Tag Archives: busy bag

Portable Train Tracks Busy Bag

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Buddy loves playing with trains and setting up train tracks. When I saw the idea of a portable train set on Play Train’s blog, I knew it’d be perfect for our upcoming trip. We were planning to spend a lot of time on airplanes, and portable train tracks sounded like a great way to keep Buddy busy.

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I started by getting a handful of jumbo craft sticks, a sharpie, and a ruler. Then, I drew the train tracks on the sticks, and I used the ruler to make my lines nice and straight. I decided to make 10 sticks so Buddy would have a lot of different options when setting up the tracks. Once the tracks were finished, I added three of Buddy’s mini trains. The portable train set on Play Train’s blog included felt background pieces and pipe cleaner trees. However, when I asked Buddy about making these, he wasn’t interested.

Buddy was very excited when I offered to pull out his portable train set on the plane. We set up two squares with 8 of the sticks, and then we added a couple extra lines of track. Buddy had a lot of fun making his trains go around the track.

We did have a slight problem because the popsicle sticks slid around a bit on the tray table. Before our next trip, I’ll add a piece of felt to go under it to help make it more stable. Otherwise, it was a great activity that kept Buddy busy on a long flight.

Do you have any other busy bag ideas for our next trip? If so, please share your ideas in the comment section.

Magnetic Letters Busy Bag

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One of my summer goals is to help Buddy learn his letters. So far, he has been very interested in letters and getting pretty good at identifying capital letters. Buddy has also been interested in reading and writing words. He knows how to spell his first name, as well as Mom and Dad. Since he often asks how to spell other family members’ names, I put together a magnetic letter busy bag for him.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

My original inspiration for this busy bag was on I Heart Crafty Things’s Blog. She used a metal pencil box for her words, but I just used an old tin box that I had around the house. (This pencil box and this metal tin would both work well if you’re looking for something to buy.)

I wrote down the names of different people in our family on large popsicle sticks. Since Buddy loves animals, I decided to also include the words cat and dog. I Heart Crafty Things used hot glue to add magnetic adhesive to her sticks, but I didn’t. My tin is a little too narrow to have the word under the letters in the tin. We just set the sticks on the floor and then spelled in the tray. Then I found all of the necessary letters from our magnetic letters set, and then the busy bag was finished.

I put this box in the car for our road trip to see my dad, and Buddy was so excited! He played with it in the car and at Granddad’s house as well. Buddy feels like a reader because he knows just enough to figure out what each word says. (For example, he knows both Dad and dog start with d. And since he knows how to spell Dad, he knows the other d word in the kit is dog.)

We brought this kit on our first airplane trip this summer, and I’m sure it will continue to travel with us for awhile. Buddy really enjoys it, and we sometimes use it at our house as well. I plan to switch out a few words once Buddy is ready for more challenge.

Do you have any other ideas for busy bags? Please share in the comments.

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Brown Bear Matching Activity

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For our first Time to Read Tuesday of the summer, I chose the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?. I came across amazing resources for this book on 1 + 1 + 1 = 1’s website, and I was excited to finally be able to use them. (The version of the activity on the website now is a little different than the one I downloaded.) To prepare the heads and tails Brown Bear matching activity, I printed off the cards and laminated them. When I cut them out, I cut each card in half.

*Disclaimer- This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Buddy and I started the activity by reading the book together. Once we reached the last page, I told him we’d use it to help us solve a puzzle. Buddy was excited because he loves puzzles. We spread out all of the cards and started to look for matches.

It was easy for Buddy to find matches. He knows his colors well, so that helped a lot. Initially, he liked to check the cards with the book to see if they were the same animals. I loved that he really made a connection between the book and the cards. 

While Buddy had no problem making matches, he did have a little problem putting the two parts together correctly. Again, we used the book as a reference to help us. Eventually, he got better at lining the cards up correctly.

Buddy loved his Brown Bear matching activity! We did it three times in a row, and then two times again later in the week. Every time he finished it, he was so proud! It was so easy to make, and it will be a great busy bag. I will definitely try some other matching puzzles later this summer. 

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