Busy bags for road trips

When we decided to take a road trip with our 3-yr old this December, I started to look around for ways to keep her busy on the road. In our previous trip earlier this year, she played a lot with stickers and I was skeptical if she would play with just stickers for long. That's when I came across  the concept of "busy bag". Basically it is just a small bag containing a re-usable activity that can be done independently. I found tons of ideas here and I put together quite a few for our recent trip like -

1. drawing book and crayons
2. paper and scissors
3. beads and pipecleaners
4. decorate your ice cream sticks / any design with stickers
5. Make your tree with crepe paper and cotton.
I also used some of the activity kits that come with our monthly subscription of Little Readers' Nook. 

 

Some of our busy-bags

 

One of the activity my daughter did on the way

This was the first time I made something like this and it was a big hit with my daughter (and us).  I made about 12 bags and split those into 2 sets of 6 each - one for onward journey and one for return. With all the bags placed in her back-pack, she could pull out one and entertain herself and us too. Since all activities were in separate bags, every bag was a surprise and we played guessing game to see if she could identify whats in the bag by touching it before pulling it out. It was also easier to clean up when she was done with one activity. Added plus was that I didn't have to spend huge time to put them all together and can surely be reused & replenished when required.

The busy bags were a huge relief for us as we didn't have to entertain her all the time and the journey was almost screen-free (only 40 mins of screen time in 16-hr journey !).

We loved these. Hope you like it too.

Diwali is coming....

Oh my ... I'm off-track by 8 days ... oops... I had decided to blog every day this month but derailed with no post for last 8 days :(

But I'm now back and here is what we did over the last week...

Rangoli, Tealight holders, Diyas and Fort

We got this wonderful craft kit for making Rangoli from Creative Bits and Kuhu enjoyed thinking about the design to make, sticking the beads and the mirror. She is now eagerly waiting for Diwali to put these to use. The craft kit had everything needed to make the Rangoli... the foam base designs, beads of different shapes (even a few extra ones), mirrors and glue. This made it so easy to get started and finish in one shot... we loved it. Thanks Creative Bits !

Sunday evening, Kuhu declared that she wanted to paint so we pulled out the earthen diyas (left from last Diwali) to paint. When she was done painting those, she was in no mood to hang up the brush and paint so I pulled out old coffee jars to make tea-light holders and the old glasses followed. :)

Last Diwali, Kuhu went to see the fort making competition cum exhibition with her cousin Shubhankar. This year we were recounting that experience when she said she wants to make a killa (fort) of her own. That got us started. Kuhu's dad assembled the fort and her Sangeeta maushi made the steps with Kuhu helping them with fetching water and throwing in mustard seeds to grow forest surrounding the killa.

Hope you like it and make your own too.

DIY - Hairband holder

Pre-diwali days at my granny's and mom's place  were days to clean, organize and rearrange. I remember organizing my books for Saraswati pujan on Dassera day and wardrobe and the rest of the house followed till a week before Diwali. It was a fun time with my little sister where we found some hidden treasures ... books, collectibles, frocks, cards... what not !

This weekend I started this pre-diwali cleaning/organizing with my little daughter's stuff assuming it would finish quickly... how off I was in my estimation !! I opened her drawers to be greeted with a bunch of hairbands tangled with each other, screaming to be managed better. So I had to make a holder for those right away. There are tons of tutorials / DIY projects for making these. I choose one that could be a space-saver. But all that I had bookmarked needed a hot glue gun. Only one used a stapler but that didnt give enough strength to hold a dozen (and counting) hairbands. So here is my improvised version of this one... just in case some one needs it.

Materials Needed -

1. Strip of cloth (preferably cotton) of the length of the holder you want to make. (I re-purposed the border from my old Saree to give the holder a rich and ethnic look.)
2. Thread and needle.
3. Satin ribbon or a contrast piece of cloth for the loops.
4. Circular loop to hang the holder. (I used my daughter's used metal bangle.)

Steps-

1. Hand stitch the cotton strip borders to make the base for the holder.
2. Hand stitch the circular loop at the top of the base.
3. Make the loops from satin ribbon  big enough to remove the hairband easily.
4. Hand stitch the satin ribbon loops on the base.

Variations -
You could add a big towel ring on the lower end of the holder to hang stretchable hairbands.

You're done ! This was one of the simplest and quickest project I did off-late. It took me just 30 mins to make one. Here is how the finished one looked -

This also seems like a good DIY gift for my nieces. So looking forward to making a few more..