Busy Board for Baby!

So the Bug is moving more and will entertain himself for a while so of course, I decided he needed a busy board. He's not quite ready for the crazy pulls and latches ones that I LOVE looking at on Pinterest (can we say 1st birthday???) so I thought and struggled to come up with things that weren't on his sensory board...

The Bug is rather obsessed with wheels so if this was a better quality board, I would have put a wheel on a caster on it but it's cardboard (the side of his tunnel- check back on Monday!) because I'm assuming he will destroy it and I didn't want to spend a lot of money (I didn't spend any but I have an insane amount of random stuff so...) here we go!


I started with a big piece of fabric (left from covering my diaper box shelves) which in hindsight, I might not have done because it slides around too much even glued down.

I wanted this to be a busy board and while he will not likely learn his colors, I liked the idea of putting the paint samples on so that I can talk about the colors with him. Plus- paint samples are always free!!!

He's extremely into shaking so I added some bells on ribbon (they are tied and glued) and a velcro shaker made from an old Gerber baby food container and beads. 

 

In the center, I put a sensory bag with hair gel and beads. It didn't quite work because gravity pulls it all down to the bottom after a little while but it's still fun to move around!

I have quite a collection of wooden spools from my aunt so we created a "wheel" by threading them onto a straw. To attach it and reinforce the straw, I stuck a pipe cleaner in it. They spin great but the Bug really wants to take them off and chew on them... Oh well!

What 7 month old isn't obsessed with untying??? So this ribbon is retied about 30 bizillion times a day BUT he loves it and it was like the easiest part... Maybe not but still super simple!

I'm not expecting him to learn his letters (there are only 4 cuz we were out of E...) but the more he seems them, the better right?!?

Another favorite right now is peek-a-boo but he's still working on object permanence so- I made a peek-a-boo pom- pom! The paper towel tube is glued and taped to the box (I know, hard core...) Then I threaded the pipe cleaner through the pom pom and taped it to the tube. 

So that's it! The Bug is still discovering it and he's having a blast! It's nice to be able to create something that took about an hour but keeps him entertained! It's not the most beautiful thing though my funky duct tape helps but I am well aware this box will not last the year so I didn't want to invest too much!

What would your little one want on their busy board???