Busy Bag Swap Party

Today I hosted a Toddler "Busy Bag" Wap for a group of friends and neighbors. I found this idea on another blog and enlisted my friends to help. Each person chose an activity and replicated it 7 times (one for each family to take home). We met in the morning over homemade Pumpkin Spice Lattes and a Butter Braid. Since most of the activities are self contained they will be great for the car or restaurant. Baker and Quinn took to them right away and it kept them busy for quite awhile. I would highly recommend having a swap party, it was fun to plan and everyone enjoyed it. I think we will try to do it again in January. Below is an excerpt from the Rigney's blog explaining the criteria:

• Self-contained.  This way, you can just grab a bag and GO! (without having to add a number of supplies to the bag in order to make it useful.)

• Transportable.  Yes, they will definitely be used at home, but I want to be able to grab a few bags to take to a restaurant, a waiting room, plane trips, car rides, etc.

• Convenient.  None of the bags will have supplies that require major set-up or clean-up: (no paint, watercolors, liquids, sand, dirt, etc.)

• Inexpensive. I didn’t want anyone spending too much money on this project!

• Easy to Make: I didn’t want anyone spending hours and hours and hours making their activity.

• Re-usable. I want these activities to last a while so that our other children can use them in the future.  Therefore, I avoided activities where you would have to buy new supplies to re-stock the bag.  This is why lamination is important for some of the activities.

These are the activities that we made...

The Button Snake

Lacing

Picture Puzzle

Sort and Count Box

Halloween Mask

Matching Colors and etc.

Quinn and Baker hard at work...or should I say play.