Gratituesday: Fun and Learning in a Bag – What We Got in Our First Activity Bag Exchange

Recently, I have been thinking about all the wonderful ideas that other moms and educators share via blogs, yahoogroups, personal chats, activity exchanges, etc. And, although the number of ideas I want to try out always seems to far exceed the amount of time (focus and discipline) I have to prepare each idea for presentation to my children, I am always grateful to hear about others tried-and-true activities. They give me lots to look forward to.

 And speaking of looking forward to things, today I am particularly grateful for activities shared with a wonderful mom named Kim that I met through a yahoogroup. As I posted about yesterday, we did an activity bag exchange last summer. And, this weekend, she and I are sending out Round II! What a blessing the Internet can be when it introduces one to resourceful folks to share, not only ideas with, but practical kids’ activities, too! Love that!

 Just what did Kim share with us last time? A bevy of activities that focused on classic pre-k skills and just plain inventive fun:

Paper Clip Counting activity (A great Montessori-inspired one!)

a Button Jar

Lacing Cards

Circus Reading -- a fabric book with finger puppet characters

a Buckle Book -- a homemade buckle and fasteners book

Color Carton Fun -- a color pom pom sorting egg box

a Matching Game – paint chip matching cards (A great Montessori-inspired one!)

a Morning Routine activity -- a morning/meal routine card set with real life manipulatives

Alphabet Fun – placemat, foam letters and erasable marker

Fun with Numbers – placemat, foam shapes and numbers and an erasable marker

Golf Tee Hammering -- a foam block and golf tee hammering activity (A great Montessori-inspired one!)

Treasure Hunt -- a rice-filled treasure chest coin search game

Luke and Nina truly enjoyed this these activity bags, and I was especially grateful to have them on hand for days at home that I was too busy or distracted to come up with something myself, as well as for long road trips and a visit to Nana and Papa’s. Without a doubt, exchanging activity bags has proved both entertaining and educational for us --as well as time-saving for Mom

I’d love to hear about to hear favorite Activity Bag ideas, successful exchanges (activity bags, crafts, cookies, whatever...) I find them so inspiring! Please share in a comment, with a link if you’ve got one, below.   Also, to read about other things that folks are thankful for this week, please enjoy Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers! Thanks!

P.S. If you want to see what we included in our half of the last exchange with Kim, look at yesterday’s post. As the week continues, I will try to post about another Activity Bag exchange we did and, by next week, I will share what I mail to Kim this weekend.