Boredom Busters: How To Host A Busy Bag Swap

Boredom

Do you ever have those days where there are never enough activities to keep your kiddos busy?  There are days when time seems to go by so slowly, and I hear my kids saying the infamous words, “I’m bored!” I frequently found us turning on the tv more than usual and decided that I needed to find some simple activities for my children to do.

Busy bag swap 2
A couple of the Busy Bag activities that the ladies brought.

I stumbled upon the world of Busy Bags, and I knew that they were a simple solution to the boredom problem that we were experiencing.  Busy Bags are plastic baggies that contain an easy hands-on learning activity for little kids.  Busy Bags are perfect entertainment for rainy days, and they are a great way to keep kids entertained at restaurants, church, or when mama needs a little piece and quiet.  A simple search on Pinterest yielded hundreds and hundreds of different types of Busy Bags.  The best part is, most of them only require an inexpensive trip to the dollar store.

So, what is a Busy Bag Swap you ask?  Simple!  A Busy Bag Swap is a fun time to gather your mom friends together and trade busy bags.  Every mom chooses one type of Busy Bag activity to make, and she brings enough of her type of Busy Bag for all of the kids who will be attending.  For example, we had 5 moms attend and approximately 15 children.  So each mom brought 15 Busy Bags of her chosen activity.

Busy Bag Swap
The kiddos at our Busy Bag Swap intrigued with their new activities!

How to Host a Busy Bag Swap:

Decide the time for your event – I had mine during the day and everyone brought their kids.  However, another option would be to make it a  “Mom’s Night Out” event.  Get a sitter and have dinner, fun, and laughter before the Busy Bag swapping.  Decide which would work best for you and your friends, and get to planning!

Invite your friends – I invited mommies who had children who were around pre-school age.  I didn’t do any fancy invites, I made a Facebook event and invited the ladies that way!

Have everyone RSVP – This is essential because everyone needs a head count to make sure there are enough Busy Bags to go around.  I would suggest that everyone bring 2-3 extra Busy Bags just to ensure that no kiddos are left out!

Choose your busy bag activity – The options are really endless.  I made color matching clothes pins, which ended up costing around $5.00 dollars total including the ziplock baggies.  Find an activity that matches your creativity level and pocket book! At our Busy Bag Swap we had rainbow buttoning ribbons, shoe tying boards, mini chalkboards, and many other fun activities.

Prepare the bags – The night before (why, oh why, do I procrastinate?) I stayed up hot gluing and bagging my activity.  My kids were involved in the kid friendly part of assembling the Busy Bags, and they enjoyed putting them together for their friends!

Get the party started – The day of the party I served muffins and coffee.  All of the ladies brought their Busy Bags and placed them on my kitchen island, and then we sorted them out making sure that every child received every type of Busy Bag.  We all had a great time! The kids were excited and had fun playing and looking through all of the bags, and the moms had a nice time chatting!  Win-win

Have you ever hosted a Busy Bag swap?  What are your go-to boredom busters?

 

 

 

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Britnie Sims
I grew up in sunny California and moved to Oklahoma to attend college. That is where I met my amazing husband, and now we are here to stay! I live in Blanchard with my husband and three kiddos. We also have two standard poodles who we all adore and consider a part of our family! My family likes to stay busy, and we are always on the go exploring Norman and OKC. I love to write, and I document my adventures on this crazy journey of motherhood on my personal blog!

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