Sometime over the summer, when I was still putting in a lot of babysitting hours, I decided to put together an arts and crafts box. This might sound a little over-ambitious, especially if you are part time, but I promise it's easy and it has made my life easier more than a few times.
First I took stickers and craft items that I already had that weren't organized like construction paper, stickers and scrap booking materials. Then I got a plastic box from target and six smaller boxes to sort my craft items.
Then I bought a few more items that I thought would interest most of the kids I sit for. I liked these foam letters that I also found at Target in the dollar section. I already had some left over letters from an old history project I did in high school. I put them all together in one of the smaller boxes so the kids would have a selection to choose from.
I also wanted to make sure that I had a variety of craft items that everyone would like. I got some sports stickers, some mini-princess stamps, Spongebob stickers and some foam butterfly stickers as well.
When the box is neat and organized it looks like this. I have washable markers in one box, ribbon in another, stickers in a few and tape and glue in the last. In the center I keep one pack of colored construction paper and one pack of white construction paper. I also keep a zip pouch in this box that contains the items I don't really want the kids to handle for safety reasons, like adult scissors etc.
I keep this box in the trunk of my car, so I never forget it when I babysit, and that way I don't have to find a place to store it in my house. It is great to use as an incentive and also great if you need to get the kids involved in an activity so you can prepare a meal for them or simply have a break!
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