Activity Bags

“Where Fun and Education fit in the same bag.”

• Travel Activities in a Binder – e-book 1
• Designed for elementary age children
• Over 40 activities included
• $15.00 available as an e-book

• Math Games In a Bag
• Designed for elementary age children
• 33 games with instructions

• $15.00 available as an e-book

About  the Product

Activity Bags began by the creativity of two ladies, Sherri MacLean and Paula Reetz. Both of these ladies homeschool their children. In 2002, Paula was wondering how to keep her 3 year old busy during the older kids school, while also having fun and learning. She called her friend, Sherri, and they got together and brainstormed ideas. From this small meeting of two mothers, Activity Bags came about and has been growing ever since.

Not only did they come up with the idea of creating bags filled with fun, educational activities, they also figured out how to create a swap with other mothers.  These swaps quickly became very popular.

A swap occurs when one person takes the lead, distributes the instructions, and sets a date to meet for the exchange. Then each mother gets instructions on how to create one activity. They make this activity as many times as they have participating in the swap. On Swap Day, everybody brings the activity they prepared. Participants will then exchange their bags so each person participating will go home with many different activity bags.

ClarkClan Experiences

We were the happy to be able to review the e-book Travel Activities in a Binder as well as Math Games in a Bag. I was given opportunity to choose which books to review. I chose the travel activities e-book because we tend to spend quite a bit of time in the car. I thought the math games would be a fun way to review basic math facts.

When I received the downloads for the e-books, I quickly downloaded them.  I encountered  no problems while downloading and saving to my computer. Then I set out to read the e-books and see what these books were all about.

I first checked out the Travel Activities in a Binder book. This e-book contains instructions and printable pages for over 40 activities. It was not hard to follow the instructions and, using colored cardstock, print out the various activities. Then I took an extra binder we had on hand, as well plastic sheet protectors. It took me about an hour to print and put together the activity book. I added the square of felt called for to erase the pages, two dry erase markers and two dice. Then the book was complete

I gave the book to Rebekah (9) the next day when she had to wait by herself at bell choir rehearsal. The book was a big hit instantly. She loved the variety of activities and spent the entire hour trying new things. Then I took the book back, and kept it for the next time we had to wait somewhere.

Ben (10) became so interested in what Rebekah  was doing that he quickly joined in most of the activities and liked them just as much as Rebekah. They loved to play “ad libs” and hangman together. The wide variety of activities was a pleasant surprise. There were, some two person games, some single games, scavenger hunts, mazes, road sign crosswords, blindfold drawing and many more activities to keep this book from getting boring.

Math Activities in a Bag also provided a much needed respite from the ordinary math drill. I made up about 4 of the 33 bags to choose from. We played a multiplication toss game with dice and beads. It also helped Rebekah solidify her math facts using another of the games made with math fact triangles. When these bags have served their purpose,  I  plan on putting together new bags to keep things fresh and fun.

Recommendation

I would whole heartedly recommend these e-books. They were simple, easy to use and easy to put together. Rebekah and Ben have really enjoyed using both the travel binder and the bag games. The bag games gave them a little bit of fun before we started our regular math for the day.  The travel binder took about an hour to print and put together, but has been well –used. They take it along on long car trips and other times they need a quiet activity while I am at a meeting.

I did not hold a swap, but read through how it is done. It looks fairly straightforward and easy to put together. If you are part of a co-op or have many homeschooling friends, a swap would be a great way to get all the activities with minimal effort on each participants part.

Many of my Schoolhouse Review Crew members were able to review many different Activity Bags books. Visit the Crew Blog to read what they had to say about these books.

Disclaimer: As an Independent contractor for The Old Schoolhouse and member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received two e-books, Travel Activities in a Binder and Math Games in a Bag, for free from Activity Bags in exchange for my honest review of their product. All opinions given are mine and/or my children’s.