Looking for a new way to entertain your toddler? Need a creative way to fill the time but don’t want to do screen time? Consider making a toddler busy binder as it can help educate and entertain them for an endless amount of time. I have gathered tips, starter printouts all in one place for you as I walk you through my easy guide to making your own toddler busy binder. My favorite part of making my own versus purchasing one, is that I get to choose what he learns at appropriate ages and can continuously update it as he progresses. We have had ours for two years now and counting!
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Items You Will Need
- Laminator and Laminating Pouches
- 3 Ring Binder
- 3 Hole Punch
- Age Appropriate Workbook(s)
- Velcro Adhesive Dots
- Scissors
- Internet Connection/Printer (I use my public library for all printing needs)
Our custom busy binder has provided much needed entertainment while on long road trips, and whenever we visited friends and families as it functions like another toy. My favorite website to use for free printables is Tot Schooling, they provide educational and fun content for toddlers-kindergarten. I also purchased a couple age appropriate workbooks to add in more variety.
Now in order put your own busy binder together, you will first need to gather all the pages you want to start with, print them all out and get ready to spend some time laminating. The initial process was about an hour to laminate and cut everything as needed. I highly recommend laminating every single page, to ensure it survives in the hands of young children. Laminated pages also provides the ability to practice scribbling/writing with dry-erase markers down the road. Once your starter pages have been laminated, hole punch them and insert into binder. Some pages such as shapes or color matching, will require the velcro dots and cutting shapes to size, apply one Velcro piece to the base page and the opposite piece of the velcro to the connecting item. As time passes, or pages become irrelevant (mastered the skill), go ahead and print out some more and laminate, or use the previously mentioned workbooks. Adding pages usually takes less than 5 minutes. My toddler has already learned colors, shapes, solar system, tools, etc… thanks to his personal binder 🙂
Starter Printables from Tot Schooling (Toddlers)
- Fruit Color Matching for Toddlers
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear Color Matching
- Ice Cream Shape Matching
- Ten Apples Up On Top: Counting
- School Bus Name Recognition
- Pets and Their Homes Matching
- World Continents Matching
- Occupations and Vehicles Matching
Starter Printables from Tot Schooling (Preschool)
- Alphabet Letter Hunt
- Cookie Jar Letter Sounds Matching
- Name Tracing
- Shape Tracing
- Halloween Picture and Word Tracing
- Thanksgiving Picture and Word Tracing
- Christmas Picture and Word Tracing
- Nursery Rhymes Sequencing
Bonus
Potty Training Progress and Reward Charts along with my blog on how to go into the potty training journey, which you can find here.
Conclusion
Consider making a toddler busy binder to help pass the time with a little fun, pro tip, hide the education in the fun! My easy guide to making your own toddler busy binder will get you started and keep the imagination flowing so you can add your own personality to it for your little own to enjoy, years to come. The initial setup does take about an hour, but once you have it set up, the process to add is less than five minutes. Let it grow with your child and never have a bored toddler on long road trips!
