Crafts & Activities / 27 January, 2019 / Nanny Anita

Practice Hand Control with This Fun Animal Lacing Busy Bag

On Pinterest I found this massive following of these “busy bags”.  The concept is not a new one, and is something that I have done naturally (as will most of you) since I started looking after children.  The point behind these is that in a small zip-lock type bag you have an activity. These busy bags can then be placed into a handbag and taken with you to keep little ones, or not so little ones, occupied while they are waiting for a sibling to finish a class or for food to arrive at a restaurant., they can also be used for travelling. As I said, most people will have done this anyway, but I loved the idea of having a collection of these activities that I can just pull out and pop into my bag without the hassle of having to search for something or then losing it in the never ending depths of my bag. Hopefully this  animal lacing busy bag will be the first of may busy bag activities and crafts.

Make sure you follow my busy bag board on Pinterest for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later. 

To make your own Animal Lacing Busy Bag you will need:

• Cardboard
• Hole punch
• Ribbons/ old shoe lace/ wool
• Stanley knife or other sharp tool
• Paint

You can either free draw your animals or print templates from the Internet to trace around onto the cardboard. Then using a sharp knife cut out your shapes.

Punch holes around the outside of the shapes. A single hole puncher would be more ideal, if not a normal one should do, just check to make sure the cardboard fits into it.

Decorate your shape; this is something that little ones can easily do.

Ribbons, old shoe laces or some wool would all make excellent materials to lace with, if using ribbons or wool try painting the end of them in nail varnish to stop them fraying. When everything is ready place it into a zip bag (we got ours from Muji, but they are readily available from amazon.co.uk) and pop it into your bag for when you need it to keep little fingers busy for a while.

Pin for later: