So You Want to Make A Busy Bag

Busy Bags. The toddler/preschooler solution to killing time/learning/distracting during home schooling of older children/whatever. They're all the rage. Okay, so maybe not really but I have heard about them on a few different blogs and I participated in a busy bag swap. I made 8 of my activities, sent them off to Micaela and soon will get a box back with 7 other activities for me to do with C. 

For my busy bag I modified this cupcake activity for an ice cream activity. The busy bag swap was initially a toddler craft swap and I wanted something that could double team. So I thought ice cream was a good way to go. But we'll get to what to do with the busy bag later. 

First I cut up a cereal box to make stencils of the ice cream cones and ice cream scoops I wanted to make. I sized the scoops and cones around the end of a juice concentrate lid so that I could make sure they were about the same size. Also I figured that would make it a good size for toddlers and preschoolers--not too small but not too big either. 

Then I traced the shapes onto felt. And cut them out. 

Then I divided them up into each gallon ziploc. 3 scoops of each kind of ice cream and 2 different shaped cones. 

I put together a smaller bag that contained 1 "cherry" pom-pom, 2 magnet strips and a handful of "sprinkles." (I cut up the blue, purple and green felt into small pieces.) 

Then I put in the instruction sheet and called it good. 

Viola! A busy bag! But less you think I am not going to show you my instruction sheet, I will show you the first version before it got the cute ice cream cone you see above there. 

I think if you click on it, it will get bigger. But if not, there are 3 ways to use my busy bag.   You can just have free play to decorate your ice cream cones however you choose, or create cones using different patterns or craft the cones into keepsake magnets. 

The learning aspect was clearly following patterns and listed examples of ABA, ABBA etc. patterns to establish early math knowledge. 

I was pretty proud of my bags. They were easy enough (lots of cutting but I just put on a good movie 2 nights in a row and was all set.) and came out to cost me less than a $1 a bag. (Not including the ziplocs but I had those at home already so I didn't factor the cost in but I could have gotten dollar store versions and they would have worked just fine.) 

Anyway... if you are looking for quiet activities to engage and entertain your littles I recommend the busy bag. There are so many different kinds and lots of swaps to participate in! Marie at Joy Beyond the Cross was looking to have one and I'm not sure if there's still room but it wouldn't hurt to send her an email and ask! 

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