One of my favorite ways to keep Eli (3½) occupied for a decent amount of time (usually about 30 minutes) while I am working on a lesson with Jacob has been activity bins. I first got the idea from Stephanie at Keeper of the Home almost a year ago and immediately ran with it. Over the last year, we have tweaked the bins a bit and overall, I’ve been incredibly happy with how this works for us.
Here’s what our bins look like (I spent $5 on 5 plastic shoe bins at Dollar Tree):
Here’s what they currently contain:
Monday:
~ USA 25 piece puzzle ($1 – Dollar Tree)
~ 2 board books ($1 – Dollar Tree)
~ Pipe cleaners 4-6 at a time (about $4.00 for a pack of 100 – Walmart)
~ Kaleidoscope ($1 – Dollar Tree)
Tuesday:
~ Spideman 25 piece puzzle ($1 – Dollar Tree)
~ Watercolors ($1 – Dollar Tree)
~ Small notepad ($.33 {pack of 3 for $1} – Dollar Tree)
~ Stencils and pencil ($2.00 for pack of 12 stencils – Walmart – party supplies)
~ Foam stickers ($7 – 500pc set – Walmart – have lasted 2½ years – also used for craft projects)
Wednesday:
~ Crayons ($1 – Dollar Tree)
~ Small notepad ($.33 – Dollar Tree)
~ Stickers ($2 – Walmart)
~ Board book ($.50 {pack of 2 for $1} – Dollar Tree)
~ Tangram board pieces (FREE – given to us)
Thursday:
~ Playdoh ($3 – Dollar Tree)
~ Tools ($3 – Walmart)
~ Plastic cookie cutters ($1 – Dollar Tree)
~ Star Wars box of playdoh and tools (FREE – birthday gift)
Friday:
~ Construction paper (minimal, 2 sheets cut up into quarters)
~ Chalk ($1 – Dollar Tree)
~ Egg carton (FREE)
~ Beads ($3 for a HUGE bag of plastic beads – Walmart)
~ Pompoms and buttons (minimal – already had for other craft projects)
~ Scoops (FREE) – laundry, measuring and formula
Total spent: $38.16
I know this sounds like quite a bit, but these bins have provided countless hours of distraction and entertainment for Eli for nearly a year. They are mostly educational – helping him learn how to count, measure, sort, create, piece, etc. And I feel they have definitely been worth the investment.
Even Jacob enjoys playing with some of the bins, and he’s SIX!
This has been one of the best investments for our homeschooling time because it affords me the ability to have one-on-one teaching time with Jacob and know that Eli isn’t causing havoc all over the house!
This post is linked to: Works For Me Wednesday.
Oh, how I NEED to set up something like this for my 18-month-old. I feel like any structured learning has come to a stand-still at our house, because the toddler is so BUSY getting into trouble unless I’m chasing him around. I think I need to be willing to make a small investment into some bins for him!
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Definitely a better idea than the “free for all” we have going around here! Love the new look, by the way.
What a fun idea! This would be a wise move for me because our playroom is downstairs but, during the winter,we’re always on the upper level where it’s warmer. These would be smart to have up here to provide activities!
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Your bins look great!
Great idea! I often need to keep my preschooler busy so I can tend to her triplet brothers, who are 17 months old. She’ll love this!
Christy
Love this idea! My daughter is constantly asking for something to do while I’m schooling my older kids. I’ve attempted workboxes, but this is much simpler!!
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Oh my word, we’re doing the free for all too.
This looks like a great idea! So does your preschooler do these items by himself? I don’t really picture my almost-3-yo doing these things by herself. I see a lot of “Mama, help me do this puzzle. Help me with my play-doh. Wanna play with my pipe cleaners?”
Does this happen to you? And if so, what do you do?
You did a great job putting them together!
-Lauren
My son is actually nearing 4, but he’s been doing some of them by himself for almost the entire time we’ve been using them. Thursday and Friday are his favorites (scoops/measures and playdoh) and I do let him play with those even if it’s not the correct day if I need him to be completely occupied all by himself.
Also, we didn’t start off with the puzzles in there, he’s learned how to do them in the last few months so we’ve added those in fairly recently.
What an absolutely wonderful idea!!! I can’t wait to try this out. It is SO challenging sitting there trying to teach two children while knowing the two-year-old is doing things like drawing on walls and digging in toilets. It’s enough to make someone give up, that’s for sure. I think this idea may actually work for us!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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[...] Keeping a Preschooler Occupied Love the idea of having a separate “fun” box for each day! [...]
TOTALLY awesome. I am totally cleaning up my disastrous playroom and organizing it this way!!! What a GREAT way to keep their favorite toys and keeping them “special” enough to play with – rather than find them all laying all over the floor. Thank you!!!
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i just had a huge DUH moment. I have bins but each has ONE type of item. As if a toddler had an attention span for that long. This is helpful. Thank you!!