Motherhood Mania: Crafts This Week

The other night I came across a blog about Busy Bags for kids. I wasn't sure what they were, so I read on. Busy Bags are the best invention ever!!! :) They are simple crafts/activities/games put together in Ziploc bags for kids to do in the car, when they're bored, on a plane, wherever! I found several sites that offered really cute ideas:

The Sunny Patch

My Delicious Ambiguity

Our Journey

Walking By The Way

Here are some photos of the bags I put together over the past 2 1/2 days. I think these will be great things for the girls over the summer, while we're stuck indoors when the baby is born. PLUS, these will be great bags to choose from during the school day for their free play! I am so excited to have gotten them done, and the girls (so far!) are loving them!

 Pattern Matching: I created a pattern of foam colored shapes on a ribbon. The girls get the same colors and shapes to then thread on their own ribbon. (The sewing needle is plastic)

 Clothespin Number Wheel: Styrofoam plate cut into circle and divided into 9 sections, designating #'s 1-9 with dots. Numbered clothespins are used to match up the dots with the numbers.

 Lacing Cards: Foam pieces poked with holes to mark shapes. Girls get a needle and ribbon (piece of pipe cleaner attached to ribbon) to sew the shapes.

 Felt Play: Blue sheet of felt with removable felt pieces. I would also like to make a set of silly face parts and a transportation theme to use on this blue piece as well. Then, they'll have more options for what scene they want to make.

 Popsicle Color Matching: I folded over strips of cardstock into shapes of popsicles, then stapled them onto cardboard, leaving open a space at one end. The popsicle sticks are marked with the names of the color WITH that color marker. The girls find the corresponding popsicle top and put the stick in the slot. On the opposite end of the stick, the color names are written in just black marker. Once they can read, they can work on reading the color name and matching the popsicles!

Clothesline Busy Bag: This was so fun to make...and VERY easy. My girls love to do home-type things, so they were instantly in love with this activity. I found 4 ft of ribbon and tied it to hang up in the living room. I cut out shapes of clothes out of felt (shirts, shorts, socks, pants, skirts, dresses). They use clothespins to hang up their "laundry" to dry. They use that blue baby doll bathtub in the back on the left to pretend wash them first. :) Even my youngest is doing ok working the open/close of the clothespin. Very good hand-eye coordination, as well as fine motor skill practice. PLUS, you can give them a game of hanging certain colors in a pattern or write letters or numbers on them to put in order or spell words! So many ideas!!

I really enjoyed making all of these. There are a few more I'd like to do, but I thought this was a great start. They could bring them to the hospital when they come to visit the baby and I, or Dad can give them these to do here, so he can get a little rest before baby and I come home! :)