Busy bins are a great activity to add to your daily routine, to save for quiet time, to take out when your child says they are bored, or even for when a grown up needs a short break. Busy bins are any type of container, with the day of the week labeled on them, and you put a activity inside for them to complete. They can be geared for all ages and stages. I love to use them for my little one as her morning activity. Every Sunday, I reset them for the upcoming week! This will keep your child engaged and the activities can become more challenging as your child grows.
Benefits of busy bins:
- Provides kids with something to do when bored
- Provides an affordable learning resource and activity
- Gives creative time during at-home schooling
- Gives grown ups a break in any regular at-home schooling schedule
- Works with a large range of ages and stages
- Reinforces team and collaboration skills when working together in groups (if you have multiple children)
- Allows practice for targeted area (You know what your child need to improve on, you can add a fun activity to help here!)
- Busy bins are great activities to easily bring on car trips or vacations
What do I use for a busy bin?
- Plastic containers
- Shoe boxes
- Baskets
- Ziplock bags
Here are some great starter bins:Play dough and glitter: The child can mix different colored glitter into the play dough. As an extra task, older children could have the ingredients list to make the play dough. (For a play dough recipe, click here)
- Under the sea sensory box: All you need are small toy sea animals, shaving cream, and blue food coloring
- Counting with an egg carton and beans: Write a number in each area and have the child add the corresponding number of beans to the area
- Letter matching with flash cards and clothespins: Write letters on each clothespin. You can do letters A-z in both uppercase and lowercase letters, and have your child clip the correct letter to each flash card.
- Cutting and color sorting on a race track: Draw a few race tracks on paper, have your child cut them out on the lines and color the race tracks. When that is complete, they can race the matching color car on the track.
The options are endless with busy bins! We would love to hear some ideas you came up with to keep your child busy with the busy bins!
