Any unexpected /unusual "homemade" toys?

[nathans mom]

My (13 month) son's favorite "toy" is an empty Kleenex style tissue box that we fill with miscellaneous things, scraps of cloth, rattle, spoon, breast pad, whatever I have around. He thinks it is fabulous to pull out something different and surprising each time. (We have several boxes going and rotate contents regularly).

I wondered if anyone else had any great unknown toy finds in their homes that I could exploit? It is so frustrating to go find that "great toy" you heard about and then realize that your kid would rather play with a piece of newspaper or your shoe!

Thanks

Pam

Mom to Nathan (our little Easter surprise)

[brittone2]

Oh where do I start LOL. I don't know I'd recommend these because my kiddo might just be crazy but here are some funny favorites:

A recent "love" is a thinner brass curtain rod with rounded finials. DS pushes it around the house like a push toy. It doesn't seem to bother him there is nothing on the end of it that "goes" when he pushes it. We affectionately call it his "pimp cane" (sorry for anyone offended!) as it looks funny to see him strolling with this shiney curtain rod :P

He loves to match up lids and pots. He likes to carry around a big comb and comb my hair, his doll's hair (doll is bald but that doesn't stop him), his hair. He likes to carry around a tea ball (a mesh ball on a small chain for brewing loose tea). I posted on another thread about a coffee canister (plastic) with an X cut in the top from which we poke out strips of fabric he likes to pull out.

He likes spoons, whisks, any cooking utensil.

I'm sure there are more but those are the first ones that popped into my head.

[miki]

I spent the morning coloring 8 boxes of dried pasta of different shapes. I put all the pasta into a shallow plastic storage bin with a cover. Throw in a few big spoons and measuring cups or bowls and your kid can have hours of fun. I got this idea from the local drop in art place for kids. The recipe I used for coloring the pasta is 1/2 alcohol plus food coloring in a ziploc bag for about 1 pound of pasta. Let the pasta saturate for a while then spread it out on waxed paper in the sun to dry. It dries really fast and the colors brighten up. Good fun if your kid can refrain from putting the pasta in the mouth.

[tarahsolazy]

Empty beer bottles

Baby Tylenol bottle

Old cordless phone

Carrying these items around brings long intervals of joy to my son.

(Beth, we also have a pimp cane, but its a Selecta push toy!)

[MarisaSF]

our game is "What's hiding in the couch?"

We let things stick out from the cushions and DD races around to "save them" from the sofas! We frantically put them back in as she races back and forth. Good for a lazy hour because all the parent needs to do is sit near the couch with random items. She's 10 months, so this might not be as thrilling for your son, but thought I'd share.

[brittone2]

Hehehe...glad to know Forrest has a pimp streak in him too ;)

[californiagirl]

Empty yoghurt containers. DD appears to think she has a great baby bath with marvelous toys -- she has a dishpan which sits in our shower, a rubber ducky, and 3 empty yoghurt containers (one of them is a big one, though). Empty Kleenex boxes are also a big hit, as is an old oatmeal container. I tried cutting an X in a lid once but at the time she completely refused to pull things through it. I'll have to try again.

[neeter]

These are great ideas - thanks! Please keep them coming! :)

[August Mom]

DS will be 3 in 2 months. His favorite thing is a cardboard box that he can fit in. He climbs in, has us close the box and then pops out. He thinks it is great fun.

He also uses a yard stick to play "hockey" and is obsessed with emptying his bank onto the floor to create and obstacle for vehicles.

[kaylinsmommy2]

This may not be helpful for your son (depending on how you feel about htis), but DD LOVES purses. Luckily, I have an extensive purse/wallet collection, and I stuff them with little objects (small toys, pictures from magazines, sun glasses, other misc. items from the house and she'll pull everything out.

DD likes things that make rattle noises - like a box of Nerds (the candy) that DH brought home one day, our little bottle of Hyman's teething tablets, etc.

Another one is a shoebox that I filled with business cards that Dh brings home (he works in outside sales and talks to a lot of people) - she takes them out of the box, puts them back in, tosses it like confetti, etc.

The nicely piled newspaper is at least 15 minutes of fun: messing up the papers, tossing them around, crinkling the papers.

I like this thread, too. :) You guys had a bunch of great ideas.
Caroline
Kaylin 6/5/04

[kali]

Pam,

This won't help your son, but between 4-8 months, whenever we went to a restaurant with DS, the first thing we ordered was extra spoons. He could play with a spoon forever: mouthing it, waving it, banging it, passing it from one hand to the other, and of course, eventually flinging it :-)

He also really liked small colorful plastic cups and tops: easy to hold and bite. Small Tupperware or yogurt containers/tops and measuring cups work great.

Lately (8-10 months), he's been really into paper. Especially tissue paper. Unfurling about 20 squares of toilet paper, then piling it, wrapping it around himself, shredding it, etc. Just gotta make sure he doesn't eat it.

Love this thread--I keep telling my expecting friends to wait on buying fancy electronic toys until they see what really fascinates babies!

[Saartje]

We were helping our roommate move into our new place yesterday, and Ishie found some plastic screw-on lids to play with. (They were the lids to kitty litter boxes. Before you think that's gross, remember that it's not like they've been in contact with used litter!) They were just the right size for him to handle, he could stack them and carry several per hand, and they had nice, bright colours that he could sort and match. He invented a whole game that involved carefully lining them up on a log in the park, walking around the log to the other side and pushing them to the ground, then walking back around the log to pick them up and put them back on the log.

