A Quiet Bin idea on Friday (These Quiet Bins are to add to my original Quiet Bins book, A Year of Educational Quiet Bins: The secret to peaceful days at home with kids)
Oh I have super exciting news! I have been working and working on a new Quiet Bin book – and it is almost ready. I am predicting next week … but please don’t hold me to that …
I hope you LOVE this one! Here is the concept for the book. Moms and caregivers of little ones are busy. Super busy. No time for hoping around store to store to buy different supplies for quiet bins. So I created this Quiet Bins book! Each of the 30 Quiet Bins use only 9 dollarstore items.
That’s it. Grab those 9 items from the dollarstore and you have everything you need for 30 Quiet Bins.
30 Quiet Bins that will teach your little ones independence, focus and attention, math skills, literacy skills, fine motor skills, strengthen little hands, and so much more.
30 Quiet Bins that will give you quiet, peace, and calm in your days.
I tell you, with every ounce of truth, Quiet Bins have completely transformed my days at home with my busy boys.
But I will save more about that until next week (fingers crossed). And in the meantime I am excited to share with you this Quiet Bin:
Pompom Hockey! My little Ben is a hockey nut. My true blue Canadian boy. Here it is, the hottest of hot outside, and my little guy is still playing hockey.
This Quiet Bin uses 3 of the 9 dollarstore supplies in my soon-to-be-new-book: Pompoms, pipecleaners, and a straw.
The pipecleaner was bent to be the net and Benjamin used the straw to blow pompoms through the net to score (actually, to “SCORE!!!!” – turns out, this Quiet Bin was shy on the quiet)
He worked on oodles of skills too:
- counting his goals
- sorting (by colour and size)
- learning about wind and it’s impact on objects
- independence and focus
I am so excited to introduce you to my new book, and I promise you will be the very first to know as soon as it is officially available (well, right after I squeal to my Mama). And I am also excited to share some of those Quiet Bins from that book with you over the next little while.
AND TA-DA!!!!!! Here it is!
Thank you so much for reading friends – I truly appreciate your support and encouragement in this space.
How do you introduce a quiet bin? Do you demonstrate what to do (at least what you would do) with the materials?
Hi Heather – thanks for your question. I actually have a whole section about this in my new book, as it is one of the things I am asked most frequently. I strongly suggest offering a Quiet Bin to little ones completely open-ended. Let them explore, play, build, in their own ways. They will be practicing and refining skills all on their own – and maybe even inventing big concepts too! After a little while, or if the Quiet Bin begins to lose it’s appeal I will suggest specific activities that I had originally intended that bin for, if they hadn’t figured it out on their own.
Hi Sarah, I just found your blog, and I LOVE the idea of quiet bins. I can’t wait to come back and see the book next week. I have 4-year-old and 2-year-old boys who are wonderful…and crazy…and sometimes I need individual activities that can help them refocus and calm down a bit. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Meg – thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself. Quiet Bins have been sanity savers for me and my boys. I hope they work for you too! My new book is now available and you can check it out here: http://www.HowWeeLearn.com/my-book Do you have a blog too?