Busy Bins For The Little Ones

Home and school are intertwined at our house, so when the littles ones have a need during school that is okay — this is part of what makes homeschool a beautiful thing. As I plan and prepare for our upcoming homeschool year, it is important that I also plan some sort of activity for my two younger boys who are 4 and 2. While the bins I prep for them will not last our entire school year, I like to make them as we kick off the school year.

What Is A Busy Bin?

I think the first time I heard about busy bins was on a youtube video from a homeschool mom. A busy bin is simply a bin of some sort with manipulatives, small toys, books or sensory play items. I purchased these bins from Walmart for less than $3 each! Some of the items I am going to talk about in the bins are things I already had on hand around the house and some things are new. I like to thrift or reuse a lot of items I have around the house. For one of these bins, I did purchase a set of Picasso Tiles but everything else was stuff we already had! So essentially a busy bin can be as inexpensive or pricy as you’d like!

When To Use a Busy Bin?

I will pull one busy bin out daily and try as best I can to keep the bins exclusive to our homeschool days. I don’t want the items in the bins mixed up with my kids regular toys. If I sense that my two younger boys are starting to have a fight over a bin I may grab the other one out too so they can each have their own, but I’d ideally like them to share a bin together for the day. The bins may last 5 minutes or an hour, either way I know I’ll be glad they’re prepped and ready for our homeschool days.

Busy Bin #1

This bin has manipulatives and a book. It is very simple but there is SO much building and playing that can happen with this bin! My older boys will play with Picasso tiles for hours so I know it will keep the littles busy at least for a while! The books called “Found” is about Psalm 23, it is a sweet book that’s perfect for my little guys. Here’s the links to what’s inside this bin:

• Picasso Tiles off of Amazon

• Found By Sally Lloyd Jones

• Sterilite 12qt Container from Walmart

Busy Bin #2

This bin has a few more elements to it than the first. For sensory play I put some playdoh inside, I actually did add a few more colors after this photo was taken. Many times I find my 2 year old simply building a tower with the playdoh container! But they can have the freedom to get out the dough as they please as long as they are not on the carpet lol. I put a couple of manipulative “poppers” in the bin, these are fun to just hold or count out! Sometimes I will do the ABC’s while popping one for each letter! The two books will probably change periodically but these are good books that are little one friendly and also interesting about animals! I also put some old shape manipulatives we had from the past in there. I feel like offering a good variety of little things to hold and play with will keep them entertained for a while! Here’s links for what’s inside this bin:

• Playdoh set from Amazon

• Sensory Poppers

• Various small wooden shapes

• Train Puzzle from Target

• Are You A Bee? By Judy Allen

• Bears by Usborne Books

• Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

These bins will more than likely be ever changing! But as we start off our homeschool year, I am glad my little ones will have something in the mornings to keep their little hands and minds busy while I work with their older brothers! The little ones will also enjoy doing our morning time together with us! What a gift it is to homeschool even with needy little ones and lots of interruptions. Thankful to be able to homeschool my children despite the hard days!