Starting a Toddler Bag Collection

So "toddler activity bags" are all over the Internet...You know what that means? There's lots of  mommies needing some time to breath : ) True right?! Well these bags don't necessarily provide alone time, but they are great fun for kids and provide good learning opportunities! What I like most about "toddler bags" or "activity bags," which ever you want to call them, Is that it gives my tot an opportunity to independently choose a learning activity!  So instead of me saying, "today we are going to work on patterns" She can just go to the activity box and make her own selection. The other thing I really like is that it keeps her interest longer because she can choose a couple of bags at once and go back and forth between the two! These days her attention span seems to be shortening so this is a great thing, for me and for her :)  I also like that these activities can be done with me (more direction) and without me (more freedom.)

When I first started reading about these bags I thought the best approach would be to ask a friend to join me one day and we could just bang it out and make one zillion bags each!  After better thought,  I decided the best approach for me would be to make 2 or 3 bags at a time when ever time permits! So here's where I started!

Where's the Cheese

I got this idea from "theiowafarmerswife" . I did it a little differently by adding numbers on the houses which allows more flexibility to it...You can work not only on colors but also number recognition.  Since my tot is a little older we use this for numbers and directions: up, down, left or right!

So the idea is to hide the cheese and guess where it is! "is it under house number 5?" etc... She also enjoyed playing this by herself by helping the mouse find the cheese!  I made this game using spay adhesive to glue felt to a piece of cardboard (from a cereal box I pulled out of my recycle bin, I do that a lot!)  Then just cut the felt houses, mouse and cheese! Easy!

Go Fish!

Not a ton of education value here, but it does provide some hand-eye coordination! I did this in  less than 2 mins...while M was eating breakfast!  For more educational value, you can go fishing for magnetic letter in a bath full of water! I saw that somewhere but can't remember where to site, sorry!

OK so this took a little more time, I admittedly got caught up in the details! : / But I think it turned out really great : ) I adapted this activity from secondstorywindow (many more"toddler activity bag" ideas on there!)  Instead of using dots I used animals and "feeding sacks" just to make it a little more fun! I wish I knew how to share the document here for you to have...that would make this a quick activity to make!  I made this in a word document and added clip art. Cut it out, glued (spray adhesive again!) to cardboard (cereal box) and put laminating paper on top!



So the idea here is for your tot to count the animals and give them the right amount of "food." Fun right?  Obvious skill here: counting and number recognition.

For organizational purposes I made sure all these activities could easily fit into a large zip lock bag. I then labeled the bag and put them in the "activity bucket" which is easily accessible to Maddy!

EXTREME NESTING (Pinteresting)

So I call this phase of my life nesting... or another word for it might be "pinteresting"! We are expecting our second child in early July and the nesting instinct has completely taken over my life!  This compulsion is only exacerbated by my love of Pinterest!  These two together have created A LOT of organization (labels, labels, labels) and lots of trips to the Dollar Store, Hobby Lobby and Walmart!

My first project was the kitchen pantry and kitchen office. Sadly I don't have before pictures to show  just how pitiful a mess it was previously, but here are the "afters" :)


Kitchen Pantry.... 

The organized pantry put a HUGE smile on my hubby's face and that pretty much made it worth it for me! The other bonus to an organized pantry is that it makes me actually want to cook! This in itself is a total MIRACLE!!!

 The only thing that could make this pantry better is a colorful print inside the shelves! Check out  House of Smith   pantry!

  Ah.mazing... I know!!! I plan on panting and stenciling the back of these shelves in the next month or so...I'll update then!

 

So my other obsession right now is LABELS!!!!!  I love making them and looking at them...they really make me happy! And truth is they really do make life easier...it's true!

 For these labels I used "chalk board" contact paper!!! In love with this stuff! Then I labeled using a "chalk board" marker! 

 For this label I used a "shape press," you can find them at any craft store I bought this one at Hobby Lobby.

 More chalk board contact paper!!!

So In the spirit of true organization I neatley taped a "what not to recycle" sign on one side of the Recycle bucket (my husband constantly asks me...."can this be recycled" thought this might help with some of these types of questions ; )

On the other side I taped a large zip lock bag and put the Recyle boocklet for the city I lived in. This booklet is awesome...it gives tons of info on where to recycle bulk items, large boxes, christmas tree drop off, paint and electronics drop off, etc... now the info is handy when we need it)

Kitchen Office....

 I found some wrapping paper I liked and backed the shelves with it! Looks better than plain 'ol shelves and makes me smile every time I go to grab something out of there!

Laundry...

Craft Closet...

We all know that the purpose of organization is to de-stress our lives...but somehow I'm still shocked how it does that very thing...DE-STRESS! My husband and I really do feel more relaxed and I get a lot more accomplished during the day!  It really does work!

 Bottom line is... I heart organizing!