Busy Bee

This is a favorite quiet book page.  I love how it turned out and my toddler spends a lot of time with this page.

Busy Bee quiet book page.  Practice counting, number recognition, and fine motor skills.  Busy book ideas at RoseBottomDiapers.com

This is another double width page and there are several skills packed into this quiet book page.  Each flower has a number and a loop.  The bee flies from flower to flower (maybe in numeric order, maybe not depending on the child’s age) with the final number being the beehive which has an opening for the bee to go in.  This page is great for working on numbers and also for working on the ability to get the bee through the loop.  (Also, after the bee has flown through every flower there is the added challenge of figuring out how to undo everything without getting things more tangled.  This often resulted in a plea for Mommy’s help at first, but my toddler is learning how to do this too.)

Busy Bee quiet book page.  Practice counting, number recognition, and fine motor skills.  Busy book ideas at RoseBottomDiapers.comI kept things easy with this one.  Instead of sewing around the perimeter of each flower I just sewed the circumference of the center of each flower.  It was enough to hold the flower in place, was quicker this way, and the loose flower petals can be fun to play with.  Remember to sew the ribbon down before doing the center of the flower.  I made my ribbon loops different lengths to give variety and more practice with putting the bee through a smaller opening.  I also gave myself a generous amount of ribbon below the center of each flower to give added protection against it ever coming being pulled out in the future.  I sewed the ribbon in place before doing the center felt piece and then just held it out of the way when sewing the center piece on.  The numbers were sewn on last.

The bee is made of with double layers of felt.  Remember to put the end of the ribbon between the two layers before sewing the layers together. Give yourself enough ribbon to allow the bee to easily travel to all the flowers, but not too much extra or you run the risk of it becoming tangled more easily.  Sew the other end of the ribbon under the center piece of flower #1.

No template was used for this one.  For the bee I just cut an oval for the body and a circle for the head.  Then I took scraps from black felt and added stripes.  One wing is sewed between the two yellow layers and the other is on top.  I sewed the face freehand with the sewing machine, hoping I liked the result and knowing there was a seam ripper if needed.

The background fabric was scrap fabric from a quilt.  It was too small for a page, but I really wanted to use it so I added a border to the top and bottom.  Buy new fabric or find a way to use what you have.  The great thing about these books is that there is lots of room for flexibility to make it the way that will work well for you.