Busy Boxes

Busy boxes are a great way to organize activities for your toddler and preschooler.  They are really great to pull out when you need to get some house work done, help another child, and nurse a younger sibling.

 

Here is a look at our busy boxes. 

 

These busy boxes are meant to keep her entertained independently while I am busy.  She usually pulls out a box and sits in whatever room I am in so she can still show me things and ask questions and I can supervise her.  Some of these boxes are used during quiet time but others are louder and/or messier so she is not allowed to get them out during our daily quiet time.

 

We are using these a lot, now that I am busy nursing a newborn,

so I will probably be changing a few of them up every month.

 

 Busy box storage

Felt box- Large pieces in different colors to use as backgrounds

and lots of shapes cut out of a number of colors.

 

Foam Stickers- Foam sheets cut into different sizes to use as background

and a wide variety of foam stickers.

Imagination Box- I created this box because my daughter would get out an entire container of beads, all the pom poms, the box of pipe cleaners, etc. and then only use a couple to complete whatever activity she was working on.  I spent a lot of time asking her to clean up and trying to help her sort everything again.  I decided to just make a box that had a little bit of everything.  So now she can use whatever she wants for her activity and clean up is much easier because it all goes back into one box without needing separated.

Jewelry Box- All of her jewelry and some hair stuff.

 

Playdoh Box- A few different colors of playdoh, cookie cutters, small rolling pin,

some rocks, beads, and clothes pins.

 

Desert Box- Oatmeal with dried strawberries and her desert toob toys.

 

 Rice Box- Neon rainbow rice and she has added some sparkly tinsel stuff.

 

Investigation Box- Binoculars, magnifying glass, petri dish, spoon, and tweezers.  I switch out things for her to look out.  Right now we just have toys from her insect toob.  Some other things I have put in there are leaves/flowers, rocks, sea shells, textured paper, variety of crackers, multi-colored glass rocks, pom poms, cotton balls,and scraps of material.

 

Space Box- Space flash cards and glow in the dark stars and planets.

Lacing Box- Dr. Seuss theme and bears

Puppet Box- Our home made puppets

Doodle Box- I swap things out of here pretty often.  Right now it is holding her aqua doodle.  Other things I have put in here are blank paper, lined paper, small coloring books, activity or maze sheets, markers, crayons, colored pencils, stamps, small stamp pad, and scratch art sheets.

Ball Box

 

Food Box- This box always has her play food.  Sometimes I add her play dishes so she can cook and serve.  Other times I add the cash register and some play money so she can play market.

 

Tracks-  This "box" is under her bed because it doesn't fit on the shelves.  She has some hot wheel tracks and a long tube.  Right now the box holds cars to race down the tracks but other times it has balls or large round beads.

Leap Frog Box- Leapster, games, Tag jr., and books.

 

Tag Reader Box- Tag reader pen, books, human body study, solar system study,

and world map (not pictured).

 

 

Read-a-long Box- Cd player, head phones, books and cds.

Colored Sand Art

After Christmas I picked up a couple of Sand Art kits for about $1 a piece which is a lot cheaper they buying the colored sand packets individually. 

They came with four different colors of sand, funnel, and containers shaped like a Christmas Tree and a Snowman.  I put everything in a tub, cut open the sand pouches, and let my daughter do her thing.

Filling the Snowman

Filling the Tree

 

"Mommy, can I take it out?"  "Of course!"

 

Making swirls

 

Burying hands

My daughter previously had an indoor sand box for activities.  It was full of regular brown sand but she loved this sand so much because of all the colors that now this is the sand box we use for all our activities.

Float or sink

This post can now be found here.

Sensory Boxes

Most sensory boxes help build fine motor skills while your child learns about different textures and senses.  I have a number of sensory boxes.  Some I let my two-year-old have easy access too and others I keep out of reach so that she has to ask for them (these ones contain items that I feel she still needs to be supervised while using, such as scissors).  I love these boxes because when I am busy (or still exhausted from her waking up an hour earlier than usual) I can just tell her to go pick out a box and she can entertain herself.  I make an effort to change out the sensory boxes occasionally but I do not do that as often as I should.    I will add photos and descriptions of my sensory boxes as we play with them over the next couple weeks.  I am always looking for great ideas for sensory/discovery boxes so please share links and ideas.

Okay when I say sensory box I usually do not mean "box" literally.  I use what ever I have handy that fits in the spot I plan to store it. 

The above "box" is currently my daughter's favorite and it is super cheap and easy.  Baking pan, pompoms, ice cream scope, measuring cup, teaspoon, spatula, large plastic spoon, and a watermelon baller.  Not pictured are two ice cube trays, one cube and one cylinders. 

I have seen her use every utensil to scoop up pompoms and pour them into the trays or back into the container.  I have seen her sort the pompoms based on size and color (without any prompting).  I have also seen her grab handfuls of pompoms and throw them in the air and giggle as they rained down around her. 

This photo is of the first day we did this activity.  I just grabbed the cup full of pipe cleaners from her art table and a plastic strainer that I had purchased from the Dollar Store.  Since then I have actually just stored a handful of pipe cleaners in the bowl of the strainer and now store it in the living room so she can pull it out when she wants.  Cheap and fun fine motor practice.  Plus it almost always becomes a fun hat sometime during the creation process.

This small plastic box holds a few pipe cleaners and a small plastic jars of pony beads.  I have tied a knot at the end of half of the pipe cleaners so that my daughter can thread the beads on without worrying about them staying.  The other half I left straight so that she has to use her own critical thinking skills to figure out ways to keep the beads from falling off.  I've seen her try a number of different things such as, holding the end with one hand and using the other hand to lace the beads, holding the end against the carpet, bending the end or shaping the pipe cleaner, I have even seen her run to the kitchen and grab a chip clip to place on the end.

This is one of the "boxes" I keep out of reach.  And I do so only because it can become really messy.

The photo is from the first time we did this activity and I have since made improvements.  Originally I stored two magnetic containers on a baking sheet.  The containers are full of tiny beads.  I loved that I could store the entire sensory box vertically on her bookshelf but I had to change that because the baking sheet did not do a good job of containing the beads during play.  My daughter is pretty good about not making messes (at least not intentionally) so I thought that the baking sheet would be a good enough container (I did place it on top of a dry erase board as you can see in the picture to help keep beads out of the carpet in case of a spill).

I am amazed by just how far these tiny beads can bounce even when poured out close to the tray.  My daughter gave me a "Oh O" look as we watched the beads bounce from the baking sheet to the dry erase board to the carpet.  Lesson learned!  Now the bead containers are stored in a shoe box and are played with in areas that do not have thick carpet.  Along with the beads, the show box has a small jar and a infant formula scoop so she can practice scooping and pouring.

This is our color sorting box.  I added four color flash cards to use as collecting spots and grabbed a bunch of small items around her room that matched the flash card colors.  Ideas for items- Crayons, Markers, Rocks, Pom Poms, Feathers, Magnets, Pipe Cleaners, Beads, Cookie Cutters, and Clothes Pins.