Crafts and Activities

Quiet Time Activities

This past week has been a really busy one in our household. We went camping. I had not been camping in 14 years and I miscalculated how much to bring. Someone said what I did was called kitchen sink camping because I brought everything but! I actually had a cold and headaches the whole time and I don’t like being outside or dirt or bugs and have somewhat of an obsession about ~~clean~~ sterile dishes, so it wasn’t my favourite, but the kids had all kinds of FUN!

In honour of me needing to occupy my kids this week with nice quiet activities while I recover from the adventure that is called camping, I’ve compiled a list of some of my favourite quiet time activities.

Quiet Time Activities for Preschoolers

Shark Sensory Bag from here on The Chaos and The Clutter (pictured)

Button Snake from Happy Hooligans (pictured)

No Sew Quiet Book Patterns from And Next Comes L (pictured)

Simple String Busy Bag from here on The Chaos and The Clutter (pictured)

Vehicle Busy Bag from Something 2 Offer

Summer Clothes Dress Up Busy Bag from Teaching Mama (pictured)

Busy Bags with Paint Chips from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Gumball Counting Busy Bag from Happy Brown House (pictured)

Free Printable Dinosaur Activities for Kids from The Natural Homeschool

Travel Memory Game from Kids Activities Blog

Ocean Sensory Bottle from here on The Chaos and The Clutter (pictured)

Pipe Cleaner People with Name Beads from An Idea on Tuesday

Simple Sewing Busy Bag from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Simple Scooping Busy Bag from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Alphabet Road Tracing Book from Playdough to Plato (pictured)

Lavender Scented Calming Playdough from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Number Coloring Pages & 3 Part Cards in 4 Languages {Printable} from The Natural Homeschool

Quiet Time Boxes from Teaching Mama

Build a Snowman Busy Bag from Growing Hands on Kids

Simple Beading Busy Bag from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Q-Tip Snowflake Busy Bag from Playdough to Plato

Playdough Mats from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Fun Pirate Games for Kids {Printable} from The Natural Homeschool

No Sew Quiet Book for Toddlers from Powerful Mothering

Busy Bags with Popsicle Sticks from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Busy Bags with Pipe Cleaners from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Busy Bags for Learning Colours from here on The Chaos and The Clutter

Quiet Time Activities for Older Kids

Clock Puzzles Busy Bag from Happy Brown House

On-the-Go Tic Tac Toe Game Busy Bag from Glued to my Crafts (pictured)

Sight Words Busy Bag from here on The Chaos and The Clutter (pictured)

Space Adventures, Games & Activities for Kids {Printable Sets} from The Natural Homeschool

Solar System I-Spy Busy Bag from Research Parent (pictured)

Block Shadows Busy Bag from Happy Brown House

Spider Math Game from Glued to my Crafts

5 Busy Bags with Pipe Cleaners

By Sharla Kostelyk

We love busy bags and have been using them for a few years now. I find that they are especially helpful in keeping my youngest occupied and having fun while I work with the older kids on homeschooling or other projects. They are also great for road trips or waiting rooms.

5 Busy Bags with Pipe Cleaners

These 5 busy bags can all be made with pipe cleaners and most of the other items required are things you likely already have around the house. These are very inexpensive to make and all are very simple.

Pipe Cleaner Bead String

Materials needed:

beads (shaped ones are cute to add but plain beads work too)
pipe cleaners
large resealable bag

Pipe Cleaner Bead String Busy Bag This couldn’t be simpler to make. Place some pipe cleaners and beads into a resealable bag and this busy bag is ready to go! Kids can enjoy making bracelets or doll necklaces or bookmarks while they practise their fine motor skills.

Potato Chip Can Pipe Cleaner Drop

Materials needed:

empty potato chip can (such as Pringles)
hole punch
coloured reinforcements
pipe cleaners in matching colours to the reinforcements
optional: scrapbook paper

Pipe Cleaner Drop Punch holes in the lid of an empty potato chip can (I used a Pringles can). Add a coloured reinforcement sticker to each hole so that the colour surrounds the hole. Add pipe cleaners that are the same colours as the reinforcements into the can. I folded the ends of the pipe cleaners down so that they wouldn’t be sharp but for some kids this isn’t necessary. I also glued a piece of scrapbook paper around the Pringles can just to make it look nicer but this is optional.

