Busy Bag Exchange

I was invited to a Busy Bag Exchange by one of the moms of one of my playschool students.  So fun! What is a "Busy Bag"?  It's a bag you can grab on the go to keep your little ones entertained.  For example, the doctor's office, soccer practice, church, restaurant, etc..  You can do toddler level bags, preschool level bags, etc... She had set a limit of $2-$3/bag.  And we had 12 moms coming so... around $24-$36 for 12 busy bags!  Nice!  AND you are only doing the labor for one type of bag! :)  She just asked that you make it the same quality of the bags you want to get in return.  If you look up "Busy Bags" on Pinterest, you will find TONS of ideas.  Or you can come up with your own!  The host had us all tell her ahead of time what we were making so she made sure there weren't duplicates. 

These are the bags I got:

Shapes!:

This is the one I made.  Found the idea on Pinterest.  However, I did change it a little.  I didn't like that they had a rectangle in here.  You have to use 6 sticks to make the rectangle (so it has a longer side).  So, they had written 6 on the sticks for rectangle.  Well..... the math teacher in me came out.  I don't want my kids thinking a rectangle has 6 sides. :)  So, I added the diamond/rhombus instead. :)

You can buy these colored sticks at Hobby Lobby.  I bought the strips of velcro (because it was cheaper) and cut and peeled each individual square- yeah, it was a lot of work.  And I hated Velcro for like a week afterwards.  So, for my own bag I used the circles that you just peel.  But, they are more expensive if you want to buy it for everyone's bag.  Then, I just used felt to cut the shapes.

Sponge Blocks:

 Color Sort & Shape Match:

You can put the foam shapes on the pic or color sort them on the larger shapes.

She had a color and B&W side to the paper.

 Handwriting, dot to dot, and dry Erase Board:

 Color Sort:

She found the little green thing with holes at Dollar Tree.

My son loves threading the pipe cleaner through the holes.

Beads!:

My kids' faces lit up when they saw this bag! Ooooh, beads!  This bag keeps them busy while I make dinner!

 Pizza Factory:

So cute!  They can free play or make a pizza to order.

 Gel Writing Pad:

She took gel and glitter.  Put it in a bag.  Taped it down on cardboard and Mod Podged a Alphabet/Number sheet on the back.

Spider Web Fun:

Perfect for Halloween!  My son loves this bag.  You can use the color yard to make a web or just the white.  If the yarn gets destroyed of knotted, you can just add new yarn!

 Another Pizza Factory... with a little extra:

 

Kind of the same as the one above.  BUT she added the kids name {yes! she personalized each bag for each family!} And she added a couple extra sheets where they had to match or count pepperonis etc..

 Button Snake:

Kids enhance their buttoning skills by putting on and off these felt shapes

 Popsicle Stick Puzzles:

Since I had so much fun and there are SO many ideas for busy bags out there, I decided I need to host one of these!!  I thought I would share in case one of these gals did something you've never seen before!

If I were to go out and buy all the supplies to make all of these or even take the time to make them all it would far exceed the time and money I spent making 12 of the same bag. 

 Busy Bag Exchange= great idea!