Toddler busy bag swap
Dear people with small children,
I have been thinking, and I would really like to take part in a busy bag swap for 2-ish year olds. Since the only one I've found online fills up in hours (and is only hosted once or twice a year), I've decided to see if I can have my own right here in the Noog. Are you interested?
What: A group of moms agree to make up bags of activities/crafts suitable for a certain age range. Each mom makes enough of one activity to fill 15-25 bags (depending on how many people are participating), while shooting for spending around $1 per bag (or less) on supplies. Though, if you get excited and want to spend more, that's ok too. The activities should be self-contained, transportable, convenient, inexpensive, easy to make and reusable. Then, we all meet and exchange bags, so that each mom goes home with 15-25 activities. The bags can be pulled out and given to their busy child who needs something interesting to do at a moment's notice, or something to distract them while the mom does something else (homeschool olders, cook, whatever), or a special one-on-one time with child and mommy. Note: I am interested in bags for ages 2-3. If there are a lot of people interested in both younger and older age bags, we can do two different swaps for the two age groups.
Here are some links to ideas for bags so you can see what kinds I am thinking about.
The swap I am modeling this after - these look like the best activities to me
1-2 year old ideas
advanced 2's to Kindergarten ideas
Busy bags in action
When: As soon as I have enough people commit to this, I will set a time 2-3 weeks out and email everyone instructions. At the appointed time, we will meet and do the swap as a tea party (because tea and parties make everything good even better). ALTERNATIVELY (if this works better for everyone), people can bring their completed box of bags to my house, and I will do all the swapping once I get everyone's box. Then, people can come pick up their new box of miscellaneous bagged goodies at their convenience.
How: If you are interested in participating, please email me your name and the age(s) of your child(ren). If you email me, I'm going to count this as a commitment unless I hear otherwise. Obviously, if something comes up at the last minute and you can't participate, that's extenuating circumstances, but please don't sign up unless you are serious :) Remember that you will be spending at least $15-$30 on this, depending on how many people sign up and which activity/craft you pick. My address is switchfan at gmail dot com.
If you like, you can go ahead and pick the activity you wish to be responsible for making, and include that in your email. Feel free to pick something not linked to here, but please explain it/link to it in your email so I can make sure we aren't repeating things. Otherwise, I will let you know when we have our group, and you can choose your activity then. If the one you choose has already been picked by someone else, I will let you know.
Help: Please help me out and give this link to anyone you think would be interested with young children in the local area. Tell them to send it on even if they aren't interested. I will close the swap when we have enough people. If there are a TON of you interested, I will try to set up groups so everyone can participate.
I have been thinking, and I would really like to take part in a busy bag swap for 2-ish year olds. Since the only one I've found online fills up in hours (and is only hosted once or twice a year), I've decided to see if I can have my own right here in the Noog. Are you interested?
What: A group of moms agree to make up bags of activities/crafts suitable for a certain age range. Each mom makes enough of one activity to fill 15-25 bags (depending on how many people are participating), while shooting for spending around $1 per bag (or less) on supplies. Though, if you get excited and want to spend more, that's ok too. The activities should be self-contained, transportable, convenient, inexpensive, easy to make and reusable. Then, we all meet and exchange bags, so that each mom goes home with 15-25 activities. The bags can be pulled out and given to their busy child who needs something interesting to do at a moment's notice, or something to distract them while the mom does something else (homeschool olders, cook, whatever), or a special one-on-one time with child and mommy. Note: I am interested in bags for ages 2-3. If there are a lot of people interested in both younger and older age bags, we can do two different swaps for the two age groups.
Here are some links to ideas for bags so you can see what kinds I am thinking about.
The swap I am modeling this after - these look like the best activities to me
1-2 year old ideas
advanced 2's to Kindergarten ideas
Busy bags in action
When: As soon as I have enough people commit to this, I will set a time 2-3 weeks out and email everyone instructions. At the appointed time, we will meet and do the swap as a tea party (because tea and parties make everything good even better). ALTERNATIVELY (if this works better for everyone), people can bring their completed box of bags to my house, and I will do all the swapping once I get everyone's box. Then, people can come pick up their new box of miscellaneous bagged goodies at their convenience.
How: If you are interested in participating, please email me your name and the age(s) of your child(ren). If you email me, I'm going to count this as a commitment unless I hear otherwise. Obviously, if something comes up at the last minute and you can't participate, that's extenuating circumstances, but please don't sign up unless you are serious :) Remember that you will be spending at least $15-$30 on this, depending on how many people sign up and which activity/craft you pick. My address is switchfan at gmail dot com.
If you like, you can go ahead and pick the activity you wish to be responsible for making, and include that in your email. Feel free to pick something not linked to here, but please explain it/link to it in your email so I can make sure we aren't repeating things. Otherwise, I will let you know when we have our group, and you can choose your activity then. If the one you choose has already been picked by someone else, I will let you know.
Help: Please help me out and give this link to anyone you think would be interested with young children in the local area. Tell them to send it on even if they aren't interested. I will close the swap when we have enough people. If there are a TON of you interested, I will try to set up groups so everyone can participate.