Busy Bags 101

Have you seen the phrase Busy Bags floating around online and wondered what all the buzz is about? Not sure what a Busy Bag is or how to make them? Well, you have come to the right place. Busy Bags 101 will guide you through the basics of Busy Bags and the potential of hosting a Busy Bag Swap.

1. What is a Busy Bag?

Simply put a busy bag is a bag that contains an activity that your child can use on their own with little supervision or instruction. Busy Bags are meant to be engaging and to help keep a young learner busy while mom is teaching older students, while waiting at the doctors, or while traveling in the car. Wanna see some busy bags in action? Check out these busy bags being used by toddlers.

2. How do you make them?

You need two key components: the bag (plastic slider or fabric zippered pouch) and the activity. I prefer the fabric zippered pencil pouch with clear window for durability and portability. The type of activity you choose to put into the bags depends on the age of child and the amount of time needing occupied. You can make an activity. You can buy an activity from the dollar store or you can gather items from around your house to make a themed activity bag like Scientist, Office, or Princess!

 

3. Where do you find ideas for them?

All over the internet you can find tons of ideas, but you could easily get overwhelmed! I have created some pinterest boards broken down by ages to help guide you in your activity selection. If you need a pattern for finger puppets, then check out my Turkey Felt Finger Puppets.

Ages 12 months to 2 years old

 

Ages 2 1/2 years to 4 years old

 

Ages 5 years and up

Fall Busy Bags

Christmas Busy Bags

4. Fun things to include in your Busy Bags: 

We have found lots of fun things at Dollar stores, garage sales, and online. I’ve included some suggestions of things you could use to create some more awesome busy bags!

5. How can I host a Busy Bag Swap?

There are a couple of ways to host a swap. The first is to just ask your friends and family to sign-up for an activity and make a bag for each person in the group. This sounds pretty easy in theory but you run into lots of hesitation from people who REALLY want to make Busy bags but are a little intimidated. You may get lots of interest but very few people to actually sign-up.

A more feasible approach is to pick the activities that you would like to have made and create a google doc, facebook event, or blog post that people can sign-up. Make sure your chosen activities are linked to a place online of how to make them (via blogs, pinterest, or your own blog post of what each activity is). Set the date, time, and place of where the swap would take place.

Be sure to communicate with your group members to be sure they understand what is expected of them in the swap.

Third option would be a make-the-bags at the swap event. You could provide all the materials to make the busy bags and charge a fee for each participant. This could work very well for those who have friends that are not crafty or creative but really want to participate. I have also offered to sign-up for spots for a friend by making the bags for her and charging a fee (usually $1-2 per activity bag made.)

If you love busy bags and need help or want to view my google doc please contact me via facebook or leave a blog comment! I am more than willing to share tips and tricks of how to run swaps with a few moms and a ton of moms:)

Have you seen my other Busy Bag posts:

• Busy Bags in Action
• Rainbow Busy Bags
• 10 I Want to Make
• Vehicle Busy Bags
• More Busy Bag Ideas from Pinterest: Follow Thaleia @ Something2Offer’s board Busy Bag Swap on Pinterest.