Busy Bags

The concept of Toddler Busy Bags is not new to me. I made similar things for my classes at school, and have often thought about putting some together for Tyler. Just little bags of fun stuff to pull out on a rainy day or in the car. But the last time I had thought about it he was still a little too young for most of my ideas. Then recently some one from my MOPS leadership team set up a Busy Bag Exchange. Best. Idea. Ever. She set the ages for 2-5 year olds. Tyler turned two a couple weeks after the exchange, so I knew he might be a little young for some of the activities, but still thought it would be fun. Eight of us ended up doing it, so we each came up with an idea for a bag and made eight of them. This is what we ended up with!

1. A pom-pom activity. Tyler loves this one. He has a hard time using the tongs to pick them up yet, but he likes to put them in through the slot. And he has kind of claimed it for his Hallies. It's "Hallie food". This bowl gets carried all over the house with his puppies.

Feeding Hallie!

2. Brown Bear Puzzle. Tyler likes this one too, although he doesn't really try to do the puzzles yet. He mostly just stacks the cards and plays with them, or tells me what things are when I put them together. It's really cute though, and I'm sure he will figure it out sometime soon!





3. Felt Pizzas. This is another one that Tyler loves. He likes putting the pizza together, and of course he likes feeding his Hallies with it. They are pretty spoiled little puppies.

 



4. Pot of Gold Counting Game. This one is far beyond where Tyler is at, but it is one of his favorites. When Tyler counts he points at each thing and says, "Three, three, three..." Sometimes he will throw in a two or an eight. And he definitely doesn't know written numbers yet. So he doesn't actually use the counting sheets, but he likes to play with the money! Until this morning he hadn't figured out that some of the coins are chocolate. I had to hide some of the money after that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Buttons and Cars. I think this one is adorable. There are buttons sewn on each side of the ribbon and the cars all have slits to hook them on. So cute! Tyler has a hard time getting the cars on. I think it's mostly an issue of patience - he doesn't try very hard before moving on to the next thing. But he likes taking them off and when I put them on he likes pushing it around and making train sounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Craft Stick Puzzle. We haven't used this one as much. It's a great idea, but the concept is a little hard for Tyler yet. He loves puzzles, but he still just does the ones where pieces fit into the spots. This one is a little harder for now. But as with everything else, he still likes to play with it!

 

 

 

7. Matching Color Shades. I had actually considered making one similar to this, but it got taken. :-) I like the idea of it. For now Tyler loves color matching, and he's really good at it, but shades are a whole different story. He could say they are all blue, but matching them to the right shade is still a little tricky. So for now, he loves to play with the clothes pins and take them all apart, but then he just leaves them in a big pulled apart pile. I might save this one for a little while and make my own with just plain colors for now. If I have time. :-)

 

8. Counting and Color Matching With Frogs. This one was mine, so Tyler has been playing with this one for a lot longer than the others. I had a lot of fun with it - it kind of brought out the teacher in me. Tyler loves those squishy little frogs, and it's one of the few that he does exactly what he supposed to with. And so far he hasn't tried to feed them to his puppies. :-)

So seriously, if you have toddlers, do a busy bag swap. So much fun! One reason I was excited about it is because when the baby gets here, these will be great activities to pull out when I'm busy with him. And they all fit in zip-locks, so they are easy to put in a diaper bag and bring places too! I'm probably going to hide all or most of them for awhile so they will be new again when the little guy gets here. Everyone did such a great job on them, and they're all really cute. And even the ones that are geared for kids a little older than Tyler, are still fun for him to play with. So now I have eight bags of fun activities to pull out when I need them. Perfect!