This is part seven in a series on busy bags. For more information on what busy bags are, and for some ideas on bought contents for easy busy bags and more handmade ideas, read past posts in the series.
Tomorrow is World Literacy Day, so in honour of that I thought I’d share with you some of our favourite activity books for Busy Bags. Some of these are single use, some are for reading, but they all fit neatly in our Trunki and are perfect for travel, and some of them just live in busy bags, ready for when Mama needs 10 minutes, or Ameli needs some entertaining.
Paint With Water Poster Book (US link to similar product)
I saw these for the first time recently when a friend gave Ameli one. Basically you have a handful of colouring pages, and each page has its own ‘pallet’, a set of paints on each page that you can dip your paintbrush on and paint away, without dripping paint everywhere. Depending on how much water you use, it could gt a bit messy, but it’s pretty good.
Galt Animals Magic Picture Book (US link)
I’m not sure if I love this book more than Ameli or not, but I found it very exciting. You have a book full of blank notes, but when you rub a coin over them, a picture is revealed. I’m not sure how it works. This isn’t like a scratch and win card – I mean, you don’t rub anything off. It’s just there. Ameli found the coin too hard, so we used a spoon instead and that worked really well. Once the picture is revealed, you can colour it in like any normal picture.
Paint By Water Painting Book (US link)
These books are fantastic. They remind me of my own childhood, sitting in the rain, ‘painting’. Its a great memory. Basically, all you need is a book, a paintbrush and some water. Wet the paintbrush and run it over the paper. Lo and behold, colours appear. These are so good for travel, because you really just need the smallest bit of water, you don’t have to wash the brush after each stroke, and they don’t make much mess.
There are more books to tell you about, but that’ll have to wait for another day.
Check back next week for more Busy Bag ideas. You will need card, coloured match sticks (US link) and pens or pencils in matching colours. Optionally you’ll also need adhesive paper.
