Busy Bags

"As busy as bees...."

--William Chaucer

Have you ever heard of busy bags?  If not, then look it up.  You can find a bajillion links and sites dedicated to them.  Basically they are little ziplock bags filled with a simple project or game for little tykes.  Usually they are homemade activities that stimulate the brain and encourage fine motor skills and what have you.  And apparently there are busy bag swaps.  You make a predetermined number of these bags, then go to the swap where everyone gets one of yours and you take one of everyone elses.  A cookie-swap for kids.

Now I wish I had known about these when my little guys were, well, littler.  Now you just hand them an electronic device and they'll be quiet and our of your hair for hours.  Not so for little ones.

So I have these adorable nieces (see the November 22, 2012 blog) who I thought would be perfect for these busy bags.  Their mom, my sister-in-law, is crazy busy with the three of them, who are only a year and a half apart.  So, why not?  So here is what I came up with.

 

For these, I bought little wooden square at the craft shop.  Only a couple of dollars for like a hundred of assorted sizes.  Then I cut out pictures from some of my scrapbook pages, mod-podged them on, and voila.  An easy matching game.

 

 

I got some paint swatches from the home improvement store.  (I got two of each color palette.)  I cut up one and glued it to some clothespins so there would be a matching color.  Another easy matching game.

 

Finally, I glued more scrapbook paper to some popsicle sticks, then cut them with an exacto knife, and here's an easy puzzle.

 

They were then put together in a cute colorful bag from the dollar store.  So these projects were cheap to make, although a little time consuming.  I hope the girls enjoy playing with them.  I plan on adding more activites to the bags after the holidays.