Home » busy bags

Tag: busy bags

I Love Busy Bags!

Have you heard of Busy Bags? They are amazing! I was introduced to this whole concept last summer. One of the many Facebook groups I belong to, created a small group of mothers and we all took part in the Busy Bag project.

Pretty much, if there are say eight mothers in your group, you choose one activity and make eight of the same activity. You then all come together, swap activities, and you end up with eight different activities for your Busy Bag! It’s very similar to a freezer meal swap, but you get fun toddler activities instead!

Not only will these activities keep your kiddos busy, but they are awesome to use for a learning tool too! A lot of these activities incorporate matching colors, practicing numbers, fine motor skills, matching, and more.

Here is a snap shot of just a few activities I received from the swap. Sorry this isn’t the best picture! 🙁

These are also awesome to place into activity stations during the day, to keep the kiddos busy!

I just participated in another one a couple of weeks ago, but instead of just swapping we made a night of it. We came together with all of our activities we chose and decorated a small bag to keep all of the activities in. Of course, there was food and wine! It was so nice to get out, without kids!

I love keeping all the activities in a bag. You can throw this in your car, if you are going out to eat, going to a friends house, or anywhere you may need to keep your kiddo busy. This is a much better solution then handing then a smart phone, tablet, etc.!

There are ideas for Busy Bags all over Pinterest. Literally, probably hundreds. Here are some links to ones I like and some that I have in my Busy Bag!

  1. The Princess and the Tot – Toddler Busy Bags – Family memory game, finger puppets, lacing cards, matching colors, and more!
  2. Busy Bags for Teaching Colors
  3. Clothes Pin Number Match 
  4. Pattern Matching
  5. Popsicle Stick Puzzles
  6. The Rigneys – Toddler Busy Bag Swap – Velcro Mr.Potato Head, Button Turkey, Brown Bear Head and Tail matching, upper and lower case matching, and more!

Have you participated in a Busy Bag Swap? What activity did you make?

Activity Stations

I thought I would share a new thing I am doing with Monte. Since I have been home full time and watching other kiddos, I have been trying to find an easy way to have different activities out to play with daily. I usually keep puzzles, paints, playdough, busy bag items, etc. out of reach, for obvious reasons.

I decided each day, I will place 2-3 trays out with different activities in them. That way Monte and the other kiddos can choose what they would like to play with and everything is in one spot. It makes for easy clean up also!

This was last week. I had our “sewing” busy bag in one tray and matching cards in another tray. I also had Monte’s favorite hippo game out! It was nice because he would run around and play, then stop, sit and work on one of his trays. It’s hard for Monte to sit still for a length of time, if he is not in the mood. This way, when he is ready, he can play!

I picked up the two trays above at Target. They are actually just letter trays and were about $6 a piece.

I already had this red plastic one which is very sturdy. I use it for crafts such as paint, glitter, glue, etc. like when we decorated our witch’s hat!

The trays are also easy to carry things outside like when we did the Erupting Sidewalk Chalk.

What tricks do you do to make kids activities for you and the kids?