Busy Book - Simple Button Flowers Page

I wanted to incorporate buttons somewhere into my busy book. I saw this simple flower page and thought it was adorable. I've seen much more complex button flower pages, but this one was simple (and therefore quicker) and super cute at the same time. So, I pretty much copied it.

Busy Book / Quiet Book Page - Simple Button Flowers Page

I cut out all the pieces and attached the sun, flower stems, and petals first. Then I sewed on the buttons. The flowers are simple two layer circles. I taught myself how to use the buttonhole feature on my sewing machine (much easier than I expected) and put button holes in the two-layer felt circles. Then I used my pinking shears to jazz up the edges of two of the flowers and finally sewed the edges together with a simple circle.

Busy Book - Simple Lock and Key Page

I originally had grand plans for my lock & key page. I thought about a treasure chest scene or a locked heart scene. In the end, I decided to go for quick and simple since I was trying to get as many pages done as possible before the trip.

Busy Book / Quiet Book Page - Simple Lock & Key Page

I superglued the padlock to one end of a ribbon and then attached the other end to the page. Next I attached the key. Then, I decided to add D-rings to give the children something to attach the padlock to. Simple and done.

Busy Book - Barn and Finger Puppet Animals Page

This page was a little more time intensive than I originally intended, but I'm hoping that the children will really enjoy the finger puppets.

Busy Book / Quiet Book Page - Barn

This is a barn with doors that open to show a stall used to store farm animal finger puppets. I also made five finger puppets - horse, cow, pig, chicken, and duck.

Busy Book - Fasteners Page

Now that our holiday car trip is less than a week away I am trying to finish a few more busy / quiet book pages. I am no longer focusing on perfect, beautiful, or unique. Instead my focus is on relatively quick with good play value in the car.

For those of you who don't know, a busy book (or quiet book) is a homemade book where each page or two-page spread is designed to be an activity.

Earlier in the fall I made several pages, and then abandoned the project for a while. These are the pages I had finished before:

• Shapes Page
• Caterpillar Patterns and Numbers Page
• Phonics Pockets Page
• Underwater Bead Maze Page
• Apple Tree Page
• Chalkboard Two-Page Spread

Busy Book / Quiet Book Fasteners

For this page I bought several types of fasteners at a craft store. I attached straps to the three that didn't come with one and then attached them to the page. Done. I'm hoping this one will interest the children, but I'm afraid that several of these will still be too hard for now.

Busy Book - Chalkboard 2-Page Spread

Busy Book / Quiet Book Chalkboard

This 2-page spread is my favorite so far. On the right is a chalkboard. On the left is two pockets. One contains an eraser I made out of three layers of felt and the other contains a piece of chalk. There are also drawing ideas on the left. There are nine different simple shapes and drawings made of combinations of simple shapes for the children to copy.

Busy Book - Apple Tree Page

Busy Book / Quiet Book Apple Tree Page

One of my goals in making this busy book is to include a wide variety of fine motor activities. One way to do that is to use a wide variety of fasteners.

• The Shape/Color Matching Page uses velcro.
• The Caterpillar Numbers and Patterns Page uses magnets.
• The Underwater Bead Maze Page involves moving beads along string and feeding the beads through loops.

This new page uses hooks and eyes. The apples attach to the tree with hooks and eyes and the children can also choose to put a couple of apples in the basket. It is simple in concept, but provides variety in execution. You could also do this exact same concept using snaps, velcro, magnets, or even buttons.

Busy Book - Underwater Bead Maze Page

I'm very pleased with this one. First I made a background underwater scene. Then I made three interactive tracks.

The first track is for the plane. The plane moves from right to left getting higher in the sky at it goes. When it hits the cloud it has a little trouble and someone (either Michael or Ava) needs to help the pilot get through the cloud (by threading the bead through the loop).

The second track is for the boat. The boat begins by moving from left to right along the top of the water. Each time it hits a wave it needs help. After it hits the third wave it sinks down to the ocean floor.

The third track is for a fish. He starts at the bottom in his home by the coral before going on a treasure hunt. He works his way up to the top of the underwater mountain where he finds a treasure chest.

Here are the beads in their beginning positions:

And here they are in their final positions:

Busy Book - Phonics Pockets Page

I have finished a third page for the busy book. This page has six beads on strings. There is a boat, cat, fish, lion, plane, and zebra. There are six pockets. Each pocket is labeled with the first letter of one of the beads. Michael will be able to match each bead with the corresponding pocket. Ava will probably just hide the beads at random and use the page as more of a peek-a-boo page than as a phonics page.

Busy Book - Caterpillar Page (Numbers and Patterns)

Here is the second page I've made for a busy book. It is a caterpillar. Each segment of the caterpillar's body has a number (1-8). I've made the odd numbers brown and the even numbers purple. They attach with magnets.

When Michael uses the book I would expect him to put the numbers in order. I may also try to teach him the concept of even and odd numbers. When Ava uses the book she may put them on in any order that pleases her, or she could practice patterns. She might do one purple then one brown, two purples and two browns, or all four purples then all four browns for example. I may encourage Michael to play with patterns too.

Here are some brief comments on how I made the page:

1. I used the sewing machine to make the numbers. I did the number one and the number two with a zigzag stitch, but quickly discovered that my skills were not up to making a 3 with a zigzag stitch. So I switched to something easier. It looked fine, but I was not going to go back and re-do the first two numbers because I am simply not that much of a perfectionist.
2. Underneath the white circles I've hidden two paper clips. This is what the magnets are attracted to that makes the caterpillar work.
3. The magnets are sewn in between two layers of felt to make the number circles. Before attaching the two layers I sewed the number on the top circle and tacked the magnet down on the bottom circle so it wouldn't slide around when I was sewing the circle together.

Busy Book - Shapes Page

As I was browsing the web searching for fleece hat patterns I found some patterns and examples of busy books. Busy books are homemade activity books made out of cloth - usually felt. Some people make busy books entirely of pages that are quiet when the child plays with them and then they call them quiet books. They are to entertain a child when you need them to be quiet (at church, in a waiting room, etc...). Here is an example of a completed busy book.

We travel for the holidays on extended car trips and I thought it would be fun to make some busy books to keep the children entertained during the car ride. I finished my first page today. It is a simple shape matching page using velcro to attach the pieces. I'm pretty pleased at how my first attempt turned out.

If I get it done tomorrow I'll show you the second page I'm working on. It uses magnets and focuses on numbers and patterns.