Three cheap, homemade toy ideas

Old curtain rings
We were clearing out the shed…and I found a bagful of wooden curtain rings. Looks like a bagful of new, exciting dangly things I can attach to the pram with a string, says I to myself. (Pram danglers lose their allure quite quickly. An on-the-ball mum would revise and replace twice a week.) Presto, once rinsed and repeated, a dangly chain of ringy things to chew and wave and jingle…

Does her cot hang low?
Do things dangle to and fro? Have you tied them with a knot? Have you tied them with a bow? I refer to the base of the side bars. There’s no reason your baby’s room should be interesting only if she’s IN her cot. Attach anything with a hole in it or hook on it to the base of the side bars, and she can explore them while you change her nappy (once you have given up changing your little wriggler on the cot-top changer, that is) or simply while crawling around her room. Ours has some soft toy animals repurposed from her baby playgym, some Sticklebricks, some buggybooks, a ball…

Surprise jars
Use any sturdy, transparent, screw-lid container, and fill with something visually interesting. Beads, buttons, ribbons, a Duplo man, a dried flower…then (if the contents are potentially fatal to your twisty-fingered child), stick the lid on forever by squirting glue into the threads before screwing it on tight. Another good idea is to part-fill with water, and add a squeeze of Fairy liquid. Shaking it will cause chortle-inducing froth that slowly settles. For opaque containers, fill with objects that rattle, such as dried chickpeas, rice, and so on. (The Body Shop body butter containers are good for these.)

Welcome, come on in, sit down, bring your kids I don’t mind

So this used to be cheap toys for kids, but my wife didn’t like the name – she prefers cheap toys for children because of the alliteration. So here we are – a new home……I’ll try and import my posts, but if I don’t manage, check out cheap toys for kids

Why are you eating toys for breakfast daddy?

Well, today proved the point that kids prefer the boxes to the toys in ‘em. Well, not entirely, ’cause my little snot bucket didn’t get the toy inside this box. Mainly because the toy was my breakfast! Awwwww, bad dad, why didn’t you share you ask? Ptha I say. I did. Well, in fact I made her her own bowl full of tasty porridge and chopped dates and raising and apple bits. And her’s was all nice and warm. Mine was a cold bowl of Dorset cereal. Not that there’s anything wrong with the cereal, but no sooner had I finished the hectic spooning of porridge into my tot’s mouth – you know the way it goes – spoonful in…..”yes” cries dad in victory……tot looks around, thoughtfully chewing, wondering what to point at next…..points….utters her syllabul of the day “mmmmbbbbbbaaaaa”……dad looks around frantically trying to figure out what tot is pointing at…..is it different food? is it a different to? is it another utensil? is it her blankie? is it….oh what could it be? tot looks more and more peaved and syllabuls get louder…..mouth refuses to open for anymore food…..on hunger strike till dad figures it out. C’mon dad….there’s only a limited number of things in the bloody kitchen……just start bringing them to her one at a time…..my tot though would be the one who wants dad’s hot cup of coffee….can’t have that pumpkin it is hot and it will burn you…and besides you have enough energy without caffeine coursing through your tiny circulatory system…..oh bloody hell, she isn’t giving up…mouth still firmly closed to more food, hand batting spoon away. dad hides coffee, distracts tot with best silly face and peekaboo game….phew….crisis over. okay. let’s concentrate…..eating now…..spoon……spooon…..spoooooon…….spooooooon……last one….big mouth…..spooooooooon…..phew. job’s a good ‘un. she ate her breakies. dad’s turn. no, not yet. mop tot face. pull her out of high chair….strip off bib….get tot food all over freshly washed t-shirt and jeans….oh Fu….erm i mean damn (none of that language in front of the kids please). Phew. put tot in front of magnetic fridge gears, turn to kitchen counter, open box of cereal……”MMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAA”……whaaaaa….geeeeez you scared me half to death pumpkin, what is it? Oh. you want dad’s cereal? still hungry? well, it is organic….suppose it’s okay for you…..spoon deftly batted away (yeah right they have no fine motor control)…..nope not the cereal.

“MMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”. Oh. The box?, you want the box…….”mmmbaaaa” grab the plastic bag of wholesome grains and fruity fruit from inside the lovely”mmmbaaaa” purple box…”mmmbaaaa” scatters cereal everywhere “mmmbaaaa”…clean up later……”mmbaaaa mmmmbaaaaa mmmmbbbbaaa”…hand to tot. Little tongue sticks out in concentration……”hoooooooo” cheerful squeaks….colourful new toy (commonly know as recyclable cardboard) passes tot approval test….

Now, where’s my coffee…..?
And what shall we play with for lunch?

Breakfast or toy, you decide

Cheap shape sorting toy

Well, I really meant to kick this blog off a little bit quicker, but what with work and tot care, things got a little out of hand. So, let’s try again. Cheap toys for kids. Where do we start? Well, I would start with introducing myself and my daughter, but maybe I’ll leave that for another day and climb right in with a cheap toy.

Cookie Cutters in Sock Sorter Toy

Behold the image. Cookie Cutters in a Sock Sorter. Yep, it doesn’t get much cheaper than this. My wife likes to keep her sock drawer pretty tidy, so long ago, when we visited one of those one pound stores, we stocked up on slighly neon pink sock sorters. My wife found she had more than enough sock sorters to fill her drawer with socks….and t-shirts…..and other wifely sorts of things…..LIKE HAIRBANDS you sicko you. ptha. Anyhoo, so my wife gladly donated a sock sorter to our daughter for her to play with. Thing is, a sock sorter ain’t much fun for a little one. It doesn’t really do anything once you get past the colourfullness. Which is sometimes enough to be a toy, believe me, but this one needed a little pizaz…something extra….behold the cookie cutters….this little set came free with a tesco delivery or something. They aren’t particularly sturdy, and we aren’t really a cookie bakery here. But there they were, sitting quietly on the kitchen counter when my daughter spied them, pointed at them and said “Gimme!!!”. Well actually, she said “MMBBBAAAA” which is all she can really say because she is only one. Next thing you know, the cookie cutters are being frantically sorted in and out of the various empty sock compartments and voila, a new toy is born!

So form my perspective, this toy is great. The plastic sock sorter was a job lot and probably cost us 90pence or so. The cookie cutters….free…..great cheap toy for kids if you ask me. Suits a frugal dad. Does it suit a playful tot? Well, so far, she has kept herself very entertained with it for a good 6 and a half minutes today…..putting red cutters into pink sock compartments, taking them out, moving them into another compartment. As if searching for the perfect symetry…the perfect compartment for each cookie cutter and she is smiling and playing and babbling a little, and that’s all that counts!