making toys with household rubbish

tray01

hi
my daughter is 19 mths and on the autistic spectrum. we have a lady from our local portage group come out every week to help frankies development through play and activities

last week she bought a home made toy with her. it was a large empty fabric conditioner bottle with milk carton lids velcroed all over it and frankie had to post the lids into the bottle and then empty them out to re-stick onto the bottle. such an easy idea and frankie loved it.

i am saving my lids now!! just wondered if anyone knew of any web sites or has any ideas on any other ideas like this

would be much appreciated.

jiblets1

My nan always used to put pegs on the table cloth. Not very "made" I know, but it's something pretty useful for kids to do. Great for manipulative skills...

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

i dont know of any web sites..but when my niece last visited...complete with a whole host of toys...she got bored...mind she is only 7 months ...we ended up sat on the floor with small tubs with different things inside..we had lentils in 1 ...pasta...oats and allsorts so each one made a different noise and as the tubs were fairly clear she could see all the different things inside....obviously with her being wee she couldnt get the lids off but with your little one being bigger you would have to fasten the lids on permenantly

And what about making your own skittles with pop bottles..oooh you could put rice n things into little pop bottles for her to use as shakers too..and they would be easier for her to keep hold of.. oh and what about those washliquid dispencer balls thingies...you can paint faces on them..and they will float in the bath too:D

Oh you have me started now....if i come up with anything else i will be back:rotfl: :rotfl:

MRSMCAWBER

hi again

I have just googled "making toys" and found www.familycrafts.about.com i dont know how much help it would be but i spotted one project where you cover a board in a flannel and get different pieces of fabric..different shapes, textures, colour etc and sew velcro on the back so your wee one can make pictures etc....a bit like homemade fuzzyfelt....used to be my fave thought it might be worth a look....

and here i am again... www.howstuffworks.com ..on here i found how to make poster paints, play dough etc..i know she might be a bit young at the mo..but there may be loads more stuff on there...

You have me on a mission now....

jill

bestpud

Skittles are always good - matey bottles are fab but any will do and if you have a really big ball, the aim doesn't have to be superb! Your dd can also decorate them how she likes.

Mine all loved dried pasta, a spoon and a baking tray for individual cakes - the ones with 12 holes and you put the paper cases into? They would move the pasta around and was great for counting later on too.

Other thing was a ball or toy car and a tube (either from wrapping paper or waste pipe from a DIY or plumber if you know one) - stick it in one end and tilt the tube to let it roll out the other. Sounds simple but they seemed to like it! If you use scrunched up paper, they have to shake it a bit and it pops out unexpectably which they used to love too.

Your dd may be a bit young now but the other simple (and extremely cheap) activity my children loved was an old painting brush and some water on the paving slabs outside. They can 'paint' to their hearts content and it just dries away!

tiamai_d

Lots of loo roll tubes glued together (kinda like a wine rack) then you can put lots of toys or sweets in. At Christmas pant them green and you got an advent tree.

Anything where they take things out, put things in, kids love it!

Also cardboard tubes are the bestest ever digerydoo come trumpet come lightsaber come magic wand...

I spend too much time with my kids...

jackieb

tiamai_d wrote: »

I spend too much time with my kids...

I don't think you can ever spend too much time playing with your kids.

BusyLizzie_3

I went to a PEEP group when my daughters were babies, and they always had great ideas for toys made from household objects. My girls loved treasure baskets, even well beyond the baby stage - here's the link:

http://www.peep.org.uk/standard.asp?id=300

Do you have a scrapstore near you? Here's the link to our local one, with a gallery showing pictures of things that have been made from recycled scrap:

http://www.oxorinoco.org/gallery/

hardpressed

I'd be a little bit concerned about using a fabric conditioner bottle just in case a child got hold of one with conditioner in and thought it was a toy, better to use a large empty plastic milk bottle or something else that has had food in. Sorry don't mean to criticise but you can never be too careful, best not to let children play with things that could contain something harmfull until they are old enough to know the difference.