We're planning a road trip (3-hour car ride with a 5-year-old - yikes!) so Nadia of Teach Me Mommy had perfect timing for her Virtual Busy Bag Swap series. I look forward to getting lots of ideas from the great bloggers contributing and I hope you do too!
My contribution is probably the simplest one you will find in this series, but sometimes it's the most obvious things that we forget about. I present to you my tried-and-true method of keeping a preschooler quiet (at least for a little while!)....(drum roll please...no? ) the dry erase board.
(As you can see, this one has been well-used!)
You can pick these up for about a dollar and if you're in the mood to splurge you can get an extra pack of dry erase markers in different colors. Preschoolers are practicing mark-making or maybe even starting to make letters. Even what looks like scribbles to us are honing their fine motor skills. So a small portable dry erase board is something different to write on and beneficial too!
If you're child is one who needs a little more direction, you could write letters or shapes on index cards for them to try to copy. Regular washable markers work, too. Not as well, but if you're worried about messy hands, they're your best bet.
You can pick these up for about a dollar and if you're in the mood to splurge you can get an extra pack of dry erase markers in different colors. Preschoolers are practicing mark-making or maybe even starting to make letters. Even what looks like scribbles to us are honing their fine motor skills. So a small portable dry erase board is something different to write on and beneficial too!
If you're child is one who needs a little more direction, you could write letters or shapes on index cards for them to try to copy. Regular washable markers work, too. Not as well, but if you're worried about messy hands, they're your best bet.
You could also get a 3-ring binder and some sheet protectors (and those same dry-erase markers!) to make a portable writing kit. Inside the sheet protectors add various idea-starters your child might be interested in - maybe tracing their name or letters, drawing a simple shape and seeing what they create with it, or pictures to draw on.
Then put them in the 3-ring binder and you have a handy-dandy traveling writing kit. Don't forget to add something to wipe off the markers (kidsactiviesblog.com had the awesome idea of using a pom pom!).
Do you have a busy bag idea for 3-4 years old? Add it to the linky or leave a comment below - I'd love to hear your ideas! (Remember, road trip - I need all the ideas I can get!)
