Family Memory Game

My delightful grandson turned 4 a few months ago. I wanted to do something special for him, but I live oh so far away, and money is kind of tight right now for us. So I made him a game he can play with his mom or aunties or even by himself that maybe he will think of me when he's playing. I called it "Ohana Memory"...

I started by selecting  pictures of family members and having double prints made. This was a little more tricky than it sounds, since I live far enough away from my entire family that I had to go with pictures I already had, rather than just go take new pictures of everyone. I also wanted to make sure that the pictures were all about the same dimensions. I ended up with 15 different pictures for 30 playing pieces.

I decided on a 3" square playing piece. I was able to get some lightweight cardboard (the kind you find on the backs of notepads or spiral notebooks) and cut it into 3" squares. Then I cut the pictures to fit and mounted them on the cardboard. (I'm not going to do a tutorial here... I'm kind of inept at these kinds of crafts, so I'm sure most of you have far better skillz than I do.)

E is a clever little dude, so I didn't want to make the game too easy for him. I made sure to cover the backs of the pieces with a simple, repeating pattern so they'd all look the same. I found a checked scrapbook paper to use.

I finished the game by covering each piece with clear contact paper to protect them and make them last longer.

E thought it was very funny that I included pictures of my cat in his game!!

This was a very fun craft to make and cost me very little... I spent $0.09 for each picture from Costco ($2.70) and about $2 for the scrapbook paper. The rest of the supplies I either had on hand, or got for free.

For an older child, you could use two different pictures of the same person, or a picture and a name to match up to make it more challenging and keep it fun.