Cheap and Easy

Toys, that is.

Just thought I would post a couple of fun ideas that we have done lately. These are all things that I made with stuff on hand, none of them took much time or effort. So, if Thad plays with them for 3 minutes and then moves on, I don’t feel like I have wasted much time. And actually, he has played quite a bit with all of them.

1. PVC Car Ramp

This one took zero effort on my part. Justin ripped a pipe in half for something else he was working on. I asked for the remaining half, and he sanded the edges a bit to make sure they weren’t sharp. This one took a little while for him to warm up to. I had his cars set up with it when he woke up from a nap, but he had more fun rolling balls down it, even though most of his balls are too big and fell off before reaching the bottom. The most fun came when he put the ramp up on the couch on top of pillows. Because everything is more fun when you are standing on the furniture.

2. Cardboard Car

I cut the flaps off of a diaper box and covered it with inside out wrapping paper. I drew on some details, glued on painted paper-plate wheels and added a steering wheel. The steering wheel I attached to one remaining flap with a nut and bolt, so that the wheel can be turned. Downside to this one is that I have had a cardboard car sitting in the family room for the last month. Because we didn’t have enough kid stuff filling our house already.

3. Bubble Artwork

A lot of projects I like to do by myself when he is napping, so he has something new and fun to see when he gets up, but this was really fun to do together. Like most toddlers, Thad loves bubbles. And by that, I mean he likes to demand you blow bubbles for him so he can stand 3 inches from your face and pop the bubbles as soon as possible. For this project, I taped a big sheet of drawing paper onto an art board. I poured bubbles into 5 different little bowls and added liquid food coloring to each. It took a lot of food coloring to make the bubbles even as bright as this, the paste food coloring probably would have been better, but I always feel like paste food coloring makes a big mess. Dripping the liquid stuff into the bowls was easy to do as we worked, adding more drops when needed. Most definitely something that should be done outside. Thad picked each color as we went, I blew bubbles onto the paper, and he popped any that stuck. He thought it was awesome.

4. Cardboard Play Scene

Another re-used cardboard box. This time, I cut off one long flap, and then taped the rest open. I traced around each side of the box onto green felt, cut it out, then glued it to the inside to like the box. Then I let Thad decide what we should put inside the box. He wanted trees, a cave, water and a sun. Clearly, the appropriate environment for a polar bear, a white tiger, a lion, Bambi, and a large yellow snake. A yellow snake which he likes to wrap over his face and call it sunglasses.

 

He’s my special boy.