Your child can then thread the pipe cleaners down the holes that match the colour. This is a great activity for fine motor as well as for learning colours.

Pringles Can Pipe Cleaner Drop

Magnet Busy Bag

Materials needed:

empty plastic bottle
pipe cleaners, cut into smaller pieces
magnetic wand

Magnet Busy Bag To create this fun activity, cut pipe cleaners into pieces and put them into an empty plastic bottle. Your child can then use the magnet wand on the outside of the bottle to move the pipe cleaners around and explore how the metal pieces in the pipe cleaners react to the magnet.

Pipe Cleaner Shapes

Materials needed:

pipe cleaners
paper
pen or marker
resealable plastic bag

Pipe Cleaner Shapes Busy bags don’t have to be complicated. You could create or use some fancy shape cards for this or you can do what I did and just draw simple shapes on paper. Your child can then try to replicate these shapes using one pipe cleaner or by combining several pipe cleaners. Store the pipe cleaners and shape papers in a resealable bag.

Pool Noodle Stack

Materials needed:

pool noodle, cut into pieces
permanent marker
pipe cleaners
resealable plastic bag

Pool Noodle Stack Busy Bag To create this busy bag, cut up a pool noodle and number the pieces with a permanent marker. Put them into a resealable bag with some pipe cleaners. Kids can either stack the pieces and work on their counting and number recognition or they can thread the pool noodles onto the pipe cleaners.

Just to give you an idea of how much of a pool noodle making this busy bag will use, with one pool noodle, I made this busy bag for Dancing Queen, made this busy bag for each of the ladies that came to my sensory bin swap, and made a Seaside Sensory Bin. So one pool noodle yielded five busy bags and a sensory bin!

Some of our other busy bags:

7 Busy Bags for Learning Colours

7 Busy Bags Made Using Paint Chips

If you are looking for more busy bag ideas, you may want to follow my Activity Bags board on Pinterest or if you are just looking for some great ideas for kids, you may want to follow my most popular Pinterest board, For Kids.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board For Kids on Pinterest.

Stuck in the Mud with Playdough

By Sharla Kostelyk

Usually it’s the ridiculously simple activities that kids like best and this one is no exception. This has been a favourite at our house for over ten years. I know exactly when we started doing it because I remember being over at my friend Julie’s and seeing her son playing it. I was the mom of three boys at the time so I knew instantly that it would be a hit at my house. I was right.

The premise is this: boys like cars; boys like mud; kids like play dough. It’s about that simple.

Stuck in the Mud Playdough Game

For this activity, you need brown playdough and some cars or trucks. I use chocolate playdough most of the time because I like the scent and consistency.

Once you suggest that they pretend the playdough is mud, kids, (boys especially) love to make roads in it, hills and valleys, and of course, get vehicles stuck. Then they can send their tow trucks to rescue the stuck vehicles or extract them via helicopter or whatever their imagination comes up with.

We always call this Stuck in the Mud. If I say to my kids, “do you want to play stuck in the mud?”, they know exactly what I’m talking about and seem to enjoy it as much now as they did when they were toddlers. It’s also a great simple sensory idea.

I wanted to share this simple activity with you but needed to get a few pictures in order to do so. I tried making my usual chocolate playdough recipe, but I was distracted and missed half a cup of flour plus I substituted hot chocolate mix for the cocoa. The result was that it was lumpy, strange in colour, sticky, and burnt. The pot took forever to scrub because of the playdough burnt to the bottom of it and I was feeling pretty darn frustrated!

I didn’t have enough cream of tartar or arm muscles to try another batch, so I did what any mom would do and looked up a recipe for no-cook chocolate play dough. I didn’t like the consistency or look of it as much as I like my usual recipe, but it was way easier to make and the kids didn’t seem to mind.

I asked if they wanted to play Stuck in the Mud and Einstein ran off to get some cars! This type of sensory play never seems to get old!

Stuck in the Mud If you are looking for other playdough ideas, you may want to follow my Playing with Playdough board on Pinterest. What is your favourite way to play with play dough?

Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

5 Trampoline Games

By Sharla Kostelyk

Please note: Trampolines are responsible for many injuries and common sense and adult supervision should be used with all of these activities. I am not responsible for any injuries that occur as a result of playing these games. As a parent, you know your child’s skill level and ability best and can determine if they are ready for these activities.

As the parent of seven kids, five with sensory issues, our trampoline has been our best investment. We have had ours for 8 years and this year after daily use and being left outside for six winters in the deep snow, the bottom finally tore, making it unusable. I am so used to being able to use the trampoline as a brain break for the kids and they are so used to being able to use it to help keep themselves regulated that it was a miserable few months for all of us without it.

I didn’t want to have to buy a whole new one but then a friend told me that Springfree sells replacement parts. We ordered a replacement mat and The Husband and a friend of his spent an afternoon attaching it and now our trampoline is as good as new!

In celebration of our newly functional trampoline, I thought I would share some of the games our kids play. Some are classic trampoline games and some they invented themselves.

All are fun.

For those of you who have children with sensory issues or SPD (sensory processing disorder), it may be worthwhile to note that these games are examples of proprioceptive sensory play. Find more activities for proprioception.

Bum Wars

There is no trampoline game more classic than bum wars! The premise of this is that the last one standing wins! You need at least 2 players but can be played with more. Each player jumps a few times to warm up and then when agreed, they each drop down to their bums and then jump back up, landing on their feet. Each player is only allowed one bum bounce and one feet bounce. If they do double of either, they are out. The game is more challenging if there are adults and children playing because of the weight differences. (ask me how I know!)

Velodome

This is a game invented by my children. It can only be played on a trampoline with a net. One player is chosen to be “it”. Everyone, including that player places their outside hand on the net. This hand must stay on the net at all times. In this version of tag, players run around the outside of the trampoline as fast as they can, with their outside hand on the net. The player who is “it” attempts to tag the other players. Once tagged, they are out and can sit in the middle of the trampoline or as a safer alternative, can exit the trampoline entirely!

Popcorn

This is another classic game. One person sits in the middle of the trampoline, holding their knees to their chest. The other person jumps and tries to get the “popcorn to pop” (to get the person’s arms to pop open).

Four Boxes

I think my kids invented this one. It doesn’t totally make sense because our trampoline is round, but it would make sense on a rectangular or square trampoline and they have fun with it and that’s what matters! The person who is “it” closes their eyes and counts to 10, standing in the middle of the trampoline. Everyone else moves to a corner of the trampoline. When he says “10”, everyone stops moving. With his eyes still closed, “it” points to a corner and everyone there is out.

Poison Balls

Put some balls on the trampoline. In this trampoline game, the kids pretend that the balls are poison and jump while trying to avoid the balls, which of course roll around unpredictably. If someone is touched by a ball, they are out and must sit out for the rest of the round. To add to the sensory experience, you can use other items instead of balls such as pillows, stuffed toys, crumbled tin foil, or other soft items your imagination can think up.

Other trampoline fun:

1. Our kids love getting their bathing suits on and jumping in the rain. The water makes the trampoline bouncier. This can also be achieved by putting a sprinkler under the trampoline. 2. Another favourite trampoline activity here is having sleepovers on it. They set up sleeping bags and have a campout using the trampoline as their huge bed.

3. Lay out a large sheet of bubble wrap on the trampoline mat and let the kids jump!

4. We attach an old parachute to ours (you can see in one of the pictures below how the wind poofs it out and makes it like a tent inside). I don’t know how safe or smart it is to do it, but the kids really like jumping inside their homemade bouncy castle! 5. Have the kids do tricks like multiple bum drops or flips or jumping as high as they can and try to imitate or beat the one who went before them. Again, trampolines can be dangerous. We are fortunate in that we have not had any major injuries, but please do use caution.

Join me for a free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get your Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Sensory Station Ideas

A Bucket List for a Simpler Summer

Photo Scavenger Hunt

7 Busy Bags for Teaching Colours

By Sharla Kostelyk

I love busy bags! I initially made them to have on hand for Dancing Queen to use while I was homeschooling her older siblings. Even though she is 8 years old, developmentally she is between 2 and 3, so it is like having a toddler in many ways. She is too distracted to sit through most homeschool lessons and this proves challenging for the other kids and I. Busy bags are something she can do quietly on the floor, at the table or at her desk and be occupied but still learning at the same time.

