Lately I’ve been obsessed with the idea of making educational busy bags for little Turkey now that he is 4 years old. I’ve read about them before on Money Saving Mom and wish that I’d made some up when he was 2. While I’m still pondering the most cost effective and time efficient way to make said bags, I’m striving to be more purposeful with giving him activities to do so I can get some things done around the house.
Today I set him up at the kitchen table with a collage activity. I gave him one old magazine and scissors and told him to find pictures of things to play with. I stayed close by cleaning in the living areas of the house so that I could check on him, talk with him, encourage him instead of just leaving him alone for a long period of time. We even talked about some of the things he saw in the pictures – like the beach, and the girl playing basketball without a goal. It was a good learning time for him. When he was finished, I helped him use the glue and realized that I had gotten a full 30 minutes to clean!
Seriously, why didn’t I start this sooner? My goal is one purposeful activity (in addition to starfall) per day, and to post it here for you. Nothing fancy, but definitely worthwhile. For collages you could have kids cut out things of a specific color, number or theme. You could even do sensory things like things you can smell, things that are slick or scratchy. Collages offer endless possibilities for your preschooler to learn discretionary skills as well as the motor skills involved in cutting.
Last year i was going through kindergarten workbooks with my big one during the little one’s nap time. She knew her letters already, and the sounds they made, so we would do a letter page from the workbook and then she would find things in the magazine that started with its sound. I was saving them to put in a binder, but they disappeared one day after hubby cleaned….swears he didnt toss them =(
These Busy Bags are just what I need! Thanks for posting about this, along with the links. Winters here are long and cold. We’re starting to go a little crazy.