We’ve all been there. Sometimes there just isn’t enough money or time to get new, store-bought toys for your kids. Thankfully there are many ways you can create toys from household objects that you may use each day. Money aside, this is a great way to teach your kids the value of creativity and innovation. Here are some ways you can give your kids hours of fun by combining items you have around the house.
Musical instruments
If your kid loves music, there are many ways you can turn simple objects into fun music-making toys! Think of anything you have in your kitchen pantry as the inside of an instrument. You can use dry ingredients like rice, beans, pasta, cereal, and much more inside boxes or small tupperware containers. You can even add more variety by using some plastic containers next to glass containers (they will both make different noises!). Repurposing is another good way to find things that hold these noisemakers, like plastic Easter eggs, empty pill bottles, thick (or thin) pieces of oak tag and construction paper, or the inner tubes from toilet paper and paper towel rolls. If you’re good at constructing things, you can even make boxes or long, hollowed-out tubes from aluminum foil or place plastic wrap around certain other materials we listed.
If you are the type that has a very bare bones, practical kitchen and don’t have many of these materials (either for yourself, or to spare for some play time), you still have plenty of options. You can place a range of materials inside pots and pans. Put the lids on and voila! Music for days.
Puzzles
Teaching your child to recreate images by building visual skills doesn’t have to end with a massive jigsaw puzzle. Most of the time, traditional puzzles have too many small pieces that are impossible for one person to keep track of anyway. You can make a personalized puzzle for your child right at home. By using your own picture, this not only makes it more meaningful to the person completing it, but you can easily gauge the difficulty level by how large you make the picture and how many pieces it is divided into. All you need is a printer (or someone who can do you the favor of printing off one or two pieces of paper). From here, you can cut the image into pieces that are straight or curvy, large or small, and tall or wide. To keep it simple, kids can use the pieces as is, but you may quickly realize this won’t last long. Lamination may be a good option if this is already something you have access to. But it can also be as easy as placing clear packing tape over each piece and cutting this covering to make it fit. Some parents may prefer to place long and skinny pieces on popsicle sticks or wooden tongue depressors to help younger kids who may have trouble manipulating thin paper pieces.
Bean bags
This category can really include a lot of things, sort of like the musical instruments heading. Parents can find whatever materials they have readily available within the house to place in socks, canvas bags, or sewn-together cloth headbands. These can be stuffed with scraps of paper, rogue pieces of fabric, old clothing or t-shirts cut up into small pieces, or even uncooked rice or beans. This is an easy way to make bean bags that can be used for target practice, lawn games, or simply a fidget to keep them occupied while they are sitting or anxious. Bean bags like this can also be decorated seasonally if you choose to turn them into a snowman or a turkey, or they can be created in the likeness of your child’s favorite characters like cartoons, superheroes, or princesses.
Old papers
No one likes junk mail. But let’s face it -- it inevitably ends up in our house no matter what. Instead of trashing it, give some to your kids to use during imaginative play. Kids can thumb through newspapers and pretend to check the stocks, do crossword puzzles, and read articles. They can also pretend to fill out forms, use fake plastic or paper credit cards when playing grocery shopping, and hand out these papers as tests when playing teacher.
Aside from pretend play, kids can use paper for a range of other things. They can practice gift wrapping with them, fold them into hats or paper airplanes, make them into envelopes or holders, and learn how to create some basic origami.
Outdoor materials
This is the best for kids who love being outside and exploring nature. Kids can use pebbles, dirt, sticks, sand, flowers, leaves, feathers, snow, and much more not only to engage their senses but to make toys. These materials can be used for crafts, as kids can glue them to paper to make a collage, or kids can actually build things out of them. Sticks can be made into a dish, coaster, or even a log cabin with some creativity. Kids can use sand, dirt, and snow as calming sources of sensory input or can even use them to make towers, shapes, or write words in. They can add anything else they find outdoors to make this even more epic of a project. Kids can also get an added bonus from the process of collecting things (like pebbles and leaves) to bring inside and work on a cold or rainy day!
Mazes and tunnels
Kids who love racing and trains will love making mazes, tunnels, and roadways from cardboard. They can cut paper towel or toilet paper rolls, open them up, and glue them to a poster board or simply connect them all together for an intricate highway system. Then they can test them out by putting marbles, toy cars, or beads inside. They can place these in a combination of high and low places to give their objects the momentum they need to self-propel through the house!
There are so many ways that kids can work on their development (and have fun) with items you may already have and use each day. Some kids may even encourage this type of thinking by sneaking into rooms of the house and cobbling together projects of their own. Take this information along with inspiration from your child to give them some unique ways to occupy themselves!