Busy Bag Exchange

Have you hosted or participated in a busy bag exchange before?  I never had, but wanted to try it out!  I am part of a pretty active mom's group, and we do most of our communications on Facebook.  So I posted, asking if anyone was interested in doing a a swap, hoping maybe 8-10 moms would be interested.  To my surprise, 17 moms indicated interest!

To keep it organized, I created a Google doc with all the participants names and what activity they were bringing.  I also wrote a few guidelines.  Some of the ideas for guidelines came from Second Story Window.  Here are the guidelines for our swap:

• Please put your items in a ziplock bag and label the outside with the name of your activity.
• Please include a set of directions in your bag.  Even if it seems really self explanatory, please write a sentence or two description on how it can be used.
• Please keep the cost of each bag around $1 or under.
• You do NOT need to laminate any papers included.  If possible, print any papers on cardstock so they will last.
• Put together the quality kind of bag you would want to receive in return. This is really important to remember! Of course we want to be cheap but we also want the activity to hold up to toddler use.
• If you cannot attend our swap night, please give your bags to me or another participant before the swap night.  We will include your bags in the swap and get your new activities to you!

How did it turn out?  It was a huge success!  All the moms were excited to participate.  16 moms sat around my living room on a Saturday morning, enjoying some time catching up and exchanging a variety of activities!

I was so pleased with the variety of activities and the quality of the bags!  Here are the bags that were swapped!

Animal counter sorting using tweezers

Button lacing and number practice from See Vanessa Craft

Clothespin color matching from Rookie Mom

Make a felt pizza

Copying shapes and patterns with yarn on felt from Momtastic

Wiffle ball lacing and weaving from See Vanessa Craft

Fish and frog sorting and patterning

Pom pom push

Lacing cards

Velcro craft sticks to make shapes and letters

Button snake from Motherhood on a Dime

Counting with googley eyes

Clothespin number wheel from Money Saving Mom

Shape memory from Delighting in Today

Felt roads

Crazy straw weaving from Powerful Mothering

Make a felt sandwich

Caterpillar counting from Powerful Mothering

If you have been thinking about hosting or participating in a busy bag swap, I highly recommend it!

To see more busy bag ideas, check out my Pinterest board.

Follow Stacy's board Busy bags for a busy boy on Pinterest.