How to Make Seek and Find a Quiet Activity

You will want to gather some supplies first. You will need a large package of beads all the same color, a quart size reclosable bag, hole punch, sewing machine, heavy cardstock, key ring, white paper, scissors, stickers, about thirty to forty small interesting objects. Some ideas for these objects are; a marble, penny, letter beads, small plastic animals, small erasers shaped as different objects, foam shapes, paperclips, small wood objects, small souvenirs, scrapbooking embellishments and anything else you can think of.

Put the small objects and the beads into the bag. Make some more interesting items for your child to find by putting stickers on the white paper and cutting out around the stickers. By the time you are done you should have around sixty interesting objects in the bag.

Seal the bag. Set up your sewing machine to do a zigzag stitch. Sew a square into the bag being careful to make sure that all the beads and items are inside the square. Use your scissors to cut off the excess plastic. Leave some extra plastic in the upper right hand corner, enough to punch a hole in it. The bag should hold up for a long time, but it will not last forever. When it starts to look as if it might tear, cut it open pour the items into a new bag and sew a new one. While you are creating a new one you may even take to the opportunity to add a few new objects.

Use the heavy cardstock to write down items for your child to try and find. Like a hide and seek game. You will want to keep the paper at about a note card size so that it is easy to move around while your child is playing. If you have younger children who can't yet read you may want to use pictures, or not worry about it at all and just let them look at all the fun items. Punch a hole in the upper right hand corner where you left extra space. Slide the key ring onto the bag. Punch a hole in the hide and seek list and slide it onto the key ring.

If you have children who are old enough to read and write you may want to include a few blank cards so that they can set up games for each other. For even older children you can challenge them to make up a story, and at certain points the first item that they find has to somehow be added to the story. These seek and find activities are perfect for car trips, airplane rides, church meetings, and any other time when you need to keep a child occupied for a long period of time. You can also create themed seek and finds for boys or girls, or if a child has a particular interest such as outer space, dinosaurs, princesses or fairy tales.