I had never heard of a busy bag until my friend Joleen did this post on The Ultimate Guide to Summer for Toddlers. Which, by the way, has saved my sanity numerous times over. But I digress, back to busy bags. As soon as I read what they were, I knew I needed to make them for Hudson. If you’ve never heard of a busy bag, here’s the concept behind it: a busy bag is a bag filled with an activity that a toddler/preschooler can do mostly on his/her own. This includes things like matching objects or colors, block puzzles, and learning the ABCs! Below you’ll find a list of supplies and FREE printables!
Besides your little one learning, they’re also working on their fine motor skills AND you get some peace and quiet! Genius right??
Hudson LOVES his busy binder time!
You Will Need:
*Large Binder
*Protector Sheets
*Stamps
*Notebook- for them to draw in/stamp in
*Crayons
*Markers
*Printables Below!
I used our HP Sprout to make the below printables! I just scanned in the shapes, buttons, and alphabet letters on the 3D scanner. Then I arranged each object on the page, exactly how I wanted it, and hit print. Easy peasy and now I have some extra busy bags for friends!
This printable is great for both color and shape matching. To complete this busy bag you will need: this printable in a sheet protector, and all of the coordinating buttons and some pipe cleaners in a 3 ring pencil pouch. The pipe cleaners are so your little one can also thread the buttons onto the pipe cleaners- it’s a 2 for 1 activity!
Obviously for learning their letters! I place this sheet in a sheet protector, and the foam letters in one of the 3 ring pencil pouches. The foam letters I tagged above are also stickers, so I peel the backs off and let him stick the coordinating letters to the sheet protector.
Hudson LOVES shapes and puzzles, so I put a few beginner pieces together for him. Both of these printables are in sheet protectors, and all of the corresponding foam shapes are in a pencil pouch. This is his favorite out of all of the activities.
When my boys were little, I made "busy bags" for when we traveled. Nothing fancy like yours…we just used puffy paints to decorate them. But I'd fill them with fun stuff for them to do, and every trip we'd take I'd put new things in there.
This is such a great idea for little ones!
What a cute idea!
Love this idea! Might need to pass it along to my cousin – she has little ones that would enjoy this!
Wish I had thought of that when my kids were little! Super creative
What a great way to keep kiddos busy, would be great for road trips. Will have to remember for my nanny bag =)
What a fun idea! I think I'll make one for my grandson!
Yes. This. All these ideas! Love them!
This is great, wish I had them when my kids were toddlers.
This is so cool! I'll have to share this with my cousin who has a toddler.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
What a cute idea! I know that when I have kids I want to keep them active and learning as opposed to just sitting on an ipad or iphone…or, I say that now lol