5 Creative Toys From Household Materials

When the kids shout "I'm bored," suggest these games using household materials and some existing toys for a new slant on play. The children will learn educational skills as well.

Children love to play with games, store-bought or homemade. A manipulative type of game is an object used within a skillful manner. In other words, children can manipulate theses table toys to develop coordination and these same objects encourage thinking skills, visual perception, and problem-solving. Explore some of these innovative ideas and watch your children learn skills by using these homemade games for kids.

Shape Treasure Hunt -- Parents can precut shapes (squares, triangles, rectangles, circles, etc.) from construction paper. In advance, hide the shapes all around the room making sure to have enough so that each of your children can find at least 8-10 shapes. This is a game plus an art activity after the shapes are found. Direct the children to hunt for the shapes hidden. At the end of the hunt, encourage them to share shapes if one child gets more than the others. Sit down at a table and discuss what the kids have found. Ask, "Who can name the shapes?" "Who can name the colors?" "Did you get two or more of the same shape?" Now, let the children try to manipulate the shapes and create a picture or design. With glue, children can paste these into place on paper.

Twin Constructions -- Set out "fit-together" toys such as Legos, Duplo blocks, or any other construction-type toys. Have two children (or you and your child) sit side-by-side and try to construct the same structure. This activity teaches children to pay attention to color, shape, position, and also give them practice in following someone else's lead.

Make a Geo-Board -- Children can create geometric shapes on this grid-like board with the use of large rubber bands. Hammer nails (with adult supervision) in a grid pattern about one-inch apart all over a plywood square. Give the board to the children along with a variety of rubber bands in different sizes and colors. Invite the kids to stretch the rubber bands around the nails to create geometric shapes like squares, triangles, and rectangles. Who can create an octagon?

Paper Match Game -- Collect wallpaper, paint chips, or scrapbook paper samples and make a set of two matching cards. Index cards work well. Glue a large square of the same paper on two cards. After you have made a variety of cards, shuffle the deck and let the children turn over each card and match the pairs. You might want to laminate each card with clear plastic adhesive paper for durability. Kids can practice visual discrimination and attention to detail in this game.

Poker Chip Math Game -- Give the children a box containing red, white, and blue poker chips. Let them sort the chips by color and then count them. Next, make patterns with the poker chips, for example, two red, one blue, two white, one red, two blue, two white and so on. Let the kids copy the pattern with the remaining chips.

Make creative toys and games from household materials. Your children will love these homemade games for kids that will keep them amused for hours and teach them skills along the way.

Source: Personal Experience

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

Until next time. Happy Parenting!

Tania

Recycle and Make New Crayons

Are you wondering what to do with all those broken and worn-out crayons from past school years? Create a new crayon from all those old ones as a fun weekend craft. This is a great recycling lesson and art project all in one. Crayon cookies provide a rainbow effect in this new art medium. The kids can make swirls and designs with one swoop across the paper. This is a great activity to do on a rainy day or when it’s just too hot to play outdoors. Here are the simple instructions.

Materials You Need:

Old crayons

Muffin tin

Aluminum foil

Oven

White paper

Instructions to Make Crayon Muffins:

Step 1 - Invite the children to remove all the paper wrappings from each crayon. It’s best to use all the brightly colored crayons you have.

Step 2 - Line several cups of a muffin tin with squares of aluminum foil. Make sure the foil covers the entire muffin cup and overlaps along the top edge. The foil makes it mess-proof to the muffin tray and easy to take out after the melting process.

Step 3 - Have the kids break the crayons into pieces between one-half inch to an inch.

Step 4 - Fill the muffin cup half-way with an assortment of crayon pieces in a variety of colors. Continue with this process according to how many crayon cookies you want to make.

Step 5 - Place the baking tin in a preheated 300-degree oven. Bake the crayons for about five to seven minutes. Ovens vary so watch the melting process carefully. Melt them just enough to blend the colors but not to a total liquid where the colors turn into a muddy mess.

Step 6 - Carefully remove the muffin tin from the oven and set it to cool for at least 30 minutes. Personally, once the liquid started to solidify, I transferred the tin to the refrigerator to finish the task.

Step 7 - When the crayon muffins are completely cool and solid, the children can carefully peel off the aluminum foil. Note that the cookies are more colorful on the foil side.

Step 8 - Now, bring out the paper and challenge the kids to make designs and rainbows with their new art medium.

How to Make Homemade Musical Instruments

Children enjoy making musical instruments from collecting the materials to performing in a homemade band. Go 'green' with recycled materials for your projects.

The homemade instruments below fall into the category of idiophones and with a few recycled materials, children can make creative rhythm instruments to experiment with sounds and contribute to a classroom rhythm band. The best part of these homemade instruments is that when playtime is over or the child tires of the project, most materials can go back into the recycle bin for a greener Earth.

 

Coconut Clappers

Those who live in the tropics can pick up a coconut, if not this fruit can be found in markets.

·      An adult needs to cut the coconut in half, drain the milk and take out the meat.

·      Help the children sand the outside of the coconut shell until all surfaces becomes somewhat smooth.

·      Children can paint the coconut shell with poster paint and decorate the outside as they wish.

To play this primal instrument, children need to hold a half in each hand. Tap the cut edges together to create unique, hollow-wood sounds. Challenge the kids to guess which animal makes a sound like a coconut clapper. The correct answer is horse and have the children use these clappers to make sounds like a horse is walking and a faster pace like galloping.

Bongos

Simple bongo drums can be made from empty gallon or half-gallon plastic containers, such as bleach containers.

·      To prepare the containers, cut the tops off and make sure both bottles have been cut to the same size.

·      Tape the cut edges with a heavy duct or vinyl tape to protect the fingers.

·      Have an adult staple two containers together side by side for each child.

·      The kids can decorate the plastic bongos with adhesive stickers and/or permanent colored markers.

To play these drums, turn the containers upside down and children can tap the bottoms with their hands. To be authentic, sit on the floor and place the bongos between the knees.

And more ideas to come...

The ideas above have come from "Shake, Tap and Play a Merry Tune" by Tania K. Cowling (available on Amazon.com and from the author on http://www.taniacowling.com)

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See you next week,

Tania