A few times a week while my daughter sleeps, my son asks to do his ‘special games.’ Some might call them quiet boxes or activity bags. I keep a plastic tub on a high shelf and we make a production of getting it down, choosing a few activities that I have ready in zippered bags, and getting settled on the floor to have a look.

Yesterday he chose these 3 bags:

Colour Wheel Peg Match – simply cut a circle of cardboard, divide it into sections with a ruler and a marker, a draw coloured dots on the wheel and on wooden pegs, so that Small Fry can peg the pegs with their coloured dots onto the wheel section with the matching colour.

Colour Matching Paperclips – lay out paint chips in bright colours, and place paperclips of the matching colour onto each one (to set this up I bought the paperclips in bright colours first, and then got the paint chips that matched afterwards).

Number Matching – finding the right number for each card and placing it in the correct spot. Draw the number of dots on the card, and trace an outline of the number for them to place plastic or wooden numbers on. I used cheap magnets for this, and after we finish with the cards we put them on the fridge in the right order.

All 3 activities cost probably $5 to make, using cheap numbers, paperclips and wooden pegs from the $2 shop, free paint chips from the hardware, and about 15 minutes of my time.

So good for keeping him busy, and quiet (!) so his sister can have a good sleep. And he loves showing mum how clever he is in our one-on-one moments together. Happy heart 🙂