Reading Bingo

Do you and your kids love playing games? My family and I have always loved it, so it made sense to incorporate games into our homeschool. I know lots of children and teens enjoy games and are motivated by them. That’s why I created these reading bingo games. (You’ll find a link toward the bottom of this article that will take you to our store to download your bingo games.)

If you have young children or older kids or teens, one of these two reading bingo options will work for you!

Reading Bingo for Kids

Our Reading Bingo for Kids worksheet includes 9 bingo spaces (one is free) with options such as, “Read a picture book,” or, “Read a book of poetry” and other options.

Have your kids read one of each kind of book that’s mentioned on the printable worksheet, or have them work to get three in a row (or some other combination).

Reading Bingo for Older Kids and Teens (and Adults!)

If you have older kids or teens, use the Reading Bingo printable worksheet. It includes 25 spaces (one is free) with prompts such as “Read a book that is a genre you don’t usually read,” or, “Read a book with a female lead character.”

Get your kids or teens to work to cover every space on the entire worksheet, or have them try to get 5 in a row or some other combination of spaces.

Why should you care if your kids or teens love reading?

If you wonder why it’s important for your kids or teens to love reading, I’ll give you 8 reasons.

Literacy is considered to be the ability to read, write, spell, listen, and speak. We don’t have to be able to do all of these things perfectly, but we are expected to be able to do each of these things with some proficiency. Reading is an important skill for literacy. And it affects a person’s ability to master other literacy skills.
Reading helps grow a child or teen’s vocabulary. This is important not just for understanding but also for performing well on standardized tests. And it may be important when being evaluated for a job interview or other important position.
Reading is an important part of lifelong learning. One thing I want my children to know is that learning doesn’t stop when a person graduates from high school or college. It can (and should!) continue throughout a person’s life. Lifelong learning depends on the ability of a person to read and take in new information.
If you want an independent learner, reading is necessary! So many homeschooling parents feel like they spend every minute of every day teaching or working alongside their children/teens. While we do want to spend time with our children, we can also understand that being an independent learner is important–especially as a student gets older. Being a good reader is necessary for becoming an independent learner.
Reading builds independence and self-confidence. If we want our children to grow up with the ability to be independent and to have the self-confidence that goes along with independence, knowing how to read well is important.
Reading exposes us to writing that’s better than our own writing and that’s different than our own writing. If you have a child who wants to be a writer, of course, you want that child to be exposed to writing that’s better than his or her writing right now. That’s the best way for a person to improve. And exposure to a variety of different kinds of writing is another way to improve our own writing.
Reading helps us understand people from other cultures and backgrounds. If we want our children to understand (or at least try to understand) people from other backgrounds and cultures that they’ve never visited, reading is a great place to start. It’s one way for our children to begin to understand the world from the perspective of someone else.
Good readers are better problem solvers. Reading is a critical foundation for a student who wants or needs to develop critical thinking skills or problem-solving skills. It helps us improve our thought processes and come to better conclusions.

If you want to use games and fun to make reading more enjoyable this summer (or any time of year), try our Reading Bingo worksheet or our Reading Bingo for Older Kids or Teens. You can download both at the link below.