Busy Bag Swap

In December I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Modern Parents, Messy Kids, and found the best idea!  She proposed a busy bag swap– a group of moms who come together, each making a one set self-contained, portable activities that keeps kids engaged independently, and then switch so that each mom gets one of each activity to take home with her.  I put together a group of parents who wanted to do this and sent out an email with a few links to busy bag ideas (this one and this one were my favorites).

Then, a week ago, we got together, let the kids play, and set up a table with all of the busy bags on it.  When our kids were busy playing (and not getting in trouble), we all went to the table and made sure that we put one of each activity into our bag to take home.  Fun!  So, here is the bounty that I now have!  Thanks ladies for humoring me with this!
Button Snake

Magnetic Pom Poms

Color Shade Matching

Contact Paper Collage Kit

Robot Drawing Notebook

Counting/ Math Cards

Button Shape Matching

Lacing Cards

All of these activities are fantastic and Clara has been aching to use them all week. I’m trying to keep them out of reach for a while because I would like to take them with us when we fly to Maui in a couple of weeks. To round out our busy bag stash (and to give me more choices when I’m packing) I added a few bags that I made myself.
Tongue Depresser Puzzle

Paint with Water Sheets

Finger Puppets

Giant Beading Set

I will update if I come up with any other fantastic ideas before we leave on the airplane. Also, my brilliant sister, who isn’t flying anywhere right away, but did just wait for two hours with both her kids at a doctor’s office has decided that she may leave her box of busy bags in the car so she can grab one and go in just those situations.

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