As my kids are getting older I’ve been putting together activity baskets and bins with supplies for ready-to-make activities. I put these kits together for all of us : they encourage creativity, independence, and critical thinking. The kids can grab a bin, do an activity or two or three, put everything back in the bin and move on to something else. Of course, a closet or drawer with oodles of activities available works too, but I find that when they have a ‘kit’ like this they are more inclined to be all-in to that activity for awhile. It’s easy for them to put it away and then they can move on to something else. These are my favorite bins (linked below) for this purpose because they come in two sizes and stackable with the lids.

One very popular activity bin is our science bin – a handful of supplies, a great science book and the kit is ready for creativity. Come see what I put in the bin (all the links are at the bottom of the post in the shop the post images).

  • science book
  • ingredients for slime (baking soda, glue, saline solution, food coloring)
  • science tools – beakers, goggles, funnel, test tubes, eye dropper
  • scoops, pinchers
  • water beads (those teeny tiny dots are magic for kids 3+ (with supervision) – add water to them and they grow. I put them in a large food storage container and the kids will scoop, measure, and play with them forever.

My older kids (upper elementary) are more into finding science experiments in the book and making them and my little guy (pre-k) will play with the science supplies, water, water beads, and colored water for hours.

If you like this idea, you can put together other kits like this – here are some ideas to get you started:

  • play-doh kit
  • slime kit
  • sewing kit
  • knitting + crochet kit
  • drawing kit
  • scratch-art kit
  • perler beads kit

Come see my favorite mom shortcuts in this post: