As we’ve been looking forward to a nice LONG car ride to the beach with the babies, I’ve been spending a lot of time putting together our our Busy Bag! I’m going to be posting each activity that I included separately so it’s not too overwhelming so stay tuned for a future compilation post covering everything plus my favorite honorable mentions.
First up with a fabulous little PomPom pusher inspired by Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers. This is the first home-made toy I created for the Busy Bag and Brayden was quite pleased to test it out!
Supplies Needed:
Plastic Tub with Lid (Sour Cream, Cottage Cheese, or Butter work well)
Pom Poms – we used the ones with shiny filaments
Exacto Knife or Sewing Blade
What I did: This was pretty self explanatory – I removed the tub lid, put it on a cutting board, and sliced little shapes into the lid. Since we did a variety of sizes, I needed to make some larger than others – but generally, shapes slightly smaller than your pompoms are ideal so baby pushes through the hole vs. just dropping them in. For us, there was one larger hole that the babies preferred since it was a little larger which to me, defeats the purpose a bit. All in all, they used all the holes and shapes to squish the pompoms into the tub.
Pros: Cheap, easy, and occupied the babies for quite some time! Because of my (too) large hole, the babies enjoyed the added benefit of shaking the smaller puffs out of the tub once they were all in which worked out kinda well in the end. This one is one of Brayden’s favorite activities and especially likes the shiny pompoms for some extra interest and texture.
Cons: Younger toddlers could swallow pompoms without appropriate supervision. This may or may not be super for your kid while eating out. We did end up with a few pompoms on the ground, but for us – it was well worth the effort to pick them up in the end since they were content using it for so long.
What an easy and cheap way to keep the kids entertained. I know my own toddler loves playing with cardboard boxes and actually prefers them to the toy that came inside. You’re now on my daily visit list and you’ve got my vote. 🙂