Busy Book Activities

**UPDATE**
I've moved to ladybugsandlattes.com
You can find this post and more here
***

I have the sweetest little girl and she does so well sitting quietly and playing with her toys by herself when I need a few minutes to get things done (i.e. the ever-growing pile of dirty dishes on the counter).

And then there are the other times when no matter how many toys she has at her fingertips, she wants whatever is in my hands. I have lost count how many times my laptop has been "accidentally" turned off by little fingers. So I created an activity for her that she can mostly do by herself, but I can sit and play with her (and still have a hand free to finish working on whatever I am doing).

This is Cady's Busy Book. I often create felt activities individually and then seal them in large ziplock bags. This time, I used ribbon to attach 6 unique activities so that it's easy to carry around and bring wherever we need it (the car, a restaurant, grandparents' houses, etc.).

1. Gumball Machine
The gumballs have velcro stuck on the backs. Cady pulls them off of the felt one by one and puts them at the bottom of the page. As she does this, I count with her 1-10. Thinking about this project now, I should've put "10 cents" on the gumball machine instead of "5 cents". Baby girl doesn't care, though, and she is happily learning how to count and developing fine motor skills.

2. Mr./Mrs. Potato Head
I glued the potato body to a piece of felt and then created a pocket on another page to hold all of the pieces. This is a picture of what it looks like "put away" and the other picture is at the top. Cady loves this activity because she can proudly show me that she knows what the "nose", "eyes", "arms", etc. are when I ask her to pick it up so we can put it on the potato head body.

3. Hen with Hidden Chicks
There's not much to actually do on this page, but she likes to lift the wing and then open the eggs to find the chicks.

4. Stop Light
We practice color recognition with this activity. I say "find the red circle", and as she picks it up (or picks up the other circles until I say "there it is!"), I tell her what they mean on the stop light (stop, slow down, or go). Then I show her where it goes on the stop light and she uses her fine motor skills to place it there. I used velcro for this activity, but it really isn't needed.

5. Ice Cream Cone
Cady loves this activity. She picks ice cream flavors and toppings and stacks them to make a tall ice cream cone and then we pretend to eat it. She's learning color recognition and hand-eye coordination. And the joy of ice cream.

6. Pizza
I cut out shapes to look like pizza crust, sauce, cheese, peppers, mushrooms, and pepperoni (not pictured). We like to put all of the pieces on the pizza crust in order and then pretend to eat it. She is learning sequencing and imaginary play.

I guess I did a good enough job for my busy little girl because when I had to put this away so we could eat dinner, she was so upset that she cried.