Busy Bags FTW!

In my last post I talked about a Busy Bag swap I recently participated in. I just have to say, best. idea. ever. I never heard of this until a friend invited me but it is pure genius. Here is the low down.

I participated in the 1-2 yr old swap which had 11 people participating. I had to put together an "activity" that a 1-2 yr old might like to do. It had to be clean, easy, cheap, safe and contained in a ziploc bag. I made 11 of this activity, brought it to my friend's house, and we all swapped. So now I have 11 different neat things for Dominic to do! And because I think it is so awesome, and because I love you all, here are the 11 bags I received:

#1. Sparkle Bottles-The first activity consists of three bottles filled with *1-hair gel and glitter *2-water(I think) and glitter, letters, confetti, and other awesome stuff and *3 tissue paper. These are fun to shake and look at.

Dominic has mostly played with them like this:
  

#2. I Spy Bottle: An old water bottle filled with rice (you can also use sand), and other random items like a paper clip, dime, eraser, etc. Also included was a card with a picture of all the items included. Shake to find item. Fun. Though so far, Dominic has just tried to feverishly open it to dump everything out so it is a good thing it is glued shut. In a few months, he is going to love this.

#3. Cups and balls. This is proably Dominic's favorite thus far. Simple, but the possibilities are endless. 

  



Of course he is drumming away.



#4. Clothespin Bucket. I spent hours on teh interwebs (Pinterest especially) searching for an idea of what to make. After lots of pins and millions of great ideas, I put all the to waster and just made up my own thing. I chose this because Dominic loves taking stuff out and putting them in again so really I made it for him and hoped others would like it too. Also I had tons of old yogurt/cottage cheese containers sitting around which I wanted to use. I cut three holes in the top just the size of the clothesepins for them to be put back in. This was a really simple thing to do, but then just because I like to be difficult, I decided the containers were ugly so I covered them with scrapbooking paper I had laying around. Woops. Completely unnecessary and took way too long and I highly anticipate all the paper being torn off. Nonetheless, Doc likes this one too.

#5. Sensory Board: This is essentially a book of giant notecards with different textures and fabrics glued to the notecard (there is also a bell and some pom poms). Dominic might be either A. too old for this or B. too destructive. I'm going with b. Certianly saving this for the next baby.
  

 #6. Animal/Letter Book. Picture and name of an animal on one side, corresponding letter on back side, laminate, attach together.

 

 #7. Button Snake. This is so cute! You sew a button on one end, put a bunch of pieces of felt on the ribbon with a slit in the middle so they slide on the ribbon. Then sew the ribbon to a piece of felt on the other end.

#8. Pom Pom Push It. Dominic has played with this one a lot too, and it is so simple. I love it. Take a container and make a few holes in the lid. Make sure the holes are smaller than the pom poms so they are a challenge to put through.

 

The apples are not part of the activity, he is multitasking. :)


#9. Outdoor Scavenger Hunt. We haven't gotten to try this yet, but I am so excited to! It was laminate and had the words and pictures: car, fire hydrant, leaves, house, mail truck, school bus, sidewalk, squirel, stop light, stop sign, tree. It also included a crayon so you can check off things when you see them. I might make more of these more catered to our neighbordhood but also can see that this would be good for a car ride (and for years to come).



Sorry about the poor picture.

#10. Bag of Foam Shapes. This is too very simple but great. I like asking him to find the "blue one" or "green one", and the same with shapes. 

#11. Egg Carton. Another favorite in our house. Cut a egg carton in half. Put pom pom inside plastic eggs. Paint corresponding color in each space. Color, motor skills, in and out, this has it all. 

Sometimes we have more than one activity out, and the other day Dominic combined two:

Those five of you who read my blog frequently or know me in person, know that my Dominic sits still for almost nothing. I have found very creative ways to keep him busy with stuff around the house but this just makes it so much easier.

So make them on your own, or organize a busy bag swap among friends (it's much easier to make multiple of just one activity). I'm so grateful to have been part of this and cant wait for the next one! There are TONS of Busy Bag ideas on teh interwebs for the 1-2 or 3-5 age groups. Hopefully this post gives you some good ideas.

And btw if you aren't a recovering gamer like I am, FTW means "For the WIN". This is certainly WIN.