What is a busy bag? A busy bag is pre-assembled kids activity, that is easy to set up on the fly. I have found that these are great distractions when we are in the middle of a tantrum, or just gotten an ouchie that is hard to get over. Busy bags are also intended to be somewhat portable, easy to throw into the diaper bag for quick entertainment on the run. Like when going out to eat (if we ever get to do that again😛). I also think it is important that you child know’s about the busy bags, but they aren’t quite in reach. So when they are brought down it is a real treat to get to play with them. As you can see I just keep mine in ziplock bags that we reuse over and over, but you could keep these in whatever containers you want.
This is the only potentially messy activity in the bunch. It is a “sensory bag” filled with rice, dried beans, and oat meal. You could make this out of whatever you want, the idea is edible but not delicious. It is useful for lots of other activities too! Simply dumb it into a bowl with some scoopers, a few cups, perhaps a funnel. Instant entertainment!
If you are looking at this and thinking….that is a bunch of sponges… you are right. I picked these sponges up from the dollar store and cut them in half. They are super easy to stack! They make great towers to knock over. I have also seen this done where they are cut into more of a log shape.
Magnets are a hit for kids of all ages! This bag includes a magnetic fishing game that I made, and some letter fridge magnets. Soon I will put up a post about the fishy magnets.
I bought these cute Easter eggs at the dollar store. Asher thinks they are so fun to open and talk about the animals inside. Plastic Easter eggs are good for all kinds of activities, I highly recommend picking some up.
A classic but always fun. You can never go wrong with play-dough. Weather it’s homemade or store bought, put together an easy little kit to break out in a moments notice. You can find my go to recipe for play-dough here…https://turtlelion.com/2021/03/18/worlds-best-homemade-play-dough-seriously/
I hope you enjoy these busy bag idea’s, please play, like, and share! I’d love to hear what you think of these idea’s, leave me a comment below!
Turtlelion 