Tell us an interesting fact or story about your company.

“Sherri and I did not originally intend to start a business.  We were looking for something to occupy our preschoolers while we homeschooled our older children.  We discussed the concept of putting preschool activities in a bag so our preschoolers could do them by themselves.  After some brainstorming, we decided to try to get 8 more women together to do a swap.  We thought we would give each woman the instructions for assembling 1 activity and she would assemble that activity 10 times.  That way we would each get 10 different activities but we would each only assemble one, which would be quicker and less expensive.  We started making phone calls to see if we could even get 8 more women involved, we weren’t sure if we could or not.  After a couple days, we had a total of 25 women who wanted to get involved and we had to put more on a waiting list!  We were overwhelmed by the response.  We realized that we had a solution that many other preschool moms needed so we decided to put our ideas into a book.  That is how Preschool Activities in a Bag was born.

We just recently celebrated the 5th birthday of our company, Activity Bags.  To celebrate, and keep with our “in a bag” theme, we had a “taco salad in a bag” dinner with our families.  We chopped and sorted all the ingredients and put a serving size of each in little baggies.  Each person’s plate, napkin, utensils, and cup were placed in a gallon size bag.  Everyone grabbed a bag with a plate and a small baggie of each ingredient they wanted and assembled their taco salad at their place at the table.  They did have to go back up to the counter to get hot beans and meat because those were not in bags. 

It was so cute because the younger kids could not understand how a company could have a birthday.   All in all, we all had a great time."  

How can your products best benefit the homeschooling community?

"As homeschooling mothers ourselves, Sherri and I designed our books to be used by homeschoolers.  Preschool Activities in a Bag is a great way for preschoolers to stay occupied while Mom homeschools the older children.  The preschool activities are fun and educational.  They help prepare preschoolers for Kindergarten and give them a sense of belonging because they also have their “school” to do right along with their older siblings.  Of course, the same is true even if the preschooler does not have older siblings.  Even though we designed the preschool activities to be self-directing and self-correcting, they are enhanced if someone actually sits down and does the activities with the preschooler.  For example, the preschooler may be able to match the alphabet letters in a simple matching activity, but if Mom sits down with them, they can learn the names of the letters and maybe even the sounds.  We were quite surprised that even our older school age children wanted to do the preschool activities when they were done with their own school work.  So, the preschool activities also serve the purpose of reinforcing skills already learned.  That’s the free bonus.   Science Experiments in a Bag will work great with any science program.  Most of the items needed are included in the bag, so you only need to grab the bag to get started.  You may need to add a few ingredients that are perishable, but they are usually commonly used items around the house.  There are a variety of science experiments to occupy young students learning about the world God created. "

What new items can we expect to see from your company in the next year?

"We are currently working on publishing craft kits, reading games, math games, and travel activities."

Which of your products are you most excited about? 

"We get excited about all our products.   I think though for me, I am most excited about Preschool Activities in a Bag.  We get so many testimonials from happy preschool moms.  There is not another book on the market like ours, so it meets a need that exists in the homeschool community for occupying preschoolers with activities that are both educational and fun.  I find it very rewarding to provide a much needed resource."

How much time does it take to make the bags?  And are they complicated/difficult to make?

"The time required to assemble the bags depends on the activity or experiment being assembled.  It also depends on whether or not you are doing a swap.  Anybody can pick up either preschool book or the science experiment book and begin to assemble the activity/experiment bags for their own children.  That may take some time.  Or, that same person can conduct a swap with 19 other people.  Each person would then assemble the same activity/experiment 20 times.  That would be much quicker than doing 20 different bags.  All in all, each bag, regardless of the type, is fairly quick and simple to assemble.  I think, when we did our swaps to test our different activities (and we did a lot), it took 1 evening to assemble all the bags after we collected all the supplies."

Can the activity bags be reused?

"Yes, the preschool activities can be reused.  In fact, my kids are still (after 6 or 7 years) using our preschool activities.  The science experiments are designed to be done once, so most of those cannot be reused without restocking the supplies."

How long does it take for the children to complete the activities in the activity bags?

"That really depends on what they are doing and their attention span.  We have a preschool activity called “String It”.  Some of my kids can sit for quite a while stringing beads, while other kids do it for a short time and they are done.  We encourage moms to teach the preschoolers how to lengthen their attention span by setting a timer.  For example: when their preschooler first starts to do an activity, you may want to set the timer for 5 minutes and require them to stay with that activity for at least 5 minutes.  You can gradually increase the time to what you think is appropriate for the activity and the preschooler.

The science experiments also vary according to type.  Some can be completed in just a few minutes, while others will have to be observed over the course of a few hours or days.  We have a few experiments that involve growing plants.  That, of course, takes a few days or weeks."

 Thank you Paula and happy 5th birthday to Activity Bags!