They also have proved to be great for other things as well. They are perfect for bringing with us for waiting rooms or road trips and even my older kids enjoy doing them. This past weekend, Dancing Queen sustained a concussion falling over five feet off my brother-in-law’s deck. We grabbed three busy bags to take with us to the hospital which helped her to stay calm while we were waiting and then in the following days when the doctor’s instructions prohibited her from doing most activities (no TV, no electronics, no active play, no reading, no schoolwork, etc.), she was able to do simple busy bags.

7 Busy Bags for Learning Colours Here are 7 busy bags that help children learn their colours. All of them are simple to assemble and most cost next to nothing to make.

Potato Chip Can Pipe Cleaner Drop

Materials needed:

empty potato chip can (such as Pringles)
hole punch
coloured reinforcements
pipe cleaners in matching colours to the reinforcements
optional: scrapbook paper

Pipe Cleaner Drop Punch holes in the lid of an empty potato chip can (I used a Pringles can). Add a coloured reinforcement sticker to each hole so that the colour surrounds the hole. Add pipe cleaners that are the same colours as the reinforcements into the can. I folded the ends of the pipe cleaners down so that they wouldn’t be sharp. I also glued a piece of scrapbook paper around the Pringles can just to make it look nicer but this step isn’t necessary.

Your child can then thread the pipe cleaners down the holes that match the colour. This is a great activity for fine motor as well as for learning colours.

Pringles Can Pipe Cleaner Drop

Paint Chip Color Sort Busy Bag

Materials needed:

paint chips in various colours
pompoms
feathers
medium or large resealable bag
optional: tweezers for fine motor practise

Paint Chip Color Sort Busy Bag This activity bag is so easy to throw together. Put pompoms and coloured feathers in a bag with paint chips and have your child match the colours. They also can do patterning if you add in different sizes of pompoms or work on fine motor if you add in a pair of tweezers.

Paint Chip Colour Swatch

Materials needed:

paint chips
binder ring
possibly: hole punch

Paint Chip Color Swatch

For this busy bag, I used paint chips that already had a hole punched in them which saved me a step. If yours don’t have a hole already, punch a hole in the corner of each paint chip and thread them onto a binder ring. This activity takes seconds to make! Your child can then use the ring to match colours in their colour swatch to objects they find in their environment.

Clothespin Colour Wheel

Materials needed:

cardboard
wooden clothespins
permanent markers
medium or large resealable bag

Clothespin Colour Wheel Cut a piece of cardboard into a circle. With a black permanent marker, section it. It may be easiest to use a ruler for this. Add a splash of colour to each section with a permanent marker. Colour the ends of wooden clothespins in the same colours used on the colour wheel. Add the pieces into a resealable bag. Your child can then match the clothespins up to the corresponding colour.

Foam Colour/Number Match

Materials needed:

foam pieces
coloured clothespins
permanent markers
medium or large resealable bag

Foam Colour & Number Match Using a permanent marker, write a number on each foam piece (we used hand shaped ones). Put the foam pieces along with clothespins in corresponding colours into a bag. Your child can either clip the amount of clothespins as the number written or clip the same coloured clothespin as the foam.

Fine Motor Colour Match

Materials needed:

small empty plastic containers
coloured paper
pompoms
paper clips
tongs
large resealable bag

Fine Motor Colour Match Put a circle of coloured paper in the bottom of empty plastic containers. We used individual applesauce containers. Put them in the bag along with a pair of tongs, coloured paper clips and pompoms. Your child can practise both their fine motor skills and their colour matching as they sort the paper clips and the pompoms.

fine motor and colour practise

Paint Chip Colour Matching

Materials needed:

paint chips (you will need 2 of each colour)
wooden clothespins
glue
large resealable bag
optional: large hole punch

Paint Chip Colour Match Busy Bag

To make this busy bag, you need to take two identical paint chips and cut a shape out of each shade of colour in one. I used a heart shaped hole punch. Glue these shapes onto the ends of wooden clothespins and place the intact paint chips and the clothespins into a resealable bag. This activity is effective as a more advanced colour matching game as some of the shades can be similar and difficult for kids to differentiate.

