Phew! What a week! The beautiful Canadian spring weather has actually come our way. While that means it is only a degree or two (or three!) it feels like the middle of summer in comparison to the -20’s last week. And with this beautiful weather comes our time outside again. Almost all of our time. Meaning, I need to find a bit of a new routine with writing in this space.
But I promised you this week I would share these quiet time boxes that I have been loving. So I am here now to do just that. These quiet time boxes have been used so frequently and are truly worth their weight in gold to me (well, no, not truly I suppose, but they are very valuable all the same).
We love them so much that I wrote a book outlining Quiet Bins for an entire year for you!
In that book you will find simple, engaging, and gently structured activities just like this weeks Quiet Bins:
We use them during Sam’s rest time in the afternoon, during that crazy period right before dinner, and any time when my little ones are needing a bit of quiet structure. They work really, really well.
I wanted to share how simple these boxes can be, so I thought I would give you an example of our typical boxes in a week.
This week we have 5 boxes, as we generally do. One activity, the rainbow fine motor sensory bin, has been used for 3 weeks in a row now. It’s a real goody. The others are new this week, some a bit of a variation from the boxes last week, and the others brand new.
They are simple, very easy to set up, and great for both my 2 year old and 4 year old.
These are this weeks quiet boxes:
I wrote about the rainbow fine motor sensory bin a few days ago, which you can read here.
My boys love to colour. Since Easter is {kind of} coming up, I printed some Easter egg colouring pages, cut them out into the egg shape, and put them in a bin with some markers. I created my own Printable Easter Eggs recently and thought I would add them here to make it easier for you!
You can grab your Printable Easter Eggs Right here!
Adding in something slightly different from the normal can really add interest to an activity. For this simple quiet box I used file folders instead of paper. Super simple switch, but made the activity far more engaging. I wrote the boys names inside the file folder, and put the folders, stickers, and crayons in the box. I put a few stickers beginning to trace the names, which was my way of suggesting the boys use that box in that way. Sam did trace his name with stickers and then coloured and stickered his folder. Ben coloured and stickered everywhere.
I found a big pack of foam blocks at the Dollar store and popped them into a quiet box with a wash cloth. When we wet the washcloth it can be used almost like glue, holding the foam blocks together. This is a fun one!
The last bin was a favourite of my toddlers, and again super simple. I put in a bunch of pipe cleaners and a plastic basket. That’s it! Ben loved sticking the pipe cleaners in, weaving them through, pulling them out, again, again, and again.
And those are the five for this week. I am switching them up every week or so right now, since they are used so frequently. Simple variations on some, and completely different ones too.
Let me know if you are interested and I am happy to share our next weeks quiet boxes as well.
Hope you are having an early start to spring as well friends!
Thank you for reading!
If you like these ideas, you will LOVE my book: A Year of Educational Quiet Bins: The secret to peaceful days at home with Kids!
I like your quiet boxes and will initiate that type of activity in my Center Time for preschoolers with special needs. I am a preschool teacher and liked your idea of quiet boxes–to remind them to use as a quiet time spot during Center’s as an Investigative Center.
Ms. T.
So glad you find them useful Ms. T, thank you for reading! I hope your students enjoy them as well.
These are awesome! I am a high school teacher so I appreciate any ideas to help me with my little ones!!
So glad you like them Leslea! Hopefully you have a little time to cruise around this space, there are tons of ideas for little ones – almost 300 actually! AND I have a daughter entering the high school scene far too soon, so I may just be messaging you for some help then 😉 Thank you for reading!
LOVE how simple these activities are! It’s easy to get carried away… so than for the inspiration. Also, where are the blue bins from? Sorry if you mentioned it already!
Hi Kristina! Glad you like the bins 🙂 We bought our blue bins from our local Dollar Store … gotta love the dollar store 🙂 Thank you for reading
Please share your weekly quiet boxes for upcoming weeks! I love your ideas!
Wonderful AJ, so glad you do! I have a new round that we are busy with, I will post them this week. Thank you for taking the time to comment!
What great ideas.
When you said you put the ‘u’ in, it took me a while to work out what you were talking about. I’m from Australia and we spell colour the same. I hate auto correct trying to drop the ‘u’!!
Thanks for your lovely ideas! !
Thank you so much Samantha. And I did not know that about Australia! So you spell favourite with a “u” too? Thank you very much for reading and for taking the time to comment.
Love the idea, have been thinking of something like this but had not quite got it right – do u present all 5 boxes each time? Then they choose which box to use?
