Doodlebug Busy Bags January 2016 Subscription Box Review

Doodlebug Busy Bags is a monthly subscription service that sends fun seasonal crafts to my home. Each Doodlebug Busy Bag contains 4-8 crafts that help my son develop his fine motor skills, creativity and confidence. This subscription service is run by Kidable Adventures, who also produces the Little Thinker Box. My son loves the themes of the easy-to-assemble crafts, and I appreciate the tips contained on the detailed instruction sheets. New subscribers receive a nice big red bag, perfect for holding lots of beautiful Doodlebug crafts.

Every box contains neatly organized bagged crafts along with any other supplies that might be required, such as glue dots and magnets. A general overview of all the crafts along with color pictures of the finished crafts is provided as well.

This month’s theme was Winter! Each craft comes in individual bags, which is nice, as the bags keep each craft’s parts contained.

The seven crafts plus bonus activity sheet in this Winter collection all piqued my son’s interest. He chose the tissue snowman to start.

If we were able to go back and do the crafts again, I would have held off on this one until the end. The best directions were on the back of the overview sheet, a detail I didn’t realize until my son got stuck. I went back to try to help him remedy the situation, but by that point, he had lost his sense of empowerment. Also, wrapping the tissue paper around the end of an eraser and then pressing it onto the snowman using the eraser proved a bit difficult. Still, the (one-eyed) snowman looked pretty cute once he was finished.

Next, my son tackled the Silly Snowflake Magnet.

He enjoyed tearing off the backings to individual pieces, and I appreciated how the craft encouraged development of his fine motor skills. He was especially intrigued by the magnet on the back, and was excited to learn he could put his completed craft on our refrigerator door.

Next up was the magnetic smiley face.

This was by far the easiest, most straight forward of the crafts. It would have been the perfect craft to start with. Although the directions include four possible faces, we only had the components for one of the four on hand.

Another magnet for our refrigerator! Yay! Wanting to take a break from magnets for a short while, my son decided to tackle the Wooden Beaded Snowman Necklace next.

As he strung beads from each side, we talked about the concept of fair share; after stringing the snowman face, he strung beads from alternating sides of the string until he had used up all the beads.

He was pretty pleased with the end result.

I suppose the appeal of the magnets was too much to resist any longer: he had to do the penguin magnet next!

My son was especially intrigued by the thermometer. He asked what it did, and we were able to discuss the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Here’s how my refrigerator looked after my son completed the magnet crafts:

So cute! But we weren’t done! My son still had an ornament, a sand project and an activity sheet to go!

Like the necklace before it, this craft emphasized the concept of fair share. Older children might appreciate a hands-on application of division. This snowflake ornament was an attractive, straight-forward way to promote fine motor skills. We’ll be sure to save it to put on our Christmas tree next year.

A bit tired, the enclosed activity sheet provided a nice reprieve for both my son and me: he got to color, find matches, locate penguins and complete a counting game while I got to do some prep work in the kitchen.

Once he’s older, I’m sure he’ll appreciate the word games.

My son decided to save the most exciting for last: the sand craft.

The directions came with a warning of sorts: protect your work area. I’m glad we saved this one for last! I appreciated how this activity encourages the children to think ahead about all the places on the board where they would like to use a particular color. The final result was pretty attractive.

All told, my son and I had another fun crafty day thanks to Doodlebug Busy Bags. We can’t wait to receive next month’s Valentine’s Day-themed Doodlebug Busy Bag!

Visit DoodleBug Busy Bags to subscribe or find out more!