Buying new toys for your children can get really pricey, so when money gets tight try these ideas for making your own toys at home! Many of the ideas described below are art projects that can turn into toys to be used and enjoyed over and over again. Having your child help you with these will develop their self-confidence and encourage creativity. See what you can make with your children today!
Kazoo
-Materials: paper tube, wax paper/aluminum foil, rubber band, pencil
-Instructions:
-tear a piece of wax paper a few inches longer than the tube opening. Aluminum foil can also be used to produce a different sound.
-wrap the paper around the tube so that it is smooth and tight
-stretch a rubber band around the end to hold the paper in place
-punch a hole about the diameter of a pencil approximately 1-inch from the end
Puzzles
-Materials: old magazines, fronts of cereal boxes, catalogues, cardboard, glue or paste, scissors, contact paper
-Instructions:
-find full body pictures of people doing various jobs
-cut out the figures or scenes and paste/glue them to pieces of cardboard or poster board and cover with contact paper to preserve the picture
-cut figures or scenes into several pieces. See if your child can put the puzzle back together
Shape Sorter
-Materials: cupcake cups, poster board, construction paper, glue, scissors, pencil
-Instructions:
-glue cupcake cups in a row on a piece of poster board
-cut small shapes out of construction paper
-glue a different shape on the inside of each cupcake cup
-make several more construction paper shapes to be sorted into the cups
Zip Lock Books
-Materials: zip lock sandwich bags, construction paper, pictures from magazines or photos, glue, string/shoe lace/yarn, hole puncher
-Instructions:
-cut out squares of construction paper in different colors to put in each bag
-glue photos of different themes on both sides of the construction paper. Ideas include photos of relatives to teach children names and faces, or pictures of babies, animals, colors, shapes, and the alphabet
-each bag becomes a double sided page of the book so paste pictures on both sides of the paper
-line the bags up with the seal all on the same side
-take a large needle and thread through the edging of the sealed part of the bag to create a book seam. If you don’t have a needle you can punch holes in the seam of the bag and thread yarn through as binding
-tie tightly and you have a new homemade book to read with your child!
Textured Wood Blocks
-Materials: wood blocks or cardboard boxes, scraps of cloth, glue
-Instructions:
-take your child’s old wooden blocks or an empty cardboard box and use scraps of cloth from your sewing pile or scraps from a fabric store in as many different textures a possible (silk, tulle, corduroy, felt, or velvet) to cover the block or box
-glue the scraps in place on the block or sew into a slip cover
-encourage your child to feel the different textures on the blocks
-if you don’t have blocks, let your child play with the different textured fabrics
Finger Painting with Shaving Cream
-Materials: shaving cream, food coloring
-Instructions:
-take ordinary shaving cream and squirt some onto a tray of some sort (for easy clean up)
-swirl one drop of food coloring in each pile of shaving cream and mix until smooth
-allow your child to play with the piles of shaving cream with his or her hands or even use a paint brush to create 3-D creations on paper
Sorting Game
-Materials: empty egg carton, miscellaneous items
-Instructions:
-use an clean empty egg carton and any common items you have around the house: colored noodles, cereals, buttons, beads, and beans of different colors
-use the egg carton as a sorting tray to teach counting, color sorting, or textures
Ocean in a Bottle
-Materials: empty water bottle, water, vegetable oil, baby oil, blue food coloring, super glue
-Instructions:
-fill an empty water bottle half full with water
-add a few drops of blue food coloring
-fill the remaining space 2/3 full of vegetable oil
-then fill the bottle the rest of the way with baby oil
-use super glue to secure the cap on
-turn the bottle on its side to let the water settle to the bottom
-It’s the ocean!






