Toddler Busy Boxes

My little one and I have finally settled on a routine. I like to keep him busy throughout the day. After his afternoon nap, I give him busy boxes to work/play with.

I started with these plastic boxes:



They were on sale for only Php100! What luck!

I then printed the days of the week on sticker paper and stuck one on each box. We have 5 boxes – Monday to Friday. I didn’t do any busy boxes for him for the weekend because it’s my husband’s turn to take care of him and busy boxes are just not his thing.



Each box has its own set of goodies. I don’t have a photo of the contents of each box but I’ll give you an idea of what I put inside.



I put stickers, colored pens, pompoms, popsicle sticks, erasers and a finger painting set.



This small white board is one of his favorite items as we can do all sorts of activities with it. We can put stickers and group them into colors. He can doodle on them and draw circles and lines. He can connect the cars to each other.



I also put coloring sheets. I got a coloring book on sale which is ring bound so I tear a few sheets at a time and distribute them to the boxes. I am a bit OC when it comes to coloring books and I don’t want him coloring all over the book so this method works for me.



Of course, I put in a ton of books. The activities vary from one box to another. The pompoms can be used for a number of fine motor activities. You can also use them to teach color recognition.
My son likes lining up his toys so the popsicle sticks are great for this activity. He also likes putting the sticks into an old formula container which I slit a hole on top of. For bigger popsicles, I put some Velcro on them and he has fun joining them together and creating different shapes.

My son likes to write/doodle so pens are a must-have in my house. He also likes crayons, whiteboard markers and anything that can write. The finger painting is a special activity we do together. I need to prepare for it as it’s a very messy activity.

I also put wood puzzles in the boxes which he really likes. Lastly, I put around 3-4 books in one box.

Lady E’s Tips

1. If you plan on making a busy box, be prepared to invest in a few key pieces. For some activities, you can easily use the things found in the house and kitchen. I opted to invest in the boxes and the materials that we use because I know we will use them for a long time. Besides, most of the materials we use cost only a little over a dollar.


2. Always check out sales. Almost all our toys and materials were bought on sale. I normally don’t pay retail prices.


3. Visit bookstores, toy stores, the stationery department of department stores, specialty stores such as Daiso, Japan Home Center and for you readers in the US, the Dollar Tree. You can find tons and tons of activities, toys, learning aids, teacher aids, etc. at the Dollar Tree.  I am so envious of you moms in the US.


I will share more of our busy boxes as I change them up so please subscribe to my mailing list if you don’t want to miss a post.