A couple of years ago the prospect of being stuck indoors with a then 5 year old and 18 month old for the duration of the winter school holidays scared me senseless. We were tired of our toys and I could sense cabin fever setting in already!
One evening while scrolling through countless Pinterest posts, I discovered something that American moms were going nuts about - Busy Bags. A community of moms would get together and each decide on an activity to make. Each mom would then replicate her activity by the number of moms taking part. A few weeks later, a busy bag exchange would take place and you would leave with a variety of activities for your toddler.
At the time, Miss E and I used to attend a weekly Moms & Tots class. I placed an "ad" on our local mom's facebook page and quite a few mom's responded saying that they would like to take part. So together with our Moms and Tots class, we got started on making a variety of activities. Each activity came with a set of instructions as well as what the desired outcomes were or what skill your child would develop.
Some of the activities that were included:
- Fruit loop counting and sorting
- Sensory fidget box (looong before fidget spinners were around)
- Colour wheel with matching pegs
- Sequencing caterpillar
- Go Fish game
- Alphabet Cards
- Lacing cards
- Popsicle stick puzzles
- Shape matching and sorting
- Felt shape snake
My busy bag exchange loot.
For more ideas, you can check out my Busy Bag Pinterest board here.
The activity that I made is called an "I Spy Fish". I sewed fish out of felt and used a durable plastic for a window in the fish's belly.
Once they were completed, I filled each fish with rice and a few trinkets such as a big brightly coloured bead, different coloured paper clips, dice, plastic fish and then sewed the tails closed. The aim of the "I Spy Fish" is to have a key printed of what is hiding inside it and then the little ones need to maneuver the rice around until they have found all the objects on the key. This is a great activity when you need your kiddo to sit quietly for a while. I carry our fish around in my handbag (even though it's quite heavy). It's great to keep the kids busy in the doctor's waiting room, at church or in the car. This activity was definitely worth the effort!
All the I Spy Fish ready for our busy bag swop day.
I really enjoyed this project and it was lovely to meet a few "new" local moms. We have used our busy bags over and over again. This is definitely a fun project that I would recommend getting involved in!
Until next time,
XX-L
