DIY : Lucky Coins

Think of something to spend your weekend with kiddos? Well, here is mine.

My kids spend some time in play zone, exchange some money with play coins, put the coins in a machine to get some tickets, expecting a jackpot tickets.

What crossing my mind is "Why don't we turn the game into saving money game?". We play, we save, instead of spending money. Let's do it.

• Cardboards (large pieces for more bumps).
• Tape.
• Scissors.
• Push pins.
• Clear plastic.

For cardboards I use the hard cover of a calendar set. It is about A3 size, so I double it. I join two pieces of it with a clear tape.

The remaining papers are thick enough and I keep some for further use on next step.

Because this project is for my kids ages 7 and below, I must consider safety. When I plan to use push pins, I have to make sure those pins do not come out from the back. Then I add some more cardboards to adjust the desired thickness. Join them all with clear tape around the borders.

Now let's mark the holes where coins shall end their journeys. Well you see that my daughter has a smaller pinky bank, then I patch a little more cardboards to reach its hole :)

After marking the holes, I use the remaining calendar papers to build borders and direct the coins to the target holes. The height of the borders is measured to be the same with the height of the push pin.

It is time to place the push pins. You can put as many as you want according to your base board size. Use your imagination how you want the coin bumps. But you have to make sure the space between two push pins should be wide enough for the largest coin to pass through, otherwise it will get stuck there.

Then use a large piece of clear plastic as its cover, so that the coins will not jump out of the board. Tape it to the back of the base board. Make sure you don't seal the whole plastic. Leave the holes where the coins are suppose to come out and enter into the banks. And also leave the whole top border open where we put the coins in.

I cut the into-hole guidance cardboards (here I use the thick remaining calendar papers) to form a downslope as you can see in the third photo in this step. That is intended to give more accuracy for the coin to enter the bank's slim hole. The position of the hole itself should be adjust with several trials.

My kids are happy with it. What about yours? :)

Remember that this is just a game. They should share the banks anyway or else the unlucky one will feel down and this kind of game will be considered gambling. We, DIYers should teach our kids to think in possitive ways.