The Busy Bag ~ What, Why and How

While browsing around on Pinterest, I became aware of the phenomenon known as the “Busy Bag.”For those who are new to the concept (as I was), a Busy Bag is basically a bag or box filled with small activities to keep your toddler or young child quietly entertained on their own. For me, the two most important concepts of the Busy Bag are 1) QUIETLY and 2) ON THEIR OWN. Now, granted, a Busy Bag activity is not going to buy you enough time to fully clean the house or catch up on your reality TV shows (you know you have them on the DVR), but it might allow you to start dinner, unload the dishwasher or at least finish reading this blog post with some degree of sanity.

After fully embracing the concept of the Busy Bag and deciding that I need loads and loads of such activities, I quickly went to work searching the web, finding ideas on Pinterest and thinking about all the great Busy Bag activities I wanted to make. There are a lot of online resources for Busy Bag ideas; here are a few that I found particularly helpful.

Money Saving Mom – Lots of Busy Bag ideas

My Delicious Ambiguity – Sample Busy Bag and tons of ideas for Busy Bag activities

Unsolicited Advice – Busy Bag Swap and lots of Busy Bag activity ideas

PreKinders – Fine motor skill activities that could be used for a Busy Bag

Monkey Butt Junction – Several Busy Bag ideas and links to even more

Eventually I came to realize that it wasn’t enough to just PLAN all the Busy Bag activities, but I actually needed to MAKE some! I hit up the local Walmart (store of choice in my family) to pick up some supplies. Most of the Busy Bag ideas are simple designs and do not cost much to make. Since I had less than a plan, I picked up a couple packs of variety felt, pipe cleaners, craft pom-pom balls, clothespins, and any other craft supplies that looked fun or useful. During my first Busy Bag project, I also added a personal laminating machine (link to post) to my stash of “necessary tools” (i.e. fun toys). Laminating any paper parts of your Busy Bag activities will make them last much longer in little toddler hands. You will also find that many Busy Bag activities can be created with the items you already have laying around the house.

Finally I got to work creating my very first Busy Bag - Build-A-Snowflake. I can’t wait to use all the great resources I’ve discovered to create hours of fun for my kids – and sanity for me!