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In April, I went to India to visit my fiancé’s family. On the way back, I was on a flight from Mumbai to Istanbal. This seven-hour flight had quite a few kids on it. I was very impressed with how silent the flight was. I sat in the Istanbul airport for an 8 hour layover, then boarded a flight back to the US. This flight was about 10 hours. I noticed some of the same kids who were on my flight from Mumbai. I was very impressed with how these kids were during this entire travel duration (about 26 hours). I noticed these kids did not sleep the entire flight and they weren’t on their tablet or the plane’s movie screen the entire time. Their parents made busy bags for them. So, I thought this would be a perfect blog post!
What are busy bags?
These are bags full of activities that keeps your child busy. These can be anything from preacademic skills, crafts, or STEM activities. If you are unfamiliar with STEM, it stands for Science Technology, Engineering, and Math. Busy bags can be used for any opportunity a child may have to wait. For example, a flight, a car ride, an appointment, or even at a family gathering. For this episode, I am going to give ideas for a Lego busy bag or a box
You will need:
If you want to make a Lego box, you can use a metal lunch box, take out food container, or a pencil box. I would suggest using hot glue or any other heavy-duty glue and glue a big piece or Lego platform to the bottom of the box. Then, just put the other pieces in. This allows your child to build their designs, while keeping them in the box. You can use this just for free play or you can allow for Lego challenges. Depending on your child’s age, you can have them imitate designs
You can Google Lego patterns or tower cards for your child to copy. Print them out and throw them in their box. You can also use Legos to outline letters or numbers.
There are these free templates on this website: https://lifeovercs.com/free-printable-counting-mats-for-duplo-blocks/
You can print these out and have your child imitate it with the smaller Lego blocks. Or, you can even resize it to fit your Legos, then they can match it in the box and learn numbers. You can also do Lego challenges to boost creativity. Here are some from Teachers Pay Teachers, or you can create your own:
Here are even more activities your child of any age will enjoy doing:
In short, these activities will keep your child engaged with many different activities or challenges. You can incorporate language pointing out descriptors (tall/short, big/small, long/short, same/different), actions (build, match), spatial concepts (on, off), and sequencing (first/last).
Have a great day. Take care, stay well, and have fun
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