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| Ladybug Matching Game for the Creepy Crawlies Box |
If you know me at all, you know that I love using the idea of "learning stations" and unit studies with my younger kiddos. I love any activity that will help them learn through multiple senses, often resulting in messiness (and giggles). This isn't limited to the elementary age, either - it's my preferred method of working through preschool concepts with the younger kiddos.
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| Weather Report Wheels |
It's also a fantastic way to give littler ones a little bit of independence....and keep even littler ones entertained while you work with older children.
What I don't love is that often, putting together these kinds of units and activities is extremely time -consuming and expensive. While I *love* planning out these activities and preparing them (I really do!), I don't love feeling the stress of no extra time or money, or staying up until way past my bedtime to make it happen.
Enter in probably one of my only truly "brilliant" ideas (At least for our little homeschool):
A Busy Box Exchange
I'm guessing that most of you are familiar with the idea of a cookie exchange around the holidays. I've even seen soup exchanges, where people make and trade freezer-ready soups to pull out and feed their families with at a later date. I realized, as I was stressing about putting together lots of various activities, that the same concept could be applied to preschool activities/supplies.
Here's how it works:
1) Pick a date and time, and make sure everyone who is planning on coming RSVPs.
2) Each person then picks their "busy box" theme. It's best if everyone shares, so that you don't have repeats brought, but it's not necessary. I've done it both ways - where people sign up for what they want to create, and where it's a free-for-all, and it's worked out great each time.
3) Each person then creates one box per attendee. I usually recommend putting everything together in a plastic shoe box (you can buy sets of 5 for cheap at the Dollar Store). Assigning a size and type of container just makes storage easier on everyone else when they take their boxes home. I often set a price limit on this step. For an exchange with 6 people, I'll ask everyone to create 5 boxes to trade, and to not spend more than $20 total. When you're prepping 5 of the exact same box, you're able to buy in bulk for supplies, which helps keep the cost down.
4) On your designated time and day, everyone shows up for a playdate and the exchange happens! You get to take home one box per attendee, leaving you with a stack of different preschool activities that YOU didn't have to prep or purchase.
Not sure what to make for your busy box?
Here are some of the biggest hits at our house:
Weather: "Snow dough", weather prediction wheels, a rainbow matching game, and a mini felt board with weather symbols that I made from scraps of felt and a cardboard box (cut up). I supplemented this at home with weather videos on YouTube, weather books from our own homeschool library, and a "make it rain in a jar" science experiment
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Shapes: Tangrams made out of foam pieces, a "build your own" robot craft made out of construction paper shapes, a $1 flashcard set on shapes, and a "hungry shark" game (an envelope turned into a shark with an open mouth, and the child would "feed" the shark the correct shapes as I called them out. I supplemented with a bunch of large cut out shapes that we'd place around the room and hunt for, or I'd tape to the ground and have them jump to the right shape as I called them out.
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Human Body: A free printout puzzle that I found online that has the child match the body shape to the correct place in the body, a laminated blank face outline, dry erase markers, and a handheld mirror so they could draw what they see on themselves in the mirror, paper bags and crayons to draw puppet people. I supplemented with books on the body from our homeschool library and an old Mr Potato Head toy that we had lying around.
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Creepy-crawlies: a lady bug matching game made out of foam pieces, a bug matching game made from laminated pictures and plastic bugs from the store, a caterpillar lacing toy (egg carton and pipe cleaner made the "caterpillar" and they laced simple plastic beads on it), black paper and white crayons and glue sticks to make handprint spiders, and a roll of crepe paper to make spider webs. I supplemented with videos on bugs, and a scavenger hunt outside to look for our own creepy crawlies.
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It Doesn't Have To Be "Educational"
Maybe the idea of creating a themed unit in a box is too much for your group, or your playgroup kiddos are too young to really get into subjects like this in much depth. That's okay! Ideas for simple busy boxes can be found online, and can be more about things like fine motor skills (threading or lacing toys) or pre-math and reading activities, like sorting shapes or colors. Just make sure to give everyone some ideas (I'll post links below!), and set parameters if the kids are small enough (no choking hazards, for example). Be creative and have fun!
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| Rainbow matching game for the Weather box |
Remember, the goal is to minimize your time and costs, while having fun! Keeping the kiddos entertained for chunks of time is a nice side effect, too. ;)
Have a great weekend, friends!
Links for Busy Box Ideas:
https://www.carrieelle.com/busy-box-ideas-to-entertain-your-kids/
https://www.rd.com/advice/parenting/busy-box-ideas-for-kids/
https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/25-low-prep-busy-boxes-or-busy-bags-activities/
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