If you are looking for other busy bag ideas, you may be interested in following my Activity Bags Board on Pinterest. Last week, I shared 7 Busy Bags with Paint Chips.

7 Busy Bags with Paint Chips

By Sharla Kostelyk

Paint chips are great for making all sorts of crafts and activities with because they come in so many colors and their thickness makes them easy to work with and easy for little hands to handle. There is really no end to what you can do with paint chips.

I use busy bags with the younger kids and have made several with paint chips as they are free and due to our recent renovations, we have a lot of them.

Paint Chip Sight Word Match

Materials needed:

paint chips
permanent marker
medium or large resealable bag

This easy activity is great for reenforcing sight words. I made ours with the sight words the kids are currently learning and can continue to add more. These are so easy to make and don’t cost anything.

To create these cards, take two paint chips per word and punch large holes in one of them. I used the heart shaped punch again, but regular squares will do. Lay it on top of the other card so that you line up the words properly. Write lowercase letters on one card, through the holes made and uppercase letters on the other. Place them all into a bag.

The activity is much more challenging if you use different colours so that the kids have to match them up based on the letters and not based on colour.

Paper Clip Colour Match

Materials needed:

paint chips in various colours
paper clips in corresponding colours
sandwich bag

It doesn’t get much more simple than this! Throw some paint chips and paper clips of the same colour into a sandwich bag and toss it into your busy bag box. Your child can then attach the paper clips onto their same coloured paint chips for colour matching and fine motor skill practise.

Paint Chip Colour Matching

Materials needed:

paint chips (2 of each colour necessary)
wooden clothespins
glue
large resealable bag
optional: large hole punch

In order to create this activity bag, you will need to take two identical paint chips and cut a shape out of each shade of colour in one. I used a heart shaped hole punch. Glue these shapes onto the ends of wooden clothespins and place the intact paint chips and the clothespins into a resealable bag.

This activity is good as a more advanced colour matching game for kids as some of the shades can be similar and difficult to differentiate.

Paint Chip Color Sort Busy Bag

Materials needed:

paint chips in various colours
pompoms
feathers
medium or large resealable bag
optional: tweezers for fine motor practise

This is a simple bag to put together. Just throw some paint chips and colored pompoms and feathers in a resealable bag. I added some plastic tweezers in case the kids wanted to use those for placing the pompoms on the paint chips. I also threw in three sizes of pompoms so that if they wanted to, they could create patterns with the sizes.

Paint Chip Color Swatch

Materials needed:

paint chips
binder ring
possibly: small hole punch

I was able to find paint chips that already had a hole punched in the corner but if using paint chips that don’t have this feature, punch a hole into each paint chip, thread them through a binder ring and it is ready to go! When using this activity, your child can find objects inside or outside that match up with the colors in their color swatch.

Paint Chip Patterning

Materials needed:

paint chips in various colours
glue
medium or large resealable bag
optional: shaped hole punch

To create these, cut out shapes from paint chips (I used a heart hole punch in two different sizes but you could cut out squares or any other shape) and glue them onto another paint chip. It works best if the paint chip you glue them onto is a long solid coloured one. Cut out identical shapes and colours to enclose in the bag so that your child can recreate the pattern on the cards.

Paint Chip Notebooks Busy Bags

Materials needed:

paint chips
white paper
staples
stickers and/or markers or crayons
resealable bag

Last year, we made tiny notebooks out of paint chips. The kids each made their own but afterwards, we didn’t do anything with the notebooks until I thought of creating them into easy busy bags. I threw notebooks into resealable bags with stickers or with markers or crayons for the perfect little activity bag on the go!

You can read about how we created our paint chip notebooks (by clicking on the highlighted words) and create your own. The kids love them more than other mini notebooks because they are so proud to have made them themselves!

If you are looking for other busy bag ideas, you may be interested in following my Activity Bags Board on Pinterest. You might also want to sign up for email updates as I will be sharing many of our simple and inexpensive busy bag ideas in the coming weeks.

Busy bags are perfect for bringing on road trips, using in waiting rooms or giving to younger kids while you do homeschooling or homework with older ones.