Busy Bag Bonkers

Think I have gone a little busy bag bonkers! I have spent some time putting together various busy bags for our Little Boy Blue to do either on his own while I do some work with both his brothers or with one of his brothers while i do some one on one. The bags seem to be a hit with all the boys and Little Boy Blues big brothers keep wanting to go help him!

Funny Faces Bag

 

This is a magnetic book with 8 different outlines of faces (cowboy, king, queen...) and we have had this since my eldest was little. Some of the eyes, noses and bits were missing so I got a sticker book we had & stuck the stickers onto card, laminated them, cut them out and stuck magnetic tape to the back. I'm sure you could find some on the internet and make your own. Check out:

http://thecreativepaige.com/2011/10/build-your-own-monster-face.html

http://www.firefliesandjellybeans.com/2010/11/funny-faces-with-magnet-sheets-from.html

Educational Aim: To learn the parts of the face, discuss feelings & expressions.

 Connect or Stack Bag (also used for water/sand play)

This is a toy I bought for the busy bags. I loved the fact it was so versatile, it contains 7 parts each one can connect to make a caterpillar or stack to make a tower, they also have different cut outs & one has a wheel in the base for water or sand play, they could also be used for counting to 7, size sorting as they decrease in size and colour sorting. All this for £2 what more can a mum ask for? (the product make is Munchkin if anyone wants to get one) 

Educational Aim: Motor skills, colour recognition.

Coin Bank

This is one of Little Boy Blues favourites. An old metal coin bank with a pop of lid, features Bill & Ben (plus Weed) who are divid into 3 sections (head, body, legs) they can be mixed up and change looks by spinning the sections. 

Educational Aim: Motor skills, matching (the characters on the tin), counting.

(I plan later to use different value coins to help with familiarising Little Boy Blue with the variety of coins we use.) 

Lid Thread

For this I collected a selection of plastic lids in a variety of colours and used my craft punch to make a whole in the middle. I then used large pipe cleaners doubled over with a knot on the end for them to be threaded on to. 

Educational Aim: Hand-eye co-ordination and colour recognition.

Button Sort

As you can see I have a container with different compartments each with individual pop up lids, in each compartment I have put a different coloured piece of card and writen the colour on it and added a selection of buttons (different colours & sizes) to be sorted into the correct compartment. It is safer at the moment for me to assist Little Boy Blue with this one as he would still put things in his mouth! We can also talk about size and shades of colour. It's also good way of getting my buttons for my crafts & sewing sorted! lol

Educational Aim: Colour recognition, motor skills, size recognition.

Thomas Character Colour Match

A while ago when my 2nd boy was little I made these flash cards & laminated them, I basically searched the internet for clip art of Thomas the Tank Engine characters and grouped the characters together by colour, typed out the colour word in that colour and printed them off. For the busy bag I added wooden pegs each one pained with a colour on it to match the cards, the correct colour peg is then clipped on to the corresponding card.

Educational Aim: Colour recognition & matching, motor skills.

Shapes

This bag contains a book about shapes each page tells about a shape then show a picture made up of different things & the child has to discover where the shape talked about is found. I also included a wooden shape puzzle and some shape flash cards. The two eldest love 'teaching' Little Boy Blue his shapes.

Educational Aim: Shape recognition, motor skills, observation skills.

Tomy Aquadraw

This again is something we had already and really good for when I need to do work with both elder boys as Little Boy Blue can safely play with water (which he loves) and creates little to no mess (I don't need to worry about him eating the crayons) and because the water dries I don't need to keep replacing paper.

Educational Aim: Ceativity, independance.

Sock Sort

Sounds crazy I know but I'm preparing him for a job which the two eldest currently do to earn pocket money! I filled this bag with socks he has out grown and are very different from each other and just get Little Boy Blue to match them up!

Educational Aim: Pattern recognition, counting.

This is only a small example of some of the busy bags I have put together and alot of are made from things we already owned, so go and have a look round the cupboards and toy boxes see what you already have that you can use as a busy bag.