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How to Make Kids Toys

By Holly Campbell

Who says homemade kids toys can't be just as fun and entertaining as store bought ones? Homemade kids toys cost less, even almost free and are also more environmentally friendly as you can recycle what you have in the house.

Fun Children’s Toys to Make at Home

No Sew Blocks

Blocks, especially textured blocks make a great sensory experience for babies. Instead of using common wood blocks, find your materials for free from the kitchen.

Look around for empty cardboard milk cartons, tissue boxes or cereal boxes and save them for this easy kids toy craft. You'll also need to gather as many remnants of different textured cloth as possible (such as cotton, silk, wool, denim, felt, corduroy, tulle, velvet from your sewing pile or buy cheaply at fabric stores). Try asking around for free packaging or wall paper samples from those you know.

Also, gather these items – non toxic glue (Tacky Glue or Elmer's), pencil and scissors.

First, prepare your boxes. Make sure they are all clean and dry and if you're using milk cartons, cut off the top.

For more sturdy baby blocks that will last a very long time, insert one carton into another. This gives you a very sturdy baby block with perfectly neat closed ends and no openings to worry about.

For variation, put things inside the boxes to make them rattle. Babies love sounds so feel free to throw in a few soda bottle caps or some dried beans.

Next, trace your cartons, cut out and cover your blocks with glue or sew on as slip covers. You can choose to use different fabric or papers on each sides or just a large piece that will accomodate the whole block .

Allow to dry overnight before letting baby play. Make several blocks of different sizes for your baby to practice stacking as these are very lightweight and easy to handle.

Bouncing Balls

Balls are great for developing your toddler's hand and eye co-ordination. And, the good news is you can make as many balls as you like in no time! If you've older kids in the house, get them involved for a quality sibling bonding time.

You only need rubber bands and aluminum foils to make super fun bouncing balls.

Gather as many rubber bands you can find or just grab a couple of bags from dollar stores. Next, get a sheet of aluminum foil, any size and crumple into a ball.

Then take one rubber band at a time, twist it around the "ball" many times. Continue until your aluminum ball is of the desired size or you cannot fit anymore rubber bands on it.

When you're finished, give it to the kids and join in the fun as you see the ball bounce really high! By the way, don't throw away that cupboard tube, recycle them into a pair of binoculars for your imaginative kids on their next adventure in the park!

Telephones

If your kids are a talkative bunch, transform your old garden house into a fun new telephone for chatterboxes to play and yak as long as they want! No worries about sky rocketing phone bills!!

The materials to make toy telephone are 2 funnels, garden hose and a pair of scissors.

Begin by measuring the approximate length from your kid's ear to mouth. Then, using a sharp scissors, snip off the required length from your garden hose accordingly.

Next, insert a funnel at each end and tightly secure with deduct tape.

Or, make your kids their own mobile phones. Simply cut out a piece of cardboard to a mobile phone's size. With a felt pen, draw on numbers, screens and controls – an instant mobile to inspire imagination!

These easy homemade kids toys take very little time to make and yet provide hours of fun for your children. Don’t take my word for it, try it out today!

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