Homemade gifts for pre-schoolers

Miss_Kitty_Fantastico

I recently lost my job so funds are tight

I have been making necklaces/bracelets cheaply for my daughter to take to little girls parties but im stumped with the little boys

What can i make in bulk and cheaply to give to little boys.

I dont want my daughter to miss out on parties but i can't afford to pay a fortune for gifts - i used to stockpile gifts but i've now run it down.

Thanks in advance

Tamster150

hmm...difficult! I have 2 boy pre-schoolers & still struggling with ideas. My two are only interested in cars & trains.

can you sew? Crayon rolls are good. Fabricland has some great boyish fabrics with cars or digggers for around £3 per m, you could make quite a few crayon rolls with 1m. although you would need to buy some crayons. Otherwise sock monkeys. are easy enough. Beanbags, Or a realy simple draw string bag for storing cars etc

I remember making friendship bands at school - would boys/preschoolers be interested in them??? DS just bought himself a bracelet made with string with a bug set in plastic at a fair today, which made me think of them)

I am queen of the carboot, so tend to keep up my party supply buy spending the odd 50p here & there and I also often buy multipacks of books from The Book People these days, 10 well known books for £10 usually.

I have also done things for party bags like buying cheap notebooks from wilkos (they do a tiny one for 12p & bigger ones for 20p) and covering the front of them with wrapping paper (with popular characters or downloading pics from web) Lots of places have special offers on school stationary atm (sainsburys had bogof yesterday) You could do a little set of notebook, crayons/pencils etc for less than 50p per head.

Otherwise, you might be able to adapt some of the Christmas ideas, like reindeer flannels (ikea do a big, cheap pack of flannels)

Tamster150

AARGH!

After spending all that time replying to you, I remembered the simplest & cheapest gift - playdough!
There are some really great receipes on that blog like the black sparkly "space" playdough!

Tamster150

Miss Kitty - a simple thank you for my time would be nice

Miss_Kitty_Fantastico

of course Tamster

please accept my apologies - it was not my intention to be ungrateful for the time you spent replying

my daughter started school nursery this week and it completely slipped my mind to come back and see if anyone had replied

you have given me some great ideas - so thanks again

LJM

playdough is so easy and homemade you dont get all the nasty stuff in it you can buy cheap cutters in poundland/works etc and for the recipe

1 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup salt
Food colouring

combine all in a pan i also if you want it to last add a tablespoon of cream of tartar lasts for ages you can double up the recipe,use different colours even scents like camp coffee for instance,ive used this recipe for years never fails x

Miss_Kitty_Fantastico

LJM wrote: »

playdough is so easy and homemade you dont get all the nasty stuff in it you can buy cheap cutters in poundland/works etc and for the recipe

1 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup salt
Food colouring

combine all in a pan i also if you want it to last add a tablespoon of cream of tartar lasts for ages you can double up the recipe,use different colours even scents like camp coffee for instance,ive used this recipe for years never fails x

thanks LJM - i think my daughter would love it too i especially love the idea of different scents

LJM

yes ive used it with my own children and children with special needs they love the texture/smell etc