Tag: busy box

Book Busy Box

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Book Busy Box (3)

Yes, a book box can keep a toddler busy, even if he or she is not reading yet! To wit, we love taking books for “picture walks” in our household, and today I set up this little bin to keep Veronika occupied while I got a few things done.

I included some of big brother Travis’s early chapter books because she loves the pictures of Star Wars characters (she knows them all by name!) even if she doesn’t understand the story.

Book Busy Box (1)

I also included more age-appropriate favorites, like her Hello magazine and favorite board books. It’s a good idea to use books that you’ve read to your child many times so he or she is familiar with the story, even if you’re too busy to read it.

Finally, I included a set of magnet tiles that tell the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This was a nice way to give her something to manipulate with her hands, in addition to just books. Now I set out the bin on a comfy orange chair as a sort of invitation, and she jumped right in!

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The Star Wars books caught her eye right away.

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Soon she was leafing through a favorite board book, narrating the pictures and words to herself.

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This is the kind of bin you can leave out all day for your toddler to return to whenever the mood hits.

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What would be in your toddler’s book box? Please share in the comments!

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Pom Pom Busy Box

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Pom Pom Busy Box (1)

I needed a box to keep Veronika busy this morning, and I needed it fast! This one fit the bill. First, I filled a plastic toy bin with pom poms – as many as you can! Be sure to include lots of different colors and lots of different sizes. I then set out a few empty cardboard tubes and some brightly colored straws, thinking these would be great for scooping and stirring.

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Veronika very quickly had other plans. She loved the straws and pretended she had a “smoothie”. So I made her one! I showed her how to stuff pom poms into the cardboard tubes like “juice”, then insert the straw.

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Now she was running a juice bar!

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When she tired of that game, there was still so much more to do. Next, we buried a few favorite small toys in the pom poms. “Where are you bunny?” she called, as she sifted through either with fingers or with the straws.

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For older kids, you could even make this more of an ‘I Spy’ search with laminated pictures of every object you hide, but I knew that would be too advanced for Veronika.

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Next we had fun watching items drop through the tubes. We could drop a toy down to land with a plop in the soft pile of poms pom. Or just let handfuls of pom poms rain through.

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She was frustrated trying this a few times with the largest pom poms, which wedged into the tube instead of slipping through, so it turned into a useful lesson on relative size.

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And then sometimes she just wanted to run her fingers through the whole pile for the feel of it, or stir with the straws, or stuff the tubes full of pom poms.

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Needless to say, this bin lived up to its name; it was the perfect way to keep her busy.

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Building Bin

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Building Bin (1)

On the heels of a Book Box, today I kept Veronika busy during big brother’s school Zoom with a building bin! I kept this one very simple, initially filling a basket with three types of blocks: Duplo, alphabet blocks, and foam shape blocks.

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Although she frequently plays with all of these, she hasn’t ever combined them. I was curious to see how she might mix and match.

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Of course there were standard towers to build…

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…but I also helped her form her name from the alphabet blocks. We could do this in two ways, either finding a block for each letter, or making a big version of her nickname.

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She was most interested in discovering that block towers easily toppled, but not so her Duplo towers, because she could link the pieces.

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She loved waving her big stack of Duplo around, almost marveling at how it didn’t break like other block towers do.

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“Look what I made,” she proudly ran to tell me a few times. Of course she also just loved making little block castles in a more classic manner, and I gave her a “king” and “queen” to play with in her creations.

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Later in the day, I did a quick rearrangement, this time filling the bin with a creative interpretation of “blocks”: individual toilet paper rolls and cans of cat food. Both of these make great toddler blocks because they’re small enough and/or soft enough not to hurt little toes.

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At first she just stacked the toilet paper rolls. I showed her how to do this standing instead of sitting, so the tower grew taller than her head.

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What a reach!

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Then I demonstrated how she could alternate cat food tins with toilet paper.

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She loved decorating the tops of her towers with cat food, almost like little castle decorations.

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This version of the Building Bin kept her busy solo for quite some time.

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Mission accomplished!

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Rainy Day Busy Box

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Rainy Day Busy Box (3)

Veronika has an obsession with umbrellas, so today I put together this little toy bin for her to play with! It was equal parts sensory play and imaginative play, meant to imitate a “rainy day” in miniature. I had to supervise since the mini drink umbrellas we used have sharp points, but older toddlers and preschoolers could play with this solo as a true busy box.

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In a small toy bin, I simply put the following: little people figures, blue pom poms as “raindrops”, and a few small umbrellas (like the type you find in tropical drinks).

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Veronika was smitten! The actual role play was a bit lost on her, but we “rained” the pom poms down on the people and sang “Rain rain, go away” one of her current favorite songs.

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She eagerly popped open the umbrellas! I needed to help her with the mechanics of this a little bit, but once open she could then slide them up and down.

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She loved trying to have her little people hold on to them. This brought a big smile to her face.

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In retrospect I would have made this bin on a real rainy day, to help emphasize the theme.

 

Bird Busy Box

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Busy Box Turkeys (5)

If you’re not familiar with “busy boxes”, the idea is to fill a small craft bin with just a few supplies, from which a toddler can keep occupied solo for a time. Veronika was a bit too young for this particular box to be a true busy box, but we did have fun with it together! The bird theme felt just right for springtime.

As prep, I glued wiggle eyes to several small Styrofoam balls, then placed them in a bin along with the following: little pieces of pipe cleaner and feathers.

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I showed Veronika how to poke a piece of pipe cleaner into each face as a beak.

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Then the feathers can be inserted any which way to complete your birds! Older toddlers could take it from here as a busy box, but Veronika needed help with the mechanics of poking in the sharp point of the feather. “Yellow bird!” she said with delight to one that featured predominantly yellow feathers.

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We mixed and matched colors, and then started experimenting with the placement of the feathers. If they stuck upright, the birds looked like turkeys. (In fact, you could consider this as a busy box around Thanksgiving and design all the birds with upright feathers!).

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If the feathers trailed towards the back, the birds looked like peacocks.

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Out to the side and they looked like little song birds or eagles.

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Big brother Travis was the one who came up with the idea of adding additional pipe cleaner pieces to be feet.

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Soon we were fluttering and tweeting our birds through the air.

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These brought such a big smile to her face!

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So a fantastic craft, whether as a true busy box to entertain your toddler solo or to engage in together.

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Felt Play Mat

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Felt Mat (7)

Felt play mats are a great way to occupy the kids while you’re getting work done around the house or cooking dinner. Set out a large sheet of felt for each child, along with customizable mix-and-match pieces, and let the entertainment begin!

My original plan for this game was to set Travis up with a Medieval castle scene, but he wasn’t that interested. Instead, we recreated objects from his current favorite show, Fireman Sam.

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I let Travis decide which pieces he wanted, and cut them from corresponding felt colors – red firetrucks, yellow houses, green trees (“and we need brown trunks!” Travis made sure to add), blue water etc.

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Kids who are 5 and up should be able to cut out their own felt pieces, but Travis was excited just watching me to so!

Forgive my lack of artistic skills, but here was our mountain rescue center with a radio and “flares.”

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Once we had enough pieces, the play began! We had a little orange “fire” that could be moved around the scene, and his firetruck rushed in to the rescue.

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We decided we did need a few people, so added Playmobil figures.

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As he played, I added further shapes like a castle, a pond with fish, and a few more nature elements.

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Now he could mix and match games and create imaginative tales to his heart’s content!

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