Little fingers and big projects

I have little kids and am a stay at home mom. I am constantly trying to find things to keep an 18 month old and a 4 year old entertained. Preferably cheaply. They have toys, oh boy they have toys, but I find that they tend to blow through toys fast. New toys are exciting and fun and played hard with, for about 2 or 3 days and then they lose their appeal. I have a toy cycle. Not all of the toys are out at all times. Things go away and reappear and become new and exciting again. This does work well for the most part, but sometimes when it is winter and it has been -30 for weeks and we have had the plague and haven't left the house things become a little stale and I go scouring for new ideas.



I found this little gem awhile ago on Pinterest and my kids have loved it.
It does require a little bit of planning (or buying bread/milk tags) but was free and fun.
I started collecting the bread tags off of english muffins, bread, buns, sometimes potatoes or carrots (milk too if you live in an area with bagged milk) when b was only a few months old. I finally had enough of a stash (and felt confident enough that b wouldn't immediately put them in her mouth) to let them play with it.




It is literally just a clean, empty yogurt or sour cream tub with a hole in the lid and the object is to have the kids pick them up one at a time and put the bread ties back into the container. Not exactly earth shattering rocket science here, but it is a game both of the kids really like. b actually sat there for about 25 minutes picking the ties up, putting them into the tub and requesting to dump it out and start again and again!