Why are we talking about Busy Bags & Quiet Time?
So, what are Busy Bags & Quiet Time Activities?
Busy Bag: a simple, age appropriate activity that can be pulled out, easily assembled and completed by your child.
These are perfect for when you need a few uninterrupted minutes but don’t want to let your little one veg in front of the television.
Quiet Time Activity: generally geared towards older toddlers, preschoolers, or early elementary aged kids who have given up napping.
Establishing a quiet time of independent play gives the child a little down time and the parent a little uninterrupted time as well. Even if you work away from home throughout the week, setting up an afternoon quiet time on the weekends can be a sanity saver.
That’s right, a full month of ideas to help your babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and young elementary aged children play and learn with quiet and independent activities.
What you can expect during this month long series?
Lots of free busy bag printables!
We’ll show you how to make at least 20 different inexpensive and fun busy bags.
We’ll also show you how we use a daily quiet time for our 4 and 5 year old.
As a bonus, we even have a couple baby approved activities ready to share.
We’ll also highlight great busy bag and quiet time ideas from other moms around the web.
Finally, on October 31st, we’ll host a busy bag and quiet time activities link up so you can show off the activities you’ve made!
Free Printables
We’re so excited to share with you our busy bag printables. These files will make putting together your own busy bags very easy. We have 16 individual Busy Bag downloads that we’ll be offering for free. Yes, FREE! The links to these downloads will be included in the posts that highlight the particular busy bags.
However, if you prefer one download or you don’t want to have to wait to get access to the links, you can purchase one easy download from our Teachers Pay Teachers store for only $5.
Be sure to come back tomorrow for our first installment of Quiet Time Tuesday where we’ll share our own quiet time experience and how we provide independent activities for our 4-year-old and 5-year-old. Remember you can sign up for free emails so you won’t miss any of our busy bags or quiet time posts.
Today’s Question: Have you ever heard of or used busy bags or quiet time activities? We’d love to hear your thoughts on our upcoming series.
Next in Series: 3 Ways to Store Busy Bags
I’m very interested in your ideas. I first saw you on Pinterest.
These are great ideas for stations too! Great printables and I can’t believe they are free. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!
Featuring you this week!
Thanks for spreading the word 🙂
Oh I’m pumped for this! So glad I found you!
I’m so glad you found us, too 🙂 Catch up on what you’ve missed so far here.
I think I lost my comment, so here it goes again… I haven’t heard of busy bags before. I think this is a fantastic idea! I found this post through True Aim’s Library hop, but I’ve been to your great blog on a previous visit. I have a 4-year-old daughter and 3 big kids.
Tina
You can do so many different independent activities with a four year old. Our son just turned four and he loves playing with the busy bags we’ll be sharing this month!
I really enjoy doing DIY crafts with our son. Now I’m going to have a huge series of things to do thanks to you.
I need busy bag ideas! I have a 3 year old and 1 year old. They need to be busy and quiet at times! Thanks for doing this series.
We’ll definitely give you lots of ideas this month 🙂
SO excited about this series! I will be using the ideas for quiet play during church. 🙂
Busy bags are great for any time you need your child to play independently and quietly. Stay tuned for lots of great activity ideas…
A new blog name…a new series…you are on a roll, Allyson! I am fascinated by your topic. My own kids are beyond the Busy Bag stage, but I am wondering if a few of these ideas would help a Gran from time to time. 😉
Thanks for stopping by Thinking About Home and leaving your thoughtful words. Hospitality is certainly a challenge in a small home and with very young children, but who and how we “entertain” changes often with different seasons of life.
I think some of these activities could definitely help a Gran out 🙂
Thanks for your encouragement to practice hospitality in all circumstances.
Yes! We love busy bags & have taken part in a swap before. I look forward t your series.
I would love to participate in a swap sometime, but at this point that would mean organizing it myself and I just don’t think I’m up for that challenge 🙂
I’m excited for this – we have 9 kids between my sister and I and between doctors appointments, church, and much needed quiet times there are many instances where busy bags and quiet times activities are needed. It will be great to see some new ideas.
We are doing 31 days of Homemade Pantry
http://sistersplayinghouse.blogspot.com/2012/10/31-days-2012.html
With 9 kids between the two of you, I’m sure that busy bags and quiet time activities could come in handy 🙂
I’m looking forward to your Homemade Pantry Series since with do make (almost) everything from scratch.
I haven’t heard of busy bags but I can’t wait to see your posts!
Mollie, how old are your children? We use busy bags for our three older kids (5, 4 and 2) and they work wonderfully. Some of the activities could definitely be for older children as well.
Oh, oh, oh! Imagine me jumping up and down with delight! My oldest has a quiet time {we call it room time} while my two little ones nap, which has been a sanity saver for me. Can’t wait to hear more! And, the busy bags? Soooo excited! I have a sweet {almost} 2 year old who is ..um.. making homeschooling interesting. 🙂 I know I need to give her some things to keep her busy… Can’t wait to read more!
Toddlers sure do make homeschooling interesting. Our busy bags have really helped by giving the little ones activities they can do by themselves while feeling like they are doing school like the big kids.
Make sure you come back by tomorrow for our first installment of Quite Time Tuesday.