72 Hour Kit Ideas Week #19: Entertainment

Welcome! Week #19 in a step by step 72 hour kit series. Makes building a robust, personalized 72 hour kit affordable and do-able!

Welcome to week #19 in the “72 Hour Kit Ideas: A week by week approach” series.

This series is all about making it simple and do-able to get a 72 hour kit put together for you and your family.

Creating such a kit can be overwhelming and financially difficult to do all at once. But through this series, I’ve broken it down for you into 26 small steps! You can see all the steps here. Just take one small baby step each week and in 6 months you will have a well stocked, personalized kit!

You can even go through the series a few times over a year or two adding just the most basic supplies the first six months and then a few more “extra” supplies each time you cycle through it again.

Want even more help?Build a robust, personalized 72 hour kit one week at a time over 26 weeks

This series is also available as an e-book. Purchasing the e-book gives you a few additional benefits over just reading the free series:

  • Additional details and tips
  • The ability to print the entire book!
  • Pictures of my own kit showing just how I pack each week.
Download “Your Own 72 Hour Kit Plan” E-Book Now!

* Some links in this post are affiliate links meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may get a small commission if you make a purchase. Some links (those to Thrive Life) actually provide you with a discounted price. Thanks for your support in this way!

Last Week:

I hope all of you were able to give thought to some religious items you’d like to have in your kit last week.

Week #20:  Entertainment

One oft forgotten category in 72 hr kits is Entertainment.  72 hours is a long time.  At least it would be in an emergency situation; especially if you have nothing to do.  Even more so if you have kids like I do.

Plus, I’m sure there will be plenty of things you’d like to get your (and your kids) minds off of.  Depending on the situation / disaster, they could be a possibility for a lot of physiological stress.  Having something fun to do can help ease this.  And relieving that stress is just as important as taking care of your physical needs.

However, the same rules apply here that have applies over the last 20 weeks: keep it light and small!  This can be a challenge, but you do have to be able to carry this pack, remember?  Here are a few suggestions:

Suggestions:

Other ideas?

What we have done in our family:

We have pen & paper, a small toy for each child, a book for each family member, and crayons with 15-20 Disney coloring pages

 

How About You?

Leave me a comment and tell me what you will be adding to your kit.  Why? What entertainment products will work for your family?  What do you already have?

Skip to:

 

Week #18: Religious Needs Week #20: Entertainment Week #1: Packaging Your Kit Series Into: Survival Kit Series, A Week by Week Approach

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Becky is a wildlife enthusiast and pet and livestock care expert with a diploma in canine nutrition. With over a decade of experience in animal welfare, Becky lends her expertise to Simple Family Preparedness through insightful info about pets, livestock, bee keeping, and the practicalities of homesteading.

82 thoughts on “72 Hour Kit Ideas Week #19: Entertainment”

  1. My thoughts on the games and entertainment are puzzles. They can be for the whole family, young and old. The larger ones can take days to complete, which gives an ongoing project. On one a family reunion that or family took a few back puzzles came in handy. We rented a beach house on the Oregon coast but the weather was rainy and cold the whole week. The ladies went to some thrift stores and brought back several puzzles. It gave us something to focus on, something to do with our hands, and built our relationships because we sat together off and on and worked to complete the puzzles. It was very much a bonding time for all of us.

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  2. I love the ideas you have, but as an older couple, we would put things in our kit like extra reading glasses, paperback books, scriptures etc. I love to do handsewing and crochet, so small kits for this type of thing is added to my kit.
    Chris

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  3. I haven’t really thought about entertainment items. I know I have an extra deck of playing cards and Phase 10 cards somewhere in the house that I need to find. I should also add some puzzle books and dice as well. Even though we do not have children at home anymore, I will probably add something small and lightweight for kids as well, just in case we run into a situation where they would come in handy. I will visit the local Dollar Store to see what I can find. Thanks for all the ideas.

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  4. This week I am adding a pen and a puzzle book to each of our adult kits. I am also adding a rattle and board book for my two month old.

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  5. THANKS for the reminder to include entertainment in our preparations! I am planning on putting a recorder (a child’s plastic flute) in my bug out bag. Also plan on packing my thumb piano, aka, m’bira. This one is a gourd with a wooden sounding board embedded in it, and metal tines that are stroked by your fingers. It makes great music! You can get full chords on the bigger ones!

    Thanks for your great site! Robin

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  6. We will definitly be adding cards, possibly even dominos. Could even print dominos onto card stock to eliminate the weight. That idea leads to a slew of other possibilities. Throw in some dice and you can have yatzee

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  7. Im actually in the process of changing out the items in our 72 hour/BO bags. and i have to admit I don’t have ANY entertainment items and i have a 3 year old. but as i was looking around in closets and junk drawers i found a UNO deck that we got as a kids meal toy from burger king a lil over a year ago. Lil Bug is still a little young for UNO but it would be great for the adults and all those happy meal toys that i usually trash after a couple of days would be perfect for her little bag! Also you can get travel size versions of most of the popular board games (candy land. monopoly, connect four) some ive seen at my local FiveBelow on a keychain! i’ll be hitting the store this weekend 🙂

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  8. We added some cheap travel size board games like Chinese checkers and battleship from the dollar store. They r really cheaply made but for a dollar and for being reserved for an emergency I thought they were perfect . I’m also going to make an othello game board from scrap book paper and use those round yard sale markers by sticking two colors together for the markers. Really light this way and one of my favorite games.

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  9. We have cards and dice. I put in mini colored pencils, since my son is 10 and crayons melt, along with a pencil sharpener. We have Hatchet, To Kill a Mockingbird, a small Bible and a Sudoku book. I like the idea of putting a few little mini animals to go along with Hatchet. I think I will add a joke book too!

