home made toys

so of course, promise's favorite toys are usually trash - boxes, toilet paper rolls, plastic bottles, paper towels, etc.  so, why spend a lot of money on toys, right? this works for everyone!

we have been doing a lot of sensory play and experimenting with textures and sounds. so.... we (i) made toys to help us in this type of play:

texture flash cards:  she really likes these but, as with everything, tries to put them in her mouth.  i usually pull these out when i need her to sit still in my lap - i give her a paci (so her mouth is occupied!) and rub her hands over each one and use different words to describe the textures.

Top: felt and pom poms
Bottom: hard flower beads and duct tape

Top: feathers and buttons
Bottom: velcro and a button

shaker bottles:  these are a big hit.  and obviously pretty easy to make.  the one on the left is oatmeal - i thought it would dye well, but it did NOT.  the next one is buttons (which are very loud).  then rice - which dyed really well.  i'm temped to dump the rest and just do different colors of rice, but she seems to like the different sounds so we'll just go with it for now.  the last one is just tissue paper wadded up.  and she really likes it for some reason (no sound at all!)

L to R: oatmeal, buttons, rice, tissue

checking out her new toys

"bean" bags - remember when i made all of those "homemade" baby legs from socks?  well, i kept the feet knowing good and well that i would never sew them on to the leggings (per the instructions), so i used them to make "bean bags".  two of them are actually beans (lentils and pintos), one is rice, and one is plastic grocery bags.  i sewed a terrible looking stitch around the ankle of the sock - they're ugly, but it works!

i originally planned to cut up straws for one but decided
grocery bags would make better noise

easy as that!

she's skeptical of them but plays with them quite a bit

fabric basket:  okay, i don't know if i can take credit for "making" this, but i compiled it.  this is a  montessori  idea i found and liked - i just put some scarfs of different materials in a basket and let her play with them when she wants to. 

tangled up

please feel free to pass on ideas for homemade toys you have made (or intend to make)!