Kids Busy Time Activities

I often get asked, what do your kids do while you are working on projects and for fun? The answer is they love to craft, play, and use their imaginations. Do you know where we find the best crafts and play toys … JOANN! Now I know what you are thinking, but JOANN isn’t just your grandmother’s fabric store, they seriously have everything you need to craft and all the things for your kids too including kits filled with projects, science experiments, sewing, every kind of craft and toys! I will be sharing all our favorite kids busy time activities that are all screen free in this post and yes we finally have our library ladder HERE!

We just had a snow week, and holidays… but I had projects planned and as much as the kids love to use their imagination they love to craft and play too so we headed to JOANN and thankfully it was open due to the snow ( remember Seattle and we never get it, when we do everything closes). James and I went on date night and Koen joined us and was on a mission to pick up some fun new things for them to do!

I share on my stories often how much they love these Rock and Gem Dig kits, they keep them busy and their excitement when they find their treasures are the best! ( Just be warned they are messy but SO worth it!) The kids have been wanting a telescope so James picked up this Smithsonian 30x Telescope and they can’t wait to use it!

The kids have been into crystal mining and this kit looks like so much fun a little mix of the digging and crystals.

When I was at JOANN I picked up these ball jars, and some craft supplies to go in them. The boys wanted to have their own coloring station in their room and it’s such an easy DIY, and it not only is cute but organized! You can get super creative and add a label I just wanted to go for simple this time.

One of the things all my kids enjoy are perler beads, and honestly it just makes my day when they do these because it reminds me when I was little. Getting them at JOANN is just the icing on the cake, because growing up I would go to the BIG JOANN in Hudson, Ohio so its really special.

We picked up some new perler bead packs, and while they love all of them they are all wanting to do the cute little deer first! I didn’t share in this photo, but one thing they love besides the perler bead holders in this picture is they sell a little bead sweeper that cleans them all up! Its a must have and will keep the little ones busy!

Ollie wanted to get some more accessories for his play kitchen at JOANN they have everything you need and more! Really he had such a hard time picking but ended up with this ice cream set and a diner set, it was torture waiting for his siblings to get home to play!

Look how cute this diner set is made by Melissa & Doug! It has the apron, Menu, bill, diner food, coffee pot, shake, and even a cup that can look like coffee or hot cocoa. You can also see part of the ice cream set, it is so awesome how the scoop really works – be ready to be asked what flavor you want 1,000,000+ times and some sad little boys that realized their brother wasn’t offering real ice cream.

I thought Zoe would outgrow the kitchen, and I am sure glad she hasn’t because I love watching these two play.

Ollie loves to put the little apron on and serve up everyone.

This is the coffee pot and cup I was talking about before, he is pouring some hot cocoa with marshmallows.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the activities my kids enjoy, I honestly get asked more times than I can count what they do when we are working on projects so I hope this gives you some ideas. I will share below all the sources, but I wanted to share a few of the other things they love at JOANN and then some wishlist items! Don’t forget JOANN when getting birthday gifts, I always pick up some extra and they even have toys too!

Some other Favorites :
(CLICK ON EACH PHOTO FOR A LINK)