Twenty Toys You Don't Have To Buy
By Colleen Moulding
Fed up with forking out for the latest piece of over-hyped plastic?
Answer "What can we do now Mum?" by making toys from items
you will already have around the house.
1. Shops. Save all your empty grocery cartons for a week or so and
you'll soon have a shop any aspiring grocer would be proud of.
Gluing down the flaps makes cereal boxes, jelly packets etc. look
unopened. Clothes, shoes, and toys can all be used as
"stock". Paper bags and real or play money add to the fun.
2. Paper balls. When the kids keep arguing suggest that they throw
something at each other! Paper balls are easily scrunched up from
torn out magazine pages to make "ammunition". When it's
time to tidy up, stand the waste paper basket in the middle of the
room and see who can throw the most in. A rolled up magazine makes a
good "bat" too.
3. Doctors/Nurses. A roll of white toilet tissue makes this game
much more fun as Dads, Grans, teddies or dolls are mummified before
your eyes. Plastic medicine spoons and cardboard box hospital beds
for toys are extra props that make the game last longer.
4. Tubes. Cardboard tubes from kitchen roll or foil make instant
telescopes for sailors or pirates, or tunnels to roll marbles
through. Babies love to watch things disappear then reappear out of
the bottom. Don't leave them alone with the cardboard tube though as
they will probably suck it.
5. Cardboard boxes must be about the best free toys you can get hold
of. Push in the ends of large ones to make tunnels and caves to
crawl through. Draw on windows and doors with felt tip pens to make
a house, add a flag and portholes for a boat or paper plates and a
steering wheel for a car.
6. Miniature gardens. The foil trays that pies and prepared foods
arrive in make lovely containers for miniature gardens. The children
can enjoy hunting around the park or garden for twigs to make trees,
moss for a lawn, stones to arrange as a rockery or a waterfall. Keep
twigs or stones where you want them with a little blue tack or
plasticine. Add toy people or animals and maybe a little water if
the container is watertight. This can be a very creative and
enjoyable exercise if you have children of very different age groups
to entertain. A variation is to use play sand (not builder's sand -
it stains everything yellow) to make a beach scene, maybe adding
shells, stones and a blue paper sea.
7. Paper puppets. A picture of anything - colorful bird, clown's
face, animal or cartoon character, carefully cut out by an adult and
stuck to the top of a strip of card about five inches long and one
and a half inches wide becomes a very easily made puppet. These give such pleasure and are so easy to make
that you will probably end up with dozens of them. Magazine pictures
can be stuck on to folded card to make theatre set background and
wings.
8. Potato prints. After cutting a potato in half, draw on a simple
shape. A triangle, circle or star perhaps. Cut away the rest of the
potato, leaving a shape to dip into paint and print on to paper.
9. Skittles. Skittles can be improvised from large plastic cola or
lemonade bottles. A little sand or water in the bottom makes them
more stable. A good game for learning to count.
10. Dens. Building a den must be one of the most memorable parts of childhood as we all seem to recall the bliss of
blankets draped over the airing rack in the garden or over the backs of chairs indoors. Even today's sophisticated kids seem
to find the thought much more exciting than just erecting the shop bought plastic play house. I think the secret is to give
structural advice about making the thing stay upright, but let the children do as much as possible themselves. Really large
boxes of the type that washing machines and fridges come in can be
had for the asking from the big electrical goods retailers and are useful for rooms within dens. Indoors, one of the
simplest dens can be made by throwing a large sheet or duvet over a table. Cushions, torches, biscuits and comics or books
will all be needed at the housewarming.
11. String. Children find a million
uses for string, from tying up toy "baddies" to making a
washing line for doll's clothes. It can be tied to chair legs to
make a jump, dipped into paint and twirled on to paper, plaited,
knitted with, made into a parachute or mobile, used as a measuring
aid or for learning how to tie shoelaces and bows. It need never
linger in the kitchen drawer again.
12. Sewing cards. Stick a picture on to a postcard or draw a simple
duck, car or teddy shape. With a bodkin needle push holes around the
outline of your design about one inch apart. Using brightly colored
wool in the bodkin or a long bootlace, thread in and out of the
holes.
13. Stilts. You need to do a little drilling for this one. Take two
strong tins, coffee or clean paint tins are ideal, and drill a hole
about one inch from the top on opposite sides of the tin. Insert a
length of string and knot securely. Check that the handle is at a
comfortable length for the child before knotting the other side.
These are always very popular, but
never leave young children alone with them especially near stairs or
steps.
14. Cafes. Children's tea sets are a handy prop for this game, but a
picnic set or microwave cookware is just as good. Giving the
waiter/waitress a little notebook and pencil to take orders and
making a tall white hat from a cylinder of paper for the chef will
add realism. Sit dolls and teddies around as well as willing Aunts
and Grannies for extra customers.
15. Play dough. Mix together two cups of flour, one cup of salt, one
cup of water, one tablespoon of oil and a few drops of food coloring for an easy to make dough that will keep for about three
weeks if you wrap it in polythene and keep it in the fridge. All you
have to do is knead the mixture well. Divide the mixture up first if
you have more than one color available.
16. Obstacle course. An obstacle course can turn a rainy day into an
adventure. Use whatever you have available. A bench to walk the
plank, cushion stepping stones across shark infested seas, through a
cardboard box tunnel, up a chair mountain or through a duvet cave.
The wilder your imagination the more your children will love it.
17. Easy boats. Recycle your empty margarine cartons. Use them as
boats for the bath or paddling pool. These are so easy that even
very young children can help to make them. Cut out triangular sail
shapes from white or colored paper. Make a small hole at the top
and bottom of the sail so that you can push through a straw to make
a mast. Let the child fix this to the bottom of a clean margarine
tub with a lump of blue tack or plasticine. They sail extremely well
and will even take a
couple of toy people on an exciting cruise.
18. Capes. Nurses, kings, queens, Batman, Superman - they all need
capes or cloaks. Luckily they are easy to make by attaching ribbon
ties to an oblong of fabric in the color of your child's favorite
caped character. Keep an eye on them though as anything tied around
the neck could be dangerous.
19. Leaf art. Collect leaves and draw around them. This is fun for
little ones and an educational tree identification game for older
children. Color in the details with crayons or paints. The leaves
could then be stuck on to paper collage style or dipped into paint
and then pressed firmly on to paper for a lovely leaf print.
20. Make a puzzle. Stick a favorite picture on to card and allow to
dry with a heavy book on top. Cut into pieces, how many depending on
the age of the child, for an almost instant and personal puzzle.
Do you want to
know about smart toys?
© Colleen Moulding 1999.
Colleen Moulding is a freelance writer living in the south of
England. She is also the owner/editor of All That Women Want.com
http://www.allthatwomenwant.com a magazine, web guide and resource
for women everywhere. Receive a free monthly e-zine from All That
Women Want.com by sending a blank e-mail to
[email protected].
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