Busy Bags for Busy Little Bear

Getting through a school day, and maintaining harmony, can often prove challenging.  Add in a busy preschooler who becomes under-challenged, and chaos often ensues. That was the scene at my house last week.

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Regardless of the many different activities I rotate through Little Bear’s workboxes, she was in need of some new busy bags. All over Pinterest, I’ve seen these easy to make velcro craft sticks. Just add velcro dots to the ends. They are great for making shapes, letters and so much more. When I moved on to make my next project, Columbo and Magoo were using them to make a lego launching catapult. Proving busy bags are not just for preschoolers.

While shopping at Hobby Lobby I was thrilled to find everything Easter was on sale. Using mini plastic eggs and a permanent marker, I made an upper and lower case letter matching activity. I had to buy two packages to account for every letter in the alphabet. I was considering other egg-citing activities for the remainder of the eggs, but I think they are small enough to launch well on a craft stick catapult. I’m sure the boys will be happy to test my theory.  Little Bear loves to watch me embroidery and often asks for something to sew. Rubber grip shelf liner makes great material for preschool needlework. I set padding in a couple of hoops and added a plastic craft needle that I pre-threaded with yarn. On one pad I wrote some letters and numbers so she can “embroidery” like mom.  I found several large sheets of plastic canvas on my project shelf. The littles had admired canvas craft creations at the fair last fall and wanted to learn. I’ve not used it before, but I’m sure a quick trip to the library will help. In the meantime, I cut the sheets into smaller sizes and drew some shapes for them to sew. With a plastic needle and yarn, they can practice a cross-stitch. Although Little Bear knows how to button, it never hurts to keep practicing fine motor skills. From a stash of colorful felt, an old ribbon, and an extra button, I made a stringing activity. I sewed the button on one end of the ribbon and a square piece of felt on the other. I’m hoping the colors and shapes of the activity will keep her attention. My favorite activity does not fit into a bag. While at the thrift store I found felt nursery rhyme pieces. Using a small tabletop felt board that goes with our bible story felt set, Little Bear can retell many of the nursery rhymes that we’ve read. A busy preschooler will always provide energy and challenge to a homeschool classroom. I’m hopeful the added activities will bring a little order back to our day.