Aug 21: Busy Bags

Way back in April of this year, I was a part of a blogger busy bag swap and have been meaning to post about this for oh, about five months now;) I'm not sure any of the other girls blogged about it either! Shame on all of us;)

If you haven't been bombarded with the busy bag concept from Pinterest and other internet sources, I will explain. You have a small activity that can fit inside a small bag. You show your child how to use this bag-o-goodies appropriately one time, but then hopefully it's something they can do all by themselves to keep busy when mommy can't be right there interacting. In theory, it's an awesome idea for some quiet time, for when a sibling needs 1:1 attention from mom and the bigger kid must fend for themselves, or just to teach them a little independent play skills.

Megan from Girl Meets Life organized this cross-country swap. The other bloggers were Kristal from Mama at Home, Meredith from La Buena Vida, Erin who is TeamCorbin on IG and used to blog doesn't anymore (tear), Leslie from The Diary of a Half Black Woman, and Jill from Happy Hopefuls. We all exchanged FB messages and figured out what bag we could contribute, then we made seven of the exact same ones. We sent them all to Megan, she organized them, and we got 6 new bags back in the mail plus our own busy bag project we made for everyone else, too.

Pretty fun, right?


1. Frogs and Numbers (by Megan)

One of Truman's favorite busy bags. The laminated cards have pictures and a number on each. There are a bunch of cute plastic frogs and the kids are supposed to match up number '1' with one frog, etc. I found it hilarious that Truman put the plastic frog right on top of the picture of each frog instead of putting it on the blank part of the page, like I did above. He loves these frogs and it's good to practice counting and numbers.


2. Magnetic bottle (by Meredith)

A bunch of pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and metal shapes inside a soda bottle means tons of fun when you add a big magnet to the side of the bottle. Cecelia gets really mad when I won't open this bottle for her but Truman digs sliding that magnet around.


3. Wooden miniature memory matching (by Erin)

We love matching games, and this is no exception! Love how simple it is. Would be good to throw in my purse for dinners out or something.


4. Foam shape matching (by Leslie)

I was shocked that Truman could actually do this one! One side of each foam page has a shape arrangement stuck to it. Then on the other side, the child is supposed to find the loose shapes and make a mirrored arrangement. Really fun!

5. Popsicle stick puzzles (by Kristal)

Kristal did three different puzzles here by printing out images appropriate for each child, then cutting them into strips and glueing onto popsicle sticks. Truman likes his name the best, followed by Thomas and then the trucks;)

6. Felt flags (by Jill)

Truman requests to do this one occasionally, and although his flag is never 'perfect' it's always interesting and fun to see him toy around with the different shapes. He likes the buttons the best.


7. Felt butterflies (by me)
Truman already knew about these, and I posted about them here. But he still likes to make his butterfly in whole form so I have yet to cut it in half, so he can work on mirror images. I love felt!

And that's it for our busy bag swap. So many fun ideas out there. I foresee a lot of busy bags this winter when we can't get outside to play.