Toddler Busy Bag Swap, Part Two

In the first part of this series I looked at some of the busy bags that we received as part of a toddler busy bag swap and gauged my daughter’s reaction to them. Since we managed to play with a few more of them last night, I’ll be doing the same today, then I’ll move on to bags we didn’t get personally.

Button Matching Game

This is a pretty simple but cute one:

It’s an assortment of buttons of different shapes, and a piece of foam board that has the shapes traced on them and then decorated. There are shapes on each side, and 8 buttons in all. I’m finding a picture of this one at The Rigneys, but no instructions. Not that you really need instructions.

Once the Bit saw there were two sides to the board she was off and could do them all perfectly. She did each side a couple of times.

Magnetic Fishing game

This is another one of those ideas that you find all over the place, and I’m not seeing one exactly like the ones we got, though this one from Sewing Stash Challengeis a similar idea.

What she did was cut out pieces of felt, two for each fish, in different colors and sizes. Where the example above used a paper clip, I think she used wire wrapped multiple times in a small circle at the mouth. It’s all glued together.

The fishing pole is a pencil with a long string (too long for my girl, who wanted to play with this but didn’t want me to put the fish on the floor, so it mostly became a sorting game) with a magnet with a pompom glued on top at the end. Easy, cute, and I’m sure she’ll grow into it and have fun playing with the fish in the meantime.

Clothespin Number Match

This is another one she’ll need to grow into, because she can’t use clothespins yet.

This is a printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Print out both sides and laminate together. Then take a set of clothespins, write a number from 1-10 on one side and from 11-20 on the other.

To play, match the number on the pin with the number of dots on the wheel.

I tried to talk to the Bit about what number she had on her pin and to get her to count the dots, but she counted to four no matter which number we were on.

Lacing Cards

Lacing cards are a classic for building motor skills, and the Bit has had some for a while. So she knew what to do with this busy bag:

But mostly she just wanted to name the animals. (I don’t know where she got the shapes she used, but here’s a set of instructions from Tot School.) Basically it’s just craft foam cut into shapes, punch holes for the lacing, include strings. The set we got is double layers of foam glued together, and the strings have buttons tied to one end, which is a nice touch.

Make a Foam Fish/Flower

This was really two different bags but I’m counting it as one because they’re basically the same thing:

It’s a collection of foam stickers that can be used to make either a fish or a flower (that one includes a pipe cleaner for a stem).

That’s it for today! But there are plenty more ideas to come. Thanks for stopping by!

If you missed any parts of this series or want to review:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• Part Five

This post is linked to Get Your Craft On at Today’s Creative Blog, at Show Me What Ya Got at Not JUST a Housewife and at Take a Look Tuesday on Sugar Bee Crafts. Visit any or all of these sites for more great craft ideas!