activities that were worth points and assigned values to each. Then, I made a list of fun family activities that would be good goals for milestone points. 100 points would earn a healthy dessert after dinner one night while 1000 points would earn a trip to the movies or water park (these are things I planned on doing anyway this summer, so it was just a fun way for the kids to earn them).
I’ve also found that the kids are excited to be helpful around the house when I offer “bonus points” for doing chores or helping me with things that wouldn’t normally be their responsibility. After a few days of using the system, I decided to create two separate lists for older kids (5+) and younger ones (4 and under) to match their skill levels since the younger kids were being left behind by older kids who could do many more pull-ups.
How to Implement Adventure Points
If you’d like to try this system (and I’d highly recommend it!), here are a few tips for getting started:
1. Decide on Activities that Work in Your Home/Yard
Make a list of activities you’d like your kids to do this summer and break it down by age group if needed. Figure out how much each activity is worth in the point system you’d like to use and assign a point value to each. Feel free to use my list as a start!
2. Decide on Rewards
Chances are that while points are a great motivator, your kids won’t be thrilled with just earning points that don’t mean anything. Decide on what the points will allow the kids to do or earn and create a list of this for the kids. We try to focus on activities and experiences rather than stuff so our rewards were activities, but you could also create a system like you’d find with tickets at an arcade and allow the kids to turn in points for physical rewards too.
Some ideas of experience goals:
- Trip to a fun place like the zoo, water park, a baseball game, etc
- A family camping trip
- Going to the local pottery place to paint pottery
- Trip to the jump gym or climbing wall
Some ideas of other rewards that still encourage learning:
- Puzzles
- Legos
- Dolls
- Board Games
- Books
3. Track the Points
I realized that the system wouldn’t encourage the independent creative time I was hoping for if the kids had to check in with me every time they did an activity to get the points. I decided to use the honor system (which has worked really well so far) and get each kid a small spiral notebook to track points. This way, the kids track their points each day and I just tally once a day to keep the running totals.
4. Enjoy Watching Your Kids Learn and Play all Summer
I was really hoping that creating “Adventure Points” would free up some of my time this summer by stopping the refrains of “I’m bored” and “Can we watch a movie.” It certainly has and I’m definitely grateful for that.
I’ve found that even more than the free time, I’ve enjoyed watching my kids creativity soar and the older kids play with the younger ones more easily since they have more structure and ideas for activities (and because there is a goal in mind). Also- keeping track of points has been a fun and unexpected math boost for the little kids as I keep hearing questions like “Does 243 plus 15 equal 258?”
Your turn! What are some fun ways you encourage creativity and activity all summer?
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