Homemade toys

Here are a few of the homemade toys I showcased at my presentation a couple weeks ago. On the top left we have an oatmeal box covered in sparkly wrapping paper. They recommended contact paper, but this was sparklier. I suspect contact paper would be hardier. It can be used as a roll toy, a drum (with hands or wooden spoons), or you can cut a circle in the lid and drop clothespins in.

The top right is a roll toy made of an empty, dried out water bottle (you can also use 2-liter bottles). You can fill them with pretty much anything that looks or sounds interesting--pasta, beans, bells, foamie shapes, tissue paper squares. We have so much random stuff in the cupboards at the library that this one was a lot of fun with not much work and zero money. Secure the top with packing tape, duct tape, or super glue. You can also fill bottles with sand and little animals and whatsits for older kids to find--we call them I Spy bottles.

Bottom left are the vinyl clings. Cut a shape out of construction paper (use cookie cutters as stencils to make interesting animal shapes). Put all your shapes on a big piece of clear Contact Paper, leaving one inch between them. Cut them out so each has a 1/2" border of contact paper to seal them. When you get them wet, they will cling--for a long time. One stayed on the side of our sink overnight until I took it out the next day. I suspect they probably would stick to windows--let us know, Anna! They were presented originally as bathtub clings, and that would be great fun, but I think any sink or water play area would work well.

And the bottom right is a page from a Touch and Feel book I wrote. We used burlap, sandpaper, felt, tinfoil, and yarn to get all different textures.

These crafts are all taken from a manual I received at the BabyTalk conference training I went to last year in Decatur, Illinois. They teach a prenatal homemade toy class to expectant moms--it's just one of the many programs they have.

Enjoy the crafts!