Bag of Surprises

What Do You Do With Your Grandchildren?

When I am looking after my grandchildren, I like having something to do or play with them. Maybe a jigsaw, or crafts, stickers and colouring or reading a book. There are lots of things to do and after a morning spent tidying up someone's kitchen, making beds, taking children for exercise and getting their lunch, I am glad to sit down for a bit.

The TV is Too Handy

It's not actually the TV, it's a computer, with access to netflix, etc. The children like watching it, especially the 4-year old but I don't think too much screen time is good for them. Now it's coming into the warmer weather, we can go down to the beach and throw stones or run around in the garden but for rainy days or for a rest, it's nice to have something to do inside for a while, that doesn't include that big screen.

Did You Ever Get Tired of Mess?

My grandchildren have too many toys. Too many teddies, bricks, dolls, you name it, there are too many of them. They have several boxes to put them in but jigsaw pieces are missing, bricks are missing, etc. I got fed up of it, so I got my own Bag of Surprises. It stays in my house and I bring it up with me when I go there and take it away again.

Bag of Surprises

The rules are: any mess in the playroom has to be tidied up before the bag is opened, only one thing out at a time, it has to be put away before anything else comes out.

The "bag" is an artist's A3 satchel. It's waterproof (this is Ireland). I looked at tote bags but they were too expensive. You could use a large shopping bag if you wanted.

I don't allow them to root through the bag, so they do not know exactly what is in there and I don't take everything with me every time. I change things around.

I got some boxes of puzzles but I took the parts out and put them in a ziplock type bag. Things can be seen and the boxes don't get trampled. The bags also take up less room.

I got

crafts: glue sticks and glitter, wooden letters and numbers, wooden spoons, stickers of various kinds, play doh and crayons

books: lots of books in my house, so a few got put in the bag, I can change those round easily. The books are suitable for both ages of children.

Puzzles: jigsaw puzzles suitable for a 2-year old and a 4-year old, matching puzzles, colour learning puzzles.

So Far They Have:

Coloured in wooden letters of their name, put glue and glitter and stickers on a wooden spoon each, played with the colour jigsaw and made birthday cards for daddy. There's no mess at their house (apart from glitter!) and I have plenty of things to do with them. I have wooden number 2s in the bag for tomorrow and we will have a go at getting two of this and two of that and the matching game.

FOPP bagofsurprises childrenstoys

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Image Credit » https://pixabay.com/en/background-children-colorful-kids-1298823/

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