We, too, used to always order an extra spoon at restaurants.

[Jen841]

Old standby's....
Measuring spoons

Rubbermaid container with a few Cheerios in it

Partially filled water bottle (LOVED-- until he learned how to open)

Straws- picking up a straw at the counter in Target will entertain him an entire shopping trip!

A full box of Kleenex to empty, and a trash can (blow nose, wipe, throw away,...- I have not put it to the test, but I think we could exhaust a box of tissues with this game)

Decoy remote (no batteries, but matches our real one)

Old cell phone (battery removed)

[lilycat88]

Jar Grippers!

My DH works for an organization where he has to go to places like the State Fair, Earth Day, etc. and man a booth. He hands out literature and they also have several "give away" items and one of them is a jar gripper...the round rubber things to open jars. He had a pile of about 60 of those things sitting next to his brief case for some reason and Susanna found them. OMG! Jar grippers everywhere. She can fling them in the air...throw them on the ground...crawl between the ones she's thrown around the room. I hate that they are rubber and I'm sure full of all sorts of nasty toxic horrible stuff but that pile of jar grippers can occupy her for darn near an hour. I doubt they will ever see his office again.

Jamelin
DD Susanna 6/29/04

[MarisaSF]

Forgot:

1- Straps and strings. Carseat and changing table straps. Drawstrings on clothing. Ribbons.

2- Tags (paper or fabric). Not the toy that the tag is on, mind you. In fact, someone gave us a "Taggie" brand book, which is a soft book with multi-colored tags hanging off it. Which one does she like the best? The black and white one? The silky one? Noooooo..... the one that says, "Taggie" with the washing instructions of course!

3. Cords. Phone and power are her faves.

BTW - DD is also a Kleenex box lover!

[urquie]

dd still enjoys the lids from frozen orange juice concentrate cans. most of them now have stickers (compliments of my grade school sticker collection!) these fit nicely in kleenex boxes. we have a gallon tub filled with them, and other random toys, that she loves emptying - and occasionaly she puts them back :) sometimes she'll just crawl around with one in her mouth.

she also likes playing with the dish towels hanging in the kitchen.

[luvtoshop]

Great thread!

We also love playing with Kleenex boxes and frozen juice lids.

We have colored scarves (like the ones from Gymboree Play & Learn) that are always stuffed in a Kleenex box. Loved the idea of breast pads in Kleenex boxes.....goodness knows I have a ton!

I also have stickers on our frozen juice lids. I bought a large Folger's coffee tin and took the label off and put a slit in the plastic lid. I've been meaning to cover it with fabric, but have not gotten around to it. Both dd's love putting the lids in the tin and hearing the clink and clatter that it makes. They also love stuffing credit cards (fake ones), expired Frequent Flyer mile cards, blank gift cards, etc... Anything that looks like a credit card will work! They also like putting the cards in wallets and purses...

Yogurt & sour cream containers are a hit in the bath and play kitchen.

I also have a large rubbermaid tub full of pinto beans. She has plastic spoons, scoopers, cups from the liquid laundry detergent to scoop and pour. I have saved a gazillion laundry cups and scoops from infant formula for pouring and scooping red lentils.

I also take the eggshells from when I've cooked eggs and wash them out with dishwashing soap and then pop them in the oven for 20 min or so at 250 degrees to kill any bacteria and let dd crush them with a mortar and pestle that I use for cooking.

I have a little silver bird squeezer for lemons from Williams-Sonoma ($5) that she uses to squeeze the water out of small pieces of sponge into the sink.

A pepper grinder that has a small twist handle (not the kind where you use the entire top) for grinding coarse salt.

I let her go crazy in the sink. She likes to "cook" in the Learning Tower. I give her almost anything from the pantry that is edible and she creates a masterpiece. I give her 2 large mixing bowls and a spoon or spatula and let her mix sugar, colored sugar (her favorite), sprinkles, oatmeal, rice, lavender, spices, lentils, pasta, food coloring (in the end) and let her mix and pour. Thanks for the reminder...We haven't done this in weeks, will have to do that after her nap! : )

Soap and bucket....she is crazy about the car wash right now and we play car wash with her Cozy Coupe outside.

Loved all the ideas! Thanks!

[luvtoshop]

LOL--Somehow I missed this post and didn't understand the reference to the "pimp cane"--too funny! Can picture a child with a shower rod! Perfect!

Reminded that we also play "Haircut". DD loves to carry around a comb and a towel and offer haircuts. She likes to wrap the towel around our neck and ask us to lay back for the shampoo and then proceeds to cut our hair. I've hidden ALL scissors in case she gets any funny ideas about really giving her sister a haircut. : )

Thanks for the laugh about the pimp cane. : )

[jgriffin]

When I was a kid one of my favorite "non-toys" was a box of buttons. My mom had bought several pounds of miscellaneous buttons at a block party sale. Me and my two little sisters (the younger was probably about 2-3) had great fun with these for a long time. We would sort them, make button families, make button armies, etc. We never tried sewing them on anything, but I suppose if we were older we might have. :)

My kid (due at the end of July) won't be playing with anything like this for awhile, but maybe I should start a collection now....

Jen

[aim]

My mom had a button box too - I had completely forgotten about it until you mentioned it - it was soooo much fun

Amy
DS Bennett 1-14-04

[nathans mom]

Thanks to everyone for responding with such great ideas to share! I will certainly pass this one on the hubby to read (he thinks that I am kind of crazy with my "do you know what I read on the boards today..." stuff. :)

Pam