(Photo credit: MASA)
A ten-year-old boy still remembers the real set of keys he got when he was three.
"I think we still have those keys!" he says. "We went to the hardware store and got dud keys."
He carried his own set of "real keys" for years, with a mini-measuring tape added on later.
A grandfather listens to his granddaughter tell her grandmother that they don't have enough toys at their house. Grandpa goes to the garage, gets out some scrap wood, and an hour later, he creates the large, chunky blocks you can't buy at toy stores anymore. That granddaughter and grandchildren to come play with them happily.
Many of the toys kids really appreciate most aren't bought at a store or made in a factory. And in our economy, it's a good time to take a new look at old ideas for toys.
Pretend pots and pans are a thing of the present. In the past, families passed old kitchen implements on to their small children. Plastic may be fun, but metal makes a much better sound when you bang on it! If you don't have old kitchen implements of your own, ask around or see what you can find at the thrift store.
For a toy for a baby learning fine motor skills, save the metal disks from the tops of frozen juice cans. When you have at least ten, put fun stickers on them. Get an empty baby wipes container -- the hard plastic kind with a lid that opens. Cut a slit in the top slightly larger than the disks. Babies will have hours of fun with the disks, putting them through the slot, and shaking the whole thing to make joyous noise.
Things that are broken to an adult might be magic for a kid. Old stereo equipment like boomboxes that have one broken element can be a source of joy and fun to a kid who doesn't care if it can't get FM. An old tire can be filled with sand in the yard for a tiny, fun sandbox.
Hardware stores are great sources of cheap toy parts. They usually give away dud keys upon request. PVC pipe and fittings make great building toys for preschoolers. Just buy lengths of PVC and joints of all sorts -- straight joints, T joints, right angles -- and the kids can build their own sewage systems. Look for half-dead plants on the sale rack and spend the morning potting and planting.
Any parent can make a decent mobile. Why buy something pre-made when you can hang all your child's family members' faces above her crib? Stuffed animals can be sewn by hand, and children seldom care about their imperfections. In fact, the act of creating a stuffed animal together, however flawed it may look to the parent, will create a lasting memory for the child.
Simple boats are easy to make out of plastic containers. You can even fashion a motor with a rubberband -- see examples on Youtube.com by searching for "rubber band boat."
"[Get] a big box of scrap wood from a lumberyard or flooring place or cabinet maker," suggests Heddi Craft of the Educational Resource Center of Santa Cruz. "If you have hammer, nails, and glue on hand this is hours of projects! We really gave this as a gift one year. Along the same lines might be wallpaper books or upholstery books."
"The best was a geo board that I made with a square piece of wood and nails and rubber bands I had hanging around the house," says Lorraine Stern. "It's something my kids still play with."
For inspiration, go to makezine.com and search for "toys." An online archive of the defunct Craft Magazine offers suggestions for safe toys you can make yourself. Perhaps you can't crochet a bear, but you might get some ideas of things you can do. A web search might find you other ideas, but don't do it with the kids around because "DIY toys" will bring up some adults-only material!
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