Busy Bins

We’ve had yucky illnesses running through out house, like the rest of Minnesota. I don’t know many who are fully healthy right now. But we’ve been very cooped up and the kids are getting bored.

Sometimes desperation leads to creativity!

I wandered the Dollar Tree the other day and found so many great things to make busy bins!

First, I found muffin tins for $1.25 each, glued some colored construction paper in the bottom of the cups and created a color sorting toy! The pom poms were from Target as they didn’t have any at the Dollar Tree. Even the 9 year old loves it!

Next, a couple bags of cheap rice, a bin, and some mini jingle bells and Christmas themed erasers, all from the dollar store! I also found some bright colored measuring cups they can use to dig. The items can easily be changed out when it isn’t Christmas break. This one gets messy with the one year old, but my new stick vacuum (thank you, friend) makes it easy to clean up!

This one is black beans with fairy houses, a little dog toy that included 2 dogs, a dog bed, house, dish, and brush. Then the fake succulents were in little plastic cups for a decoration but I just ripped the succulent out (it was literally just stuck into foam) and now they are bushes! The little blocks were in the craft aisle!

This one is super fun! They had all these super hero and movie characters in the toy aisle. I added some mini blocks and mini storage containers from the kitchen section and the kids love building, stacking, and imagining with the figures.

Hopefully this spurs on some creativity in your house for these cold winter days! The clear bins were at the Dollar store too! All in all, I didn’t spend more than $30 to keep the little ones busy as the older ones do school and the temps drop.