Sibling Activity Baskets: Crafting Fun at Your Nesting Party -

Check out these 15+ ideas for sibling activity baskets you can create at a nesting party! The goal of a sibling activity basket is to provide engaging tasks for older siblings to enjoy as they welcome a new baby into their home. These baskets make it easy for mom to grab meaningful activities for the older kids when she needs to feed or care for the baby.

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Visual of a basket filled with 8 activities

What is a nesting party?

When we welcomed our third baby to the family, a group of friends threw me a nesting party. If you have never heard of a nesting party before, it is when a group of family and friends help with the practical tasks before a baby arrives. Such as postpartum freezer meals and organizing the nursery.

Looking for more information on a nesting party? We were featured on the Rent. blog! Check out the recent article we were quoted in: What is a Nesting Party? How to Host and How to Show Up.

One super thoughtful task they completed was assembling an activity basket for my two older children. The basket included about eight activities, which I was able to stash away until after the baby arrived.

I can’t rave enough about how wonderful the preplanned, educational, and fun activities were. The best part? They required very little effort to put together. When it was time to feed the baby, I could easily grab one or two activities, and my older kids happily played with them while I tended to the needs of our newest addition.

What to include in a sibling activity basket

Okay, let’s break down exactly what was included and lots of other ideas I have also come up with!

Label Dot Activities: Grab a set of these label dots. Draw lines onto pieces of paper. The child can peel the stickers off and place onto the lines and shapes. You can also draw different colored shapes and have them match the colored dot to the colored shape. This was my children’s FAVORITE one! It seems so simple, but they loved it. My oldest started drawing his own lines.

child placing colored label dots inside of correct colored shape

Felt and crazy straws: Cut your felt pieces into small shapes (triangles, circles, squares, rectangles, etc). Cut 1-3 slits in each piece of felt. Thread it onto curvy straws. This activity is fun for the kids and has several benefits including building fine motor skills.

Kids threading felt shapes onto curvy straws

Magnet Tile Patterns: If you own a set of magnet tiles , you can trace different patterns onto construction paper. This is a fun way to introduce a new way to play with something you already have on hand.

magnetic tile patterns drawn out on paper for a child to match the magnet tiles to

Magnetic tile patterns drawn out on paper to match them to

Popsicle stick sorting: This activity involves the child matching the colored stick to the correct color at the top of the container. My friends made a “homemade” version of this for my kids. They purchased colored popsicle sticks and used a recycled large yogurt tub. On top of the yogurt tub, they colored a small section of red, blue, green, and yellow and cut a small hole for the popsicle stick to slide through.

Water WOW! Pads: These mess free drawing pads are incredible! The water produces color on the picture and when it dries it is ready for your little one to color again. These are a great compact and reusable gift.

Water wow activity book for kids to use while traveling

Wax Craft Sticks: Did you ever play with these as a kid? The possibilities are endless with the creations you can make.

Wiki sticks on a paper plate are an easy mess free activity for kids while traveling

Busy Boards have several different activities included in them. There are pages of velcro shapes, numbers, and fidget gears. We take these on road trips as well!

The inside of a busy board with different fidget items

Play-doh and play-doh accessories: This is a great set as it includes toys and four Play-doh cans. It also comes with a bag for storage.

Lego sets: While there are big Lego sets, we have found great fun in the smaller and more affordable Lego kits. I have a son who is Lego obsessed and will build and re-build a set multiple times a day.

Bug catcher kit: If the child loves the outdoors – this is a fun kit!

Activity Maze Books: A great educational activity to keep minds and hands busy. With a pencil or crayon, these mazes can keep an older child engaged and challenged.

Sticker books: The child can place different stickers onto various background settings. The one I linked to is safari animal themed!

Mess Free Markers: The beauty of mess free markers is they only appear on the paper they come with. This minimizes the risk of young children coloring on things they shouldn’t. I linked a packet of markers and coloring pages that are Bluey themed.

Puzzles: I would recommend puzzles for older children as younger ones may require a lot more assistance with them and all the pieces may end up causing a mess.

Doodle boards: These are mess free and my kids love them!

Design your own bracelets: A set of snap bracelets and glitter stickers that go on them.

I recommend to bring all the materials to the nesting party. If the activities you have chosen require preparation (magnet tile patterns, label dot activities, popsicle stick sorting) then yes, have someone prepare them. The goal would be that the parents can easily grab the activity and hand it to the child during the busy postpartum phase.

Some factors to consider are: budget, how many siblings there are, and age of the siblings. You do not have to break the bank on these baskets! If your budget is small look for things around your own home and you may already have the materials needed. Oftentimes kids are most excited by something that is simply NEW. If there are several siblings you may consider getting less items, but duplicates of the same things. Such as 2 Water WOW! Pads so each sibling has one.

Be mindful of the age of the child and what they will require help with. Try to not include more detailed crafts that would require a parents help. I would also avoid messy activities such as glitter or kinetic sand. Lastly, I would not include activities with a lot of small parts if the siblings are young. Older kids would do well with small parts like beads for making friendship bracelets or Legos, but I would avoid them for younger kids (ages 4 and below).

I hope you found helpful suggestions here to put together a sibling activity basket at a nesting party! Let me know if you put one together in the comments and what you used!