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  10. I love all these ideas! I added a classic book to each kit along with little plastic figurines that would allow for imaginative play. For example: in one kit I put “Indian in the cupboard” for reading aloud and I added the Indian and the cowboy figures. I put “Call of the wild” in another with small dog figurines. Another, Gary Paulsen’s “Hatchet” I put in a young boy, skunk, bear, moose and fish figures.

    I also put multi sided dice (the kind they use for role playing) in our packs. I added a dice that had mathematical functions on it (addition, sub, div, square root etc..) We use it to do fun math problems, we also play a bluffing game where we roll and try to bluff each other as to who has the lowest number…etc….It adds an added fun factor!

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  11. I will be going back to Walmart to see if I can find the mini Uno cards they had last year. Soome how my children have managed to get the ones out of their packs and not return them. They love playing with the mini cards better than the regular sized ones. Also added some New Testements and Psalms to our kit.

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  12. Have just started so have a ways to go before packing this stuff up… tho do know of some entertainment items I have which may be on list of stuff I’ll gather up to put in individuals kits….such as cards, uno, skipbo, dominoes, suduko & find a word books, motivational reading pocket books, pens, pencils,paper, paracord, hemp, beads, wood carving tools as well…. 🙂

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  13. I am currently putting together two kits in backpacks for the car and after reading this post, I realize that I need to bump up the fun factor. I have a sharpie, pen and pencil with paper in each pack, but nothing else. I need to see about something–at least some dice or cards or dominoes and perhaps a book or book of devotions. Go figure. I got so caught up in necessities, I forgot the fun! Thanks for the reminder! That’s why I keep going through this with you! 🙂

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  14. Just signed on to this wonderful website! My youngest son has been pushing us to do something like this – especially since we live in hurricane-wracked Florida. I’m going to have to start from this point or go back to the beginning. but at least being a homeschool Mom we have PLENTY of card games and things that would be small enough to fit in such a kit! So this week’s “challenge” is met! 🙂

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  15. I focus so much on all the other areas that I never even thought about entertainment. We don’t really play cards but that would do in a pinch. One of those survival guys on cable always carries a harmonica. That might be entertaining (even though neither of us know how to play one.)

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  16. There are just two of us, but we have a deck of cards, and also have a handheld battery powered Yahtzee game. It is so addictive!

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  17. We have some playing cards in our kit and I have paper and pencil since I didn’t want to worry about the pen running out of ink and we can always sharpen the pencil with a knife if need be. I would like to add a small toy and come dice to our kits as well to help with the younger kids. Thanks!

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  18. Just found your site via Pinterest, and have spent the evening reading your 72 hour emergency kit posts. I’ve looked at several similar sites in the past few months, knowing I will start building a kit soon, but wanted to say that I find yours the most organized and logical way to built a kit. I’ll get started on my own kit soon! In the mean time, I wanted to add to ideas for the entertainment – Pass the Pigs. Although you can buy a very small kit which contains the pigs and score cards, I’ve seen the pigs all on their own, for less than a dollar a piece, sitting on countertops in convenience stores – they take up no space at all. The full game, with pigs, pencils and score sheets is quite small as well, if you wanted to go for the full version. Kids especially enjoy this game.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pass_the_Pigs

    https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Moves-1046-Pass-Pigs/dp/B00005JG3Y

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  19. I’ve only just come across your site – through Pinterest. For entertainment a read aloud book. My boys are all teenagers, but in difficult times reading aloud a well loved book has been very comforting : Wind in the Willows, Narnia Chronicles, A Little Princess. Even though they a children’s books they have helped my boys feel safe, and helped keep my mind from unpleasant thoughts for a while.

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    • You are so right Phillippa! My kids LOVE when I read aloud to them (even though the older ones can do so themselves). Fabulous idea. THanks!

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  20. Right now I’m working on an activity kit for my 3 older kiddos…. A DVD case you slip plain paper in the cover and paint the back with chalkboard paint I’d put tape around the edges of the front so it lasts longer but inside add a thin dry erase marker with a Pom Pom glued on it for an eraser and some thin chalk for the back side. You can throw anything thing else that fits in it too and it’s light weight. We always play iSpy and scavenger hunts are fun too and nothing is required for them except imagination and your own eyes 🙂 Simon says and silly camp songs are great too. My kids like to be read to a lot so I have scanned some of their favorite books and shrunk them so they are the smallest I can read and I put several stories in a poly folder with 3 prongs and some sheet protectors. I keep an empty wipe box full of my kids favorite blocks in the car already and target sells $1 activity packs frequently in Their dollar section

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  21. Wow, I’m really unprepared in this area. We have pencil and paper, and small New Testament’s in our packs, but nothing for the children. I’m thinking we’ll add Uno and Story Cubes to our kits for sure. Story cubes are “dice” with pictures on them. Whatever pictures you roll, you have to make a story out of them. That should pass the time! I might have to add Dutch Blitz as well, I bought the game but haven’t learned how to play it yet! Great suggestions this week!

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  22. I always keep extra decks of cards and dice around. I also have the Yahtzee score cards. I love the idea of packing these items in a small first aid kit. I did have one somewhere, hmm I will have to find it.
    As my grandchildren are not always here I started putting together small kits for them, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and the like. They love the fact that they have their own stuff when they are here! I had not even thought of small toys for them. I will be hitting the dollar stores this week.

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  23. I just started creating a Bags for my family but have some nice things. The only thing I would add to people’s bags are Q-Tips. They are a god send when you have nothing around. Small, compact and ready to help start a fire. If you’ve ever gone swimming and not had them around you feel my pain.

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