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Activity Bags - Feature Friday for January 26, 2007 Let's join Paula Reetz of Activity Bags today for PRMama's Feature Friday Highlighted Homeschool Business.

Help! How Can I Keep my Preschoolers Busy?

 

Have you ever wondered what to do with your preschoolers while you are schooling your older children?  I have for most of my homeschooling years, which now account for 12 ½ years of my life!  In the summer of 2002 I was thinking about the upcoming school year and wondering how I was going to keep my 3 year old son occupied so he wouldn’t destroy the house while I was busy schooling the older children.  I cried out to the Lord and He impressed upon my heart that I needed to keep him busy.  OK, but how was I going to do that?  I meditated on that idea and spent some time in prayer about it also.

I remembered seeing the idea of putting preschool activities in a zipper-type, gallon-sized bag.  At that time I had 6 kids -- 4 school age, 1 preschooler, and 1 baby.  I had a friend, Sherri, who had 4 kids, 3 of whom were preschoolers!  I called her and told her about the idea and we got to brainstorming.  We found out that we are good at that. J  We came up with some ideas for the preschool activities and decided we would try to get a group of 10 women together so we could do a swap.  We figured that if we each made 1 preschool activity 10 times it would be easier, faster, and more affordable.  Then when we did the swap, we would have a variety of 10 different activities.  Great!  Now, all we had to do was get 4 friends each to agree to it.

I am still amazed at the response!  2 or 3 days later, we had 25 women wanting to participate!!  Oh my, we had to really scramble.  We told everyone to stop telling all their friends, neighbors, and sisters about our project (because that’s what they were doing!).  We had already come up with about 10 activities but now we needed 25!  So, we got together and brainstormed again.  We did come up with the remaining activities while we also had some good girlie time laughing and giggling late into the night.  I’m so glad the Lord put me on this project with my good friend Sherri.  It sure is a lot more fun that way!!

We wrote up the activities into some sort of format so we could communicate exactly what we wanted the activity to look like.  We passed out the instructions.  Each participant was to make their activity 25 times.  Then we got together to do the swap.  We had a blast!  Most of those participants had friends who wanted to participate if we ever did it again, so we started a waiting list.  As the list grew, we realized that we were not the only ones who needed a solution to the preschool dilemma.  Isn’t that just like us homeschoolers to think we are the only ones with such and such a problem?  As we discussed this, we realized that we really should publish our ideas in a book.  That way, more people could make the activities for their preschoolers.

So, during the school year 2002/2003 Sherri’s brain seemed to explode with ideas!  She was always calling me with more preschool activity ideas.  Sometimes, she would have up to 10 ideas at one time.  I came up with some ideas and our children were willing contributors with their own ideas also.  By the summer of 2003 we had 80 more activities written up and enough participants to fill up 4 groups of 20 participants each!  Each swap felt just like Christmas!!  It was so much fun seeing everyone’s activities.

Now, the real work began.  We had our preschoolers test the activities to see if they worked.  During the swaps we conducted, we had collected questionnaires from each participant about the clarity of the instructions, the ease of finding supplies, the cost of supplies, etc.  We went through all those questionnaires and refined our instructions.  Our goal was to keep the cost down to $1 for each activity bag assembled.  Most of the activity bags did, in fact, fall within the $1 budget.  That made us happy.  It was a great deal!  Most of the participants got 20 activity bags for $20 or less.  With the activities tested, instruction sheets refined, and the rest of the book written, it was time to publish!  We did it! Preschool Activities in a Bag Book 1 was published and ready to sell.

Now that we actually had our book published, we realized that we had to become a company in order to sell it!  Yikes.  Neither of us knew quite what to do.  After a lot of phone calls and research, we finally got all the necessary paperwork filed.  We were a business!  Activity Bags, LLC was born. We have learned a lot along the way!  Mostly, we would like to give all the glory to God.  It was His idea and His hand that brought it to pass.  He put us together as a team and we praise Him for that.  Sherri and I make a great team!!  We both have weaknesses that are the other’s strengths.  Well, maybe it would be more accurate to say that one of us has always been willing to tackle whatever needs to be done. J 

OK, so we wrote a book, became a company, now we needed to figure out a way to sell the books.  Sherri contacted the local MOPS groups and we were able to speak at a few MOPS meetings.  We loved sharing our ideas and our book with other moms and selling a few books that way, but we needed a better way to get our book out there.  We assembled some sample activities and packaged them up with a book and sent them off to some prospective retailers.  That was quite a learning experience!  We just figured that since there is a big need for these activities and no other books like it everyone would fall in love with our book and we would sell oodles of them. LOL  It isn’t that simple. Duh, we should have known that. J  We discovered that there is a reason people spend big bucks to market their products.  We didn’t know anything about marketing!  The Lord has been good to us and we now have a few on-line curriculum vendors and a local curriculum/Christian bookstore carrying our book.  We are trusting the Lord to grow our business when and how He desires to do so.

Preschool Activities in a Bag Book 1 (yes, that means there’s 2 more on the way) has instructions for assembling 34 preschool activities that are self-guided and self-correcting.  What that means is that the preschooler can do the activity by himself and know if the activity was done correctly.  These activities were developed so the preschooler could do them with no help from Mom.  They are, of course, enhanced if someone actually sits down and helps the preschooler with the activities.  These activities are fun for the preschoolers, but also educational.  They help develop hand/eye coordination, alphabet and number recognition and order, pencil skills, cutting skills, patterning, sorting, matching and many other skills.  The book also contains step-by-step instructions for conducting a swap, which is the most fun and economical way to assemble the activities.

Preschool Activities in a Bag Book 2 is currently being proofread and edited.  It is getting close to being published.  Book 3 will follow as time allows.

Science Experiments in a Bag is also in the works.  We spent last summer doing swaps to collect science experiments that fit in a gallon-size zipper bag.  Our goal is to have most of the necessary items in the bag for each science experiment.  We are testing each experiment this school year.

Craft Kits in a Bag is also in the works.  We are busy writing up assembly instructions so we can conduct our swaps over the summer. 

Sewing Projects in a Bag is still in the planning stages.

We do not have a timeline for when the other books will be published, unfortunately.  We keep busy with our homes and children and work on business projects as time allows. J  It may take a few years to get them all done, but at least we know we won’t be bored.

You can check out our web-site for more information. www.activitybags.com

 
Paula Reetz

Activity Bags, LLC

www.activitybags.com

"Where fun and education fit in the same bag"

 

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