August Doodlebug Busy Bags Subscription Review

DoodleBug Busy Bags is always full of fun and easy seasonal crafts and my kids love it.  This is a kids’ subscription from Kidable Adventures, who also produces the Little Thinker Box . We love this subscription because it’s just fun and the kids adore the holiday/themed and easy to assemble crafts.

Every box comes with the bagged up crafts, any supplies you might need like glue dots and magnets, and a simple instruction sheet.

The instruction sheet tells you what crafts to use the extra supplies on and any tips! The August Bag was Zoo and the sheet had nice guided questions to ask the kids while they are crafting.  New subscribers also receive a nice big red bag to keep everything in too.

There were 7 crafts and activities in this month’s bag, plus 2 add ons! The bag comes with all the extras you need to complete the included crafts, including stuff like glue dots.  The crafts with little pieces come in individual bags, so they don’t get commingled or have parts lost — and the more complex (relative term) crafts have individual instruction sheets within their bags.

Animal Finger Puppets:  The kids knew what to do with these.  Two animals come in each Doodlebug Busy Bag — we got the monkey and the elephant.  They can be worn as puppets, but they also sit up as mini-figurines.

Zoo Animal Necklace Craft Kit:  They simple symmetrical beading craft makes a cute pendant necklace — ours was an elephant.  Necklaces usually require an adult to knot the string, but the stringing itself is great for little hands.

Paper Plate Zoo Animal Craft Kit:  The paper plate head was kindly packed in the outer envelope, so it wasn’t folded up when it arrived.  An instruction gives advice on placement of the elephant parts (if needed), and the peel off adhesive comes already attached to the pieces.

Mini Zoo Animal Coloring Book Set:  Crayons are provided in case you don’t have any at hand.  The illustrations are accompanied by animal names, so it is a great tool for learning or reinforcing names, spelling, letters, etc.  This is a great item to save in a travel bag (not the car, though, lest the crayons melt!) to break out when you need a quiet keep busy activity for kids at a restaurant, church (just have them draw a matching animal on the opposing page), etc.

Zoo Animal Slap Bracelet:  I prefer to think of these as easy application bracelets instead of slap bracelets, because the kids always complain when they are actually slapped onto their wrists.

Zoo Animal Sticker Sheet:  A variety of goofy parts are included to make your own customized creature.

Animal Mask:  This comes pre-assembled and ready to go.  Warning, this may slow the crafting down, since your kid will insist on wearing it while attempting to complete the other projects!

Eric Carle’s 1-2-3 to the Zoo Number Craft Kit:  The renowned children’s book author/illustrator created the pictures for this fun counting activity.  The kids assemble the cars of the train, counting off increasing numbers of each successive animal.

Zoo Animal Magnet Craft Kit:  Easy to assemble animal (again, we received an elephant) is light foam, so it is easily supported by the included stick-on magnet.

Trying out three items at once!

Putting together the train.  This one is nice, because you can enjoy Eric Carle’s watercolor illustrations while your kids get some number practice in.

The completed crafts.  Doodlebug Busy Bags are great for both kids and parents.  The kids love the simple projects and the themes of each bag.  Parents like that the individual crafts are segregated with their own instructions and pieces, so you have the option of tucking some away for later or doing a marathon session.  Also, and this is key, the crafts are never messy, and you only end up with the bags, peel-offs from the decals, and the perimeter foam from pop-outs to throw away.

Visit Doodlebug Busy Bags to find out more or to subscribe!