So glad you like the idea Paula – Quiet Bins have made such a huge difference in our days! I introduce the bins differently depending on the situation. For our normal five quiet bins, my little ones will usually watch me get them ready and I will chat with them about the activities while I do. Then, each time we use them I will give them a choice between two bins. Other times, like if we are going to an appointment or a long car ride, I will make a surprise Quiet Bin and they will only be given that one. It really just depends on your little one. I do talk about how we use these bins in detail in my book, plus it has a whole year of Quiet Bins! You can read all about it here: http://www.HowWeeLearn.com/my-book. Hope this is helpful! Thank you so much for reading.
Wow! VERY CREATIVE IDEAS TO KEEP KIDS ENGAGED AND INTERESTED IN DOING ACTIVITIES THEY CHOOSE AND LIKE.
THE PIPE CLEANERS WEAVING IDEA IS SIMPLY AMAZING!
LOVE YOUR IDEAS
Thank you very much for your kind comment. I am so happy you find these ideas helpful!
Hi Sarah, do you try to get your kids to st with an activity for a certain length of time? Or just until they’re over it?
Hi Danielle! That’s a great question. For rest time, my little ones have alone/independent/quiet time for one hour. They are to be sitting or laying quietly on their beds. They get to choose one or two quiet bins, as well as any other little toys they would like for quiet play. Most of the time they sink into one of the quiet bins and use it for about 20 minutes or so – but sometimes it is far longer! At the dinner time witching hour I have a few quiet bins out on the table for my boys to use should they need a little bit of a focused activity. I hope this answers your question?!
Love these boxes! What a great idea! My little ones will love them! Please continue to share them with me!
So glad you do Joanie – and your not alone! They were so popular I wrote a book full of an entire YEARS worth of Quiet Bins. You can get it in paperback or as an eBook if you are interested: http://www.howweelearn.com/my-book – Thank you for reading!
The ideas are really great….can you please suggest some ideas for my five and a half years old one
Hi Chandrima – I am so happy you like the ideas. We use Quiet Bins every single day with my 6 year old and 3 year old. I have an entire book full of a whole year of Quiet Bin Ideas perfect for little ones who are five and a half. It is available as an eBook and a Print book – you can find out more about it here: http://www.howweelearn.com/my-book/ Thank you very much!
Im a little late seeing these but I will be using them! Great ideas! I will be searching you blog for more ideas.
Wonderful – thank you Stacy!
How long do they usually keep your children entertained on any given day?
Hi Lauren – I use them to help our rhythm, which I chat about a lot in my Quiet Bin books – but in general a bin my little ones are engaged in will hold their attention for 30-40 minutes
Hi Sarah-
I am really enjoying your blog so far, and just got your quiet bins book. Thank you for the awesome ideas!
I’ve been gathering materials for our first go at quiet bins. How would you suggest introducing them for the first time? My son is 3.5 yrs. He also now has a 4month old sister.
Also, do you keep the bins put away except when you pull them out for the kids?
Your responses to the comments in this post have been very helpful, especially how long your kids usually engage with the bins, that you offer 2 choices at a time, and where your kiddos use them, etc.
Thank you again!
Krista
Hi Krista! I am so happy you are enjoying my blog and books – thank you for your kind words. When introducing the bins for the first time, I would make it feel very, very special for your little guy. I would explain that this is very special time just for him, so he gets to use a very special activity. At first (and ongoing if there are tiny parts) keep your little guy in the same room as you, but allow him to explore and play all on his own. You can use a visual timer (there are lots of free apps for this) and tell him that he gets to play all on his own until the timer goes and then you are going to come and check on him to see how his special time is going. The real trick I find is going nice and slow. While the end goal is to have our little ones engaging independently and gaining all those wonderful benefits of a long quiet time, we need to start slow and build.
In the beginning I did put the bins away and pulled them out only for quiet time to keep them very special. Now we keep the bins on a shelf and my kids can use them whenever they like. It is amazing seeing how they recognise when they need a quiet break all on their own. Quiet time is an incredible thing!! Please let me know if I can help in any other way,
Sarah
Hi
Thank you for sharing I have a 2.5 year old and I must say that I am not good at keeping my little one busy we spend way to much time infront of the tv.
She is only sarting to say more words now, I got, I think it is from you the Playing preschool, we are into week 3 this week, I improvise, where she is not ready, also with the reading as I do not have all the books, we are from South Africa and Afrikaans is also our home language but started to do the Play Preschool in English..
I am going to try the quite boxes, for other times as she still naps during the day, just hope I get it right.
She is also in to cutting now she likes to cut the play dough ✂️..
I like reading all the information about how to teach her, implimenting it is my problem.
Thank you again for making it easy.
Be blessed
*Cinty and Lilly
Hi Cinty,
Thank you for writing to me! I am so happy you are enjoying Play into Kindergarten Readiness, my preschool program! It sounds like you are doing wonderful things with your little Lilly. Please remember I am here to help, so if you have any questions I am just an email away!
xo
Sarah