Here are all the activities I made for him. I used pencil bags from Wal-Mart to hold each activity. A mutual friend monogrammed a backpack for him to keep all the bags in.
The first activity (and my favorite) was actually one I came up with. I got two Matchbox cars and then cut "roads", including curvy sections, out of construction paper and laminated them. I can just imagine him creating all sorts of paths and driving the cars all over. And then all the roads and the cars fit right back into the bag for clean up. I will definitely be making this one for my girls.
This busy bag was really simple. I just printed some pictures from this website on card stock and then laminated them. I then just hole-punched holes around the edges and added a shoelace for a lacing activity. Next time I'll get a longer shoe lace...I think this one might be a little short :(
This busy bag doesn't have a specific "theme". I just got a little mini notebook, stickers, and small colored pencils for some artistic fun.
This busy bag uses some really neat dry erase crayons that my awesome teaching assistant introduced me to since the markers can be so messy. I printed some letter and number tracing activities from one of my favorite websites, Confessions of a Homeschooler, onto cardstock and laminated them.
I love this next busy bag activity. I got the idea from a pin on Pinterest from this blog. It's just the big craft sticks with velcro dots hot-glued to them along with some play doh lids for a new spin on building.
I love this felt snowflake building busy bag. It took the longest time to make out of all of them because of all of the felt shapes, but I can't wait to make one for Campbell.
I'm sure the next idea came from some teaching blog or website but I can't find it to give it credit. I used stickers and sentence strips that I laminated then cut to make counting "puzzles". I made another version of this for Campbell with the number words in addition to the numbers.
The last busy bag I made for my friend is one with name activities for her little boy. I made a card with the letters of his name on which he can trace the letters and letters with velcro for him to put in order (all the letters of his name on the bottom are velcroed...I just pulled off the last two to show the velcro). I printed it on cardstock and laminated it as well. I also just made a quick name puzzle for an extra name activity.
Since making these for my friend's son, I made a different one for Campbell. I found some cute little craft hole punches with shapes. I put a couple of those, strips and squares of construction paper, and glue sticks in the bag for her to punch and create with. We took it to a restaurant the other night and it was a hit with both girls!
I'm hoping to make several more of these busy bags for trips to restaurants, rides in the car, times I'm busy cooking dinner, etc. I'll keep y'all posted with new bags as I make them. If you have any ideas, I'd love to see or hear them!
7 comments:
You are so creative and thoughtful. Robbie's favorite (so far) seems to be the cars OF COURSE (anything with wheels, right?) but the whole concept is just so awesome. Thank you so much!
Very cute! You could use a length of yarn and tape the ends for the lacing activity. Just an idea.
Julie Milne
I really like the road one. I keep cars in my purse for the kids and we usually draw a "road" on placemats or napkins when we eat out. I like the idea of piecing them together, though. I have several busy bags (30+). We should get together & share ideas. I participated in a few swaps which is why I've been able to accumulate so many, but they really are super easy and I made some on my own for my kids as well as for Christmas gifts for my neices/nephews. My girls' favorites are the clothesline ("clothes" cut out of felt that they use clothespin to hang on a line between 2 chairs), the shape matching (I have 2 versions- one is much more difficult than the other), and the beads (spooning and stringing onto pipe cleaners/string). My boys enjoy the ring toss (3 rice-filled water bottles with the lids hot-glued on. Rings are made of pipe cleaners twisted together. Point values are written on the lids) & the collage one (similar to your art bag but also contains scissors and an old "child-friendly" magazine. We get Hi-Lights and Family Fun each month so I just swap out those). Another one that I thought was good for older kids was a "Boredom Buster". It has chores/ideas to help kids who complain about being bored, but they are fun chores. I also have all kinds of sorting ones (shapes, sizes, objects) along with numbers and letters. Annie's favorite is simply a parmesan cheese container with straws cut to fit inside. She LOVES to dump out the straws and put them in the holes. I keep one in my purse & we have one at home for that.
This is awesome! Do you have your own laminator?
I'd love to recreate some of these at a simpler level for my 2 year old, but don't know how I'd laminate everything.
Kim, I have access to a laminator. If you're thinking of home schooling, it may be a good investment. Or, you can fake it with contact paper, or my personal favorite, clear packaging tape.
SOOOO impressed. I had a question about the laminating too so I'm glad to answered that. Thanks for sharing Martha.
Thanks Martha. It looks like they're not too bad. I'm not planning to homeschool, but could see making some crafts to supplement school so it could be worth it.
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