Have you ever just sat your kids in front of the TV just so you can get dinner cooked? I do! The TV was a life saver for my first child… Not so much for my little boy. He is sweetest little boy! I promise! I love him to pieces! There’s just one tiny issue- he is SO curious! He has absolutely no interest in any kind of screen. He doesn’t care for stuffed animals or figurines. He wants to figure out how things work. So, while I’m cooking in the kitchen, he’s right there next to me, opening up every drawer and cabinet, pulling things out left and right. It drives me nuts! Haha!

So for Christmas, I decided I was going to make my son a busy board. One that I could prop up next to the kitchen and he could switch between each thingamabober and doo-hickey and see how each thing works. This is how it turned out:

Busy Board Size: 2′ x 2′ with 1/2″ width

What is on my busy board:

1 Handle

1 Zipper

2 Light Switches (The ones that don’t get drilled into a wall)

5 Push Lights (I got mine here)

1 Tailor’s Tape

1 Spring Door Stopper

1 Badge Pull (I added a graphic to make him look like a secret spy! Haha!)

3 Adjustable Command Hooks

1 Door Chain Lock

1 Calculator

1 Fidget Spinner

1 Master Lock

1 Barrel Slide Bolt

1 Castor Wheel

1 Wipes Lid (Yeah, I got creative and used the lid from the baby wipes!)

1 T-Hinge

1 Hinge with Lock

1 Used Keyboard

What You Need:

Sand Paper

Spray Paint (If you want the base of the board to look nice)

Drill

Drill Bit

Gorilla Glue

Assortment of screws and bolts if the hardware doesn’t come with it (This was the headache of the project!)

Velcro (I used Velcro to attach the keyboard and the calculator so they are removable)

Tips:

After buying the busy board itself, I sanded it down and spray painted it white. The edges are sharp and if you’re having your child play with this board, be sure to sand down the edges!

Next, start buying your hardware and busy accessories! Make sure to keep track of what does and doesn’t have screws and buy the extra screws you need. Because my board was only 1/2″ wide, I made sure to buy short screws so they wouldn’t be sticking out on the other side.

For the fidget spinner, I took out the center button to find a small hole in the middle- that’s where my bolt would go. I had an attendant at Lowe’s find the bolt that would fit and then found two 2 nuts to go with the bolt. You need one nut between the board and the fidget spinner and one nut between the fidget spinner and the end of the bolt. That way the fidget spinner will spin.

I’d definitely advise to get a handle for the top. This thing is heavy! If you can screw your accessories on, great! If not, I used Gorilla glue. I used gorilla clue for the tailor’s tape, the badge pull, and the light switches. I used Velcro for the calculator and the keyboard because I didn’t want to super glue them! Set your hardware in the place you want them, use a pencil to mark the place for the screw, then use your drill bit to make a hole for your screw. You might be using several different sizes, depending on the various screws and bolts you have.

I would try to stay on a color scheme and stay away from loads of stickers and decorations. That is just way too much visual stimulation for not only the kid but anyone! So stick with silver or gold hardware- I chose to go the silver route. Black and white is always safe. And then I got a couple lime green colors when there were no black or white options.

Keep in mind as you are building your busy board how things will dangle or hang. I was about to put the zipper on the bottom, but realized it is way easier for a child to pull a zipper down than across. And a zipper on the bottom would be hard to access anyway.

My son LOVES his board and so does my daughter